Golf Digest believes the lack of black players at this year’s Players’ Championship begs the question: Is the sport doing enough to encourage the inclusion of black players?
“For the second straight year in the Players Championship, there are no African American competitors in the 123-man field—the first time that has occurred in the 52-year history of the PGA Tour’s flagship event,” Jaime Diaz writes.
“It’s an unsettling recitation to hear in 2026, considering the transformational future many projected for Black professional golf back in 2000. Woods was completing one of the greatest seasons in history, and the mass excitement from Tigermania also energized a perennially disconnected segment, young African Americans. It seemed certain that it was “only a matter of time” before more Black players than ever would be arriving on the PGA Tour.
“Woods continued to inspire, but the truth is that since the 1970s, when fully a dozen Blacks played regularly on the tour, that number has steadily declined.”Diaz goes on to lament the continued decline in black participation, but actually gives golf credit for making every effort to increase minority representation despite the falling numbers.
“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,” Diaz explains. “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.”
Still, despite citing the robust efforts of the PGA to increase the number of black players, Diaz charges the PGA’s “…new CEO Brian Rolapp and a policy board with a player majority that is preparing a schedule overhaul that possibly by 2027 would reduce the number of events, fully exempt players and the annual graduates from the developmental Korn Ferry Tour.”
In Diaz’s view, the reduced number of events will only further exacerbate the problem of the lack of black participation.
“The mantra steering the changes is to ‘create the best possible product,’ which in concept will have a more narrow star-driven focus. In the short term, at least, that will also reduce the chances of more Black players making it to The Show. Although, during his press conference on Wednesday, Rolapp called ‘pathways’ like the tour’s partnership with the APGA “really important” and that investment in them would continue.”
Of course, the PGA has seen a notable increase in the number of Asians, South Americans, and Europeans among its ranks over the last few decades. So, not all efforts at diversity have failed. There are currently no laws or restrictions preventing black athletes from competing in golf, and, by Diaz’s own admission, the sport is doing what it can to encourage them.
At the end of the day, golf, like all sports, is a meritocracy. The best will get in, and the very best will rise to the top, no matter how many events are on the schedule.
