The United Golfers Association (UGA) was a group of
African-American professional
golfers who operated a separate series of professional golf tournaments for
Blacks during the era of
racial segregation in the United States
In the United States, racial segregation is the systematic separation of facilities and services such as Housing in the United States, housing, Healthcare in the United States, healthcare, Education in the United States, education, Employment in ...
. It was said to have started in 1925 when George Adams became a founding member and in 1926 by Robert Hawkins, a golfer from Massachusetts. It was known affectionately as the Chitlin Circuit
[ emembering the old UGA tour - all-Black United Golf AssnBlack Enterprise Golf and Tennis Challenge: 4th Annual Tournament Journal Black Enterprise, Sept, 1997] and included many talented golfers such as
Ted Rhodes
Theodore Rhodes (November 9, 1913 – July 4, 1969) was an American professional golfer who helped to break the color barrier in the sport.
Rhodes was born in Nashville, Tennessee and attended the city's public schools. He learned the game of g ...
,
Bill Spiller
Bill Spiller (October 25, 1913 – 1988) was an American professional golfer who helped to break the color barrier in his sport.
Biography
Spiller was born in Tishomingo, Oklahoma and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma as a nine-year-old to live with h ...
,
Pete Brown
Peter Ronald Brown (born 25 December 1940) is an English performance poet, lyricist, and singer best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce.Colin Larkin, ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', (Muze UK Ltd, 1997), , p. 80 Bro ...
,
Lee Elder
Robert Lee Elder (July 14, 1934 – November 28, 2021) was an American professional golfer. In 1975, he became the first African-American to play in the Masters Tournament, where he missed the cut. Elder was invited to the tournament after he w ...
, Willie Brown Jr., Zeke Hartsfield, Howard Wheeler, and
Charlie Sifford
Charles Luther Sifford (June 2, 1922 – February 3, 2015) was an American professional golfer who was the first African American to play on the PGA Tour. He won the Greater Hartford Open in 1967 and the Los Angeles Open in 1969. He also won the ...
.
[
Women were allowed to participate from the group's inception, but only in 1939 did the first women's golfing organization seek affiliation when the ]Chicago Women's Golf Club
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, organized by Anna Robinson, applied to join. Also, the Wake-Robin Golf Club, whose first president was Helen Webb Harris Helen Webb Harris founded the Wake-Robin Golf Club in 1937. It is the United States' oldest registered African-American women's golf club.
Career
Harris was an educator in the Washington, DC school system.
Wake-Robin Golf Club
The first mee ...
, joined the UGA under her leadership.Rogers Park, Tampa
Rogers Park Golf Course is a historic public 18-hole golf course in Tampa, Florida. Land for the park was acquired by the City of Tampa in 1947 and was used for picnics and games by black residents during the era of racial segregation in the Un ...
to the circuit in 1963.[Rodney Page Rogers Park was golf haven for African-Americans February 23, 2011 Tampa Bay Times]
From 1934 through November 1961, the Professional Golfers Association of America
The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA of America) is an American organization of golf professionals that was founded in 1916. Consisting of nearly 29,000 men and women members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish ...
maintained a "Caucasian-only" membership clause in its bylaws. The clause was removed by amending its constitution.
References
Golf associations
Golf in the United States
Defunct sports governing bodies
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