Quick Post: 1990-2010
Omitted from coverage at Cypress Point Club
As a quick follow up to my posts about the relationships between golf media and exclusive golf clubs, I felt I should briefly discuss the recent coverage of Cypress Point Club. Leading up to this year’s Walker Cup, I’m disheartened at potential self-censorship in golf media regarding any discussion of the twenty-year period where the club chose to withdraw from professional events rather than admit any members of color. Nobody can know what was in the hearts and minds of the membership during this period. At the time, the club insisted this was simply due to an existing waiting list and not a policy on race or minority status.1 When Condoleezza Rice quietly received membership in the club around 2010, the issue was settled.2
I am a bit confused as to why I have not seen any brief acknowledgement of this period as we approach the tournament. True, we have no direct evidence that the club was acting in bad faith. True, it’s been 15 years. True, I know it would be considered rude by many to bring it up at all. However, this is the highest profile event that Cypress Point Club has hosted since 1990, when the club decided they would not come into compliance with the PGA Tour’s anti-discrimination policy.3 I think it is clearly both relevant and newsworthy.
I worry that the lack of any mention of the period is evidence of the types of chilling effects I have discussed in my previous few articles. I also worry that golf culture damages itself by repeatedly failing to acknowledge our past. I don’t think we need to make a big show of it, but the complete omission of this period feels deliberate.
Diaz, Jaime. "Off-Limits: What's Stopping Cypress Point from Rejoining the AT&T?" Sports Illustrated, 10 Feb. 1997. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2025.
Shipnuck, Alan. "Winner, Winner." Sports Illustrated, 22 Feb. 2010. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2025.
"PGA Tour Adopts Anti-Discrimination Measures." Tampa Bay Times, 4 Aug. 1990. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2025.