(The Dallas Examiner) – The game of golf continues to see an increase in women and minority players. The number of female golfers has continued to increase for the last five years, according to the latest statistics conducted by the National Golf Foundation in 2024. People of color represent 25% of “green grass” golfers. Around 6.9 million golfers represent those of African American, Asian and Hispanic descent.
With the growing popularity of women’s sports, the PGA of America will host the KPMG Women’s PGA championship from June 19 to June 22 at the Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco, the new PGA headquarters. The event marks the second Major Championship played at PGA Frisco and the first time the tournament has been hosted by the state of Texas.
“Every future PGA professional will walk through that door and they’ll learn how to be a PGA member and they’ll be embraced by the 31,000 welcoming them to their profession,” said PGA President Don Rea Jr. during a press conference, June 2.
“The reason I like this championship is certainly because the greatest players in the world are playing inside the ropes. Look around who’s watching, who’s playing and who they’re with. You’re going to see them with their kids. They’re going to have their granddaughter in tow, their grandson in tow. There’s going to be all age groups.”
Some of the attendees are students of the game and eager to learn, grow and make their mark in the world of golf – on and off the course.
Kaitlyn Pratt, an African American student at the University of North Texas in Denton and an intern with PGA of America, was a basketball player in high school. She was first introduced to golf through an unexpected opportunity. Pratt attended a Nancy Lieberman Charities camp, where the PGA hosted a session inviting basketball players to try their hand at golf. This was her first introduction to the sport. She described it as an exciting introduction to the world of golf and felt welcome to join.
“I am new to the game of golf, but I do think that the PGA allows for all different types of women to be in the game of golf, to win in the game of golf, and seeing Amy herself, I think it just goes to show that minorities are definitely being a part of this trajectory of having more diverse communities in the game of golf,” Pratt said.
Other players have had years of experience – including champions of the game.
Defending KPMG Women’s PGA Champion Amy Yang is of South Korean descent. She won the prestigious KPMG trophy in 2024 and is considered one of the top female golfers in the world.
“Throughout my career, I had some chances to win major championships, but I failed. I had this fear in me, so I had to get over that fearness,” Yang said. “I just called really my friends and family to distract myself, just get off of it. I intentionally didn’t look at the leaderboard. I just wanted to stay present on each hole, in each shot. Because if I look at where I was on the leaderboard, I would put a lot of pressure on myself for trying too hard to get it, so I didn’t want to do anything other than just go through my process.”
During the tournament, Yang will be competing with fellow female professional golfers such as Mariah Stackhouse, an African American player that led her team to win the National Championship in 2015, and Katelyn Sepmoree, a PGA assistant professional at Willow Brook Country Club in Tyler who led the University of Texas Longhorns ladies golf team to the Big XII Championship in 2011.
In addition, members of the I AM A Golfer Foundation, which was established in 2018 and whose mission is to be a catalyst for community renewal and transformation in South Dallas through the programming, preservation and promotion of the historic Cedar Crest Golf Course, will be present at the KPMG tournament, including IAMGF founder and Vice Chairman Ira Molayo.
“The foundation was started by myself and a good friend, whose name is Dave Ridley. He was our chairman of the I AM a Golfer Foundation and we started it seven years ago. And really started out with the premise of wanting to provide access to young people, specifically Black and Brown young people in Southern Dallas that needed opportunities or needed resources to be able to not only learn golf and get access to the golf course, but also to get access to golf tournaments. And eventually, that turned into jobs through our internship program and scholarships through our scholarship program,” Molayo said.
Molayo is a PGA golf professional and a PGA member for about 19 years. With a passion for the game she urges more young people to get involved.
“One of our young superstars, I would say, is Kennedi Lee,” he said. “Kennedi grew up in the Dallas area, played her youth golf at Cedar Crest and in Southern Dallas. She’s a Dallas kid who’s gone off to school at the college at North Carolina A&T and is now pursuing her master’s degree at Texas Southern University in Houston. And she’s somehow squeezed in enough time to come and help us out over the summer to do some coaching and some teaching.”
Lee learned about the game in a different manner.
“I decided to take it up out of curiosity because I played golf on Wii Sports, on the Nintendo Wii growing up,” she explained. “I wanted to play in real life because I played soccer for five years and I quit. I was very active and athletic growing up. So my parents asked me what I was going to do to occupy myself. I named five sports. Golf was one of them because I wanted to try it in real life, and I stuck to it because it was one of the most challenging sports that I picked up. And I always tell people it’s like a puzzle that I absolutely need to solve. So that’s why I stuck with golf and my dream was always to play at the collegiate level, and that’s what I achieved.”
Lee said through the game she has learned about giving back.
“I heard about Mariah Stackhouse when Stanford won Nationals and that was probably the only female golfer that I heard of growing up that I could see myself in because she was an African American female. I looked up to her a lot growing up because she played collegiately and that was my ultimate goal,” Lee stated. “I think I find a form in that of giving back to golf, giving back to youth, teaching, mentoring. So that’s where I’m at right now at this point as far as taking my game to the next level. I just see myself in the position to pass the torch.”
Molayo expressed he hoped to increase the popularity of the game for the African American community by having students such as Lee and others serve as mentors.
“Only 10% of the population plays golf in general,” he said. “And if you go to a minority population, that percentage drops dramatically. And so the first thing we have to do really is just make golf more inviting. Specifically talking about young people, once they’re here, make sure they have access to everything that they need, all the resources that they need, because you have to be able to practice and hit range balls. You got to be able to get on the golf course to go play. You got to be able to get lessons when it’s necessary. And, of course, you want the opportunity to go compete and play in tournaments. And so just providing those levels of access into the game is really important to ensure that a young person feels success right away. And you can remove some of those hurdles.”