Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 29, 1990 TAG: 9007290066
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: BIRMINGHAM, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
Disclosures about the all-white Shoal Creek Country Club have prompted protests from civil rights leaders and led several major companies to withdraw advertising from next month's tournament.
"The fact that Toyota, which is my sponsor, and IBM have announced they've decided to drop their commercials from the telecasts has me thinking," Trevino told the Providence (R.I.) Journal.
"Hey, I'm a member of the PGA and I hate to see my organization shoot itself in the foot like this."
Trevino won the 1984 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek.
The Shoal Creek controversy began six weeks ago when the country club's founder, businessman Hall Thompson, said Shoal Creek would not be pressured into accepting black members. Thompson later apologized and said his remarks had been taken out of context.
In the past week, Honda, Toyota, IBM, Anheuser-Busch and Lincoln-Mercury have withdrawn television ads from the broadcasts of the tournament by ESPN and ABC. On Friday, an ABC official said the network had lost nearly $2 million in advertising revenue because of the controversy.
Meanwhile, the president of Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., site of the 1991 PGA Championship, said that although the club has no black members, membership is open and qualified black golfers are welcome to join.
Michael Browning, president of the club and its PGA tournament chairman, said, "We'd have a black or blacks as members as long as they meet the same criteria as everybody else."
In Augusta, Ga., the head of the all-white club that plays host to the Masters golf tournament said Saturday that he hopes the club will invite its first black member this year.
"That is our hope, yes," said Hord Hardin, chairman of Augusta National Golf Club. "We haven't completed the procedures we normally follow yet, but it certainly is our desire that we will do it."
Hardin denied the Masters decided to seek black members because of the uproar over the PGA Championship. He said the decision was made "months ago," but nothing was announced at that time because "we hoped to be judged by our actions rather than our words."
Hardin would not reveal how many blacks are under consideration for membership. To become a member, a person must be invited by the club.
Meanwhile, the Concord Hotel in Kiamesha, N.Y., has offered its "Monster" course as a potential site if the troubled Shoal Creek club is replaced as the site for the PGA Championship. "...We are prepared to make an offer that possibly can remedy the situation," George Parker, general manager of the Concord, said in a wire to Pat Riley, PGA president.
"I am prepared to offer the use of the Concord 'Monster,' long considered one of America's premier resort courses, as well as the full use of our service staff and facilities at the hotel, certain that we could make the tournament a success with this possible sudden change."
The NAACP has put its protest plans on hold for the PGA, but the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is still angry about the tournament being held at an all-white country club.
The Rev. Abraham Woods, president of the Birmingham SCLC, said Saturday the organization still plans to have pickets at the city's airport when golfers and PGA officials arrive for the tournament.
However, Woods said those plans could change.
"Discussions are still going on," he said. "I don't know what will come out of those discussions. But our position remains the same." |||O
by CNB