Minoroty Golf Tournament Changes Policy
WASHINGTON — Following the controversy surrounded this year's National Minority College Golf Championship at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., the tournaments organizers have changed the bylaws to give more minority players a chance to compete, according to a story in Golf Week magazine.
Historically Black Bethune-Cookman College won this year's championship with five White players, none of whom are citizens of the United States. Jackson State finished second using a lineup that featured only one minority player. The University of Texas-Pan American, whose student body is 85 percent Hispanic, was not allowed to compete as a team at the tournament — despite its invitation — because the institution is not an historically Black institution. (See Black Issues, May 27, 1999)
"This just can't happen anymore," said Craig Bowen, executive director of the National Minority College Golf Scholarship Fund, which runs the tournament in conjunction with the PGA of America. "The intent of the scholarship fund has always been to help the minority student-athletes. We are going to help those colleges with minority golfers."
The bylaw change limits tournament participation to historically Black institutions that field a golf team composed mostly of minorities. The rule does not include a specific number of minority golfers that a team must have.
Bethune-Cookman's golf coach, Gary Freeman, is not in favor of the new rule. "I'm not putting any quotas on my team," Freeman told The Orlando Sentinel. "We went out to recruit players to have a winning team."
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