Golf Outlet Is Worried About The Lack Of Black Golfers In Players Championship

Golf Digest is sounding the alarm over the lack of black golfers in the 2026 Players Championship.

"There are no black golfers in the Players Championship. Is the game doing enough to change that?" the headline on Thursday read.

The outlet called it "an unsettling recitation to hear in 2026, considering the transformational future many projected for black professional golf back in 2000."

You can read the full article here.

The premise is hardly novel. Every few years, one of these outlets publishes an article about black representation in professional golf, baseball and hockey. Two years ago, ESPN posted an article complaining that there were not enough black players in MLB.

But we can’t help but chalk up these arguments as selective and, at times, faux outrage.

Black people are underrepresented in golf, hockey and baseball relative to their share of the American population. However, they are well represented in the NFL and NBA, making nearly every other group – white, Asian, and Hispanic – underrepresented in those leagues.

Where is the outrage over that? Are Hispanics and Asians not minorities too? Do white cornerbacks not matter? 

Put bluntly, the overwhelming sentiment from the media seems to be that the only acceptable racial makeup for a professional league is one that skews heavily black. Leagues that do not fit that mold are met with perpetual suspicion and soft accusations of racism.

Further, as OutKick's Jon Roots notes, the Players Championship is technically full of racial diversity.

"The Players Championship" is RaCiSt storyline is so dumb… Sports aren’t about diversity, equity & inclusion. They’re about meritocracy. No one is stopping black golfers from playing, or moving their way up the ranks. #ThePlayers."

It is all so illogical.

In 2026, the very best players in every sport rise to the top, no matter their skin color. We have seen several departures from historical norms in recent years. Nikola Jokic, a white man from Serbia, is the best player in the NBA. Patrick Mahomes is a black quarterback and the best in the league. Tiger Woods is the most famous golfer in the history of the sport and is black.

Golfers like Harold Varner III would almost certainly have qualified for the Players Championship but left for LIV in 2023.

In any event, not every group in sports, business, and entertainment can be represented exactly as the media demands. That is not possible.

We understand that historically, golf favored players from wealthier families, which likely contributed to the sport's racial and demographic makeup. Still, there are multiple programs and initiatives aimed at benefiting disadvantaged golfers, as the Golf Digest article acknowledges.

"Since the First Tee began in 1997, some of the initiatives include Youth on Course, the East Lake Foundation, Steph Curry’s Underrated, PGA Reach and Woods’ own TGR Foundation," the piece states.

"There’s also one organization specifically dedicated to launching the most promising minority players into the highest reaches of the pro game—the Associates Professional Golf Association Tour (APGA), an 18-tournament circuit that is offering $1.8 million in total purses in 2026. While teaming up with the PGA Tour’s Pathways to Progression program, the APGA’s payouts have grown exponentially in recent years, and while the tour once played on sometimes-scruffy public courses, it has hosted tournaments of late at the likes of Baltusrol, The Concession Golf Club, Torrey Pines, Pine Needles, Spyglass Hill and numerous TPC venues."

Honestly, what more should be done?

To be clear, it is not that black golfers are receiving fewer marketing opportunities or chances to compete. Rather, there are just not many black players who have made golf their career.

Maybe golf is not as popular among black Americans as other sports. Maybe because black athletes tend to outnumber other ethnic groups in football and basketball, more non-black athletes gravitate toward golf. 

There are a number of possibilities that explain the racial makeup of the Players Championship, and racism is hardly near the top of the list.

Golf is a majority white sport. So what? That is not a crisis that warrants annual think pieces asking why. We will all be fine.

In fact, the real inequality is that women are far more interested in football and basketball players than golfers, putting white athletes at a severe disadvantage.