The racial political economy of golf, the monumental barriers

I had absolutely no interest in golf until I met Jim Thorpe in Buffalo, New York, in 1997. Of course it was Tiger Woods, the wunderkind of the sport, who would really turn my golf fan gene on fire. I couldn’t wait until Sundays to watch the Tiger dressed in red hitting impossible shots.

He won and won and won. But it was Mr Thorpe who first sparked fan interest in me in the sport. I had moved to Buffalo from Boston to take up a professorship at the State University of New York – at SUNY Buffalo School of Law. Key to this story is that both Woods and Thorpe – important golf icons – are black.