PGA Championship Insists Clubs Be Integrated by ’95

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. â€”  The Professional Golfers’ Assn. of America, beginning in 1995, will require minority membership for country clubs conducting the PGA Championship.

“Those courses selected for the PGA Championship beginning in 1995 will have minorities, including women and blacks, as members,� Jim Awtrey, executive director of the PGA, said at a news conference today.

Last week the PGA Tour, a separate organization, implemented similar guidelines for its tournaments.

“Right now we are having conversations with the clubs hosting the championship from ’91 to ‘94,� Awtrey said.

“We will continue to have those conversations until such time as we’ve completed that analysis. We’ll not have any further comment on the sites.�

The next three PGAs will be played at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., in 1991, Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis in 1992, Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa., in 1993 and Oak Tree Country Club in Edmond, Okla., in 1994.

An Associated Press survey of courses holding major championships in the future showed that none of those clubs had a black member.

“We have contracts with these clubs and we are talking to the clubs now,� Awtrey said. “We have been and we’ll continue to talk to them, and until such time as we’ve completed those discussions we think it’s unfair to those clubs to make any other comment when the policy was just announced.�

The controversy over membership of clubs hosting golf tournaments arose in June when it was learned that Shoal Creek--site of this year’s PGA--had no black members.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference said it would picket the tournament if the club had no black member. Shoal Creek admitted a black businessman as an honorary member last week and said it was processing another black for full membership. The SCLC then called off its plans to picket the previously all-white club.

“Certainly we may be remiss in not addressing this in the past, but we think that the steps that we have taken now are very positive,� Awtrey said.