New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Black club pro hopes to thrive, inspire at PGA Championship
TULSA, Okla. — The numbers are not in his favor at Southern Hills, which is nothing Wyatt Worthington II hasn’t faced before.
Worthington, who spends his working hours giving lessons at The Golf Depot in central Ohio, is among the 20 club professionals who qualified for the PGA Championship. In five of the last 10 years, no club pro has made it to the weekend. Go back to 1994 to find the last club pro to finish in the top 30.
And then there’s another set of odds.
Worthington is only the second Black club pro to play in PGA Championship.
When the 35-year-old Worthington first made it to the PGA Championship at Baltusrol in 2016, he was the first Black club pro to play the major in 25 years. Tom Woodard, now in the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, was the only other, in 1991 at Crooked Stick.
“Did that surprise me? Let me give you a doublesided answer,” Worthington said. “Yes, it did surprise me. But the more information I had, it didn’t.”
The PGA of America counts 28,343 professionals, of whom 194 identify as African-American. From a field of 312 players in the PGA Professional Championship, Worthington was one of three Black club pros, “the most I’ve ever seen.” He tied for fourth to qualify for the PGA.
“For me to even be at the club pro championship, I’m not supposed to be there from a statistical standpoint,” he said.
And now he’s playing against the strongest field of the four majors, which includes Tiger Woods, the player responsible for him falling in love with golf.
Southern Hills is a course Worthington only would have dreamed of playing when he was hitting golf balls in baseball outfields in Ohio as a teenager, simulating bunkers by scraping up the infield dirt and honing his game on ranges and public courses on the east side of Columbus.
Now it’s a chance to show he can play, and hopefully to inspire.
“I’m looking forward to playing really good golf, being in the environment, making change and touching spectators,” Worthington said. “It’s having the impact on people.”
The PGA of America didn’t even allow Black professionals until 1961 when its Caucasian-only clause finally was rescinded. It has doubled down efforts to change the look of golf, not just at the elite level but in pro shops and other industries the game touches.
Seth Waugh, the association’s CEO, said golf is an $85 billion industry with 2 million jobs. The mission is to attract people of all backgrounds and to show there’s room in the industry inside and outside the ropes. And it’s a long road ahead.
“We had Caucasians only until 1961, and that’s unimaginable,” Waugh said. “But on the other hand, it’s been 60 years and we haven’t moved the needle enough. This is a very long journey and we’re very serious about it. We’re not trying to check a box. We’re all in.”