For an organization that for decades meant so much to the Black golf community, nurturing the likes of Lee Elder, Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford and Renee Powell throughout their careers, the United Golfers Association met a quiet and sad demise.
Infighting about the direction of the organization, as well as the sense that the integration of golf at the pro level had largely been accomplished with Elder breaking the color barrier at the 1975 Masters, led the UGA to hold its last tournaments a year later. Founded in 1925 and with more than 9,000 members at its zenith, the UGA was gone after decades of providing Black pro golfers their own tour, while, in locker rooms and the courts, pressing for their rights to compete with the best players of all races.
As a longtime golfer in his 40s whose grandfather was prominent in the Chicagoland golf scene, Tarek “Ty” DeLavallade knew nothing of the UGA or its fate. Then five years ago, after being a guest on a golf diversity panel at the African American Golf Expo, DeLavallade began researching ways in which he could make a difference, believing Black golfers still weren’t getting the financial support or access to the game that the UGA hoped for long ago.
“There was a packed room” at the Expo, DeLavallade recalled, “and people were asking a lot of questions, but no one on the panel had a lot of answers.”
It only took a couple of months of research by DeLavallade to arrive at his own conclusion: The UGA needed to be revived.
“This was kind of pushed under the rug for the last 40 years, and I think the golf industry hoped it wouldn’t come back,” DeLavallade said. “But I guess my crazy-self decided to bring it back.”
In 2020, DeLavallade and business partner Andy Walker resurrected the UGA, and in the first four years they’ve raised thousands of dollars and created relationships with key corporations to be able to offer critical support to young Black golfers who aspire to play in college and the pros.
Former PGA Tour pros Jim Dent (left) and Jim Thorpe speak at a clinic during the UGA's 2024 Jim Thorpe Invitational—now the UGA Invitational beginning in 2025.
Having a tour of events is no longer a priority, because that void for minority players has been filled by the Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour. But the UGA holds one big event annually, and this year’s edition will be the largest celebration yet as it the organization celebrates its 100th birthday.
Seventy junior golfers, 18 collegians and eight women pros will compete in their respective events this Saturday and Sunday at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla., in the UGA Invitational presented by Coca-Cola Florida. On Friday, there’s a pro-am that, as evidence of the UGA’s growing support, will include company representatives from Coke, AARP, Cisco, CDW, Disney, Universal, the Tampa Bay Rays and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Those are heavy hitters in any world, and it figures that the “new” UGA can only grow with that kind of backing. DeLavallade said the UGA offered $48,000 last year in various forms of support for young golfers. This year, he expects the UGA Invitational alone will provide $78,000 in assistance.
The details of this year’s tournament provide the blueprint for where the UGA would like to focus its support. The junior golfers come from around the United States and have been top performers in their various junior golf competitions. The men and women college players, many of them from small schools and HBCUs, will compete in the UGA’s Legacy Cup, playing a Ryder Cup-style format over two days on Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course, which hosts the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship. Also on that layout will be the women pros vying for a $10,000 purse—in what is believed to be only the second all-Black women’s field to compete for money, alongside the annual John Shippen Invitational, which began offering prize checks in 2024.
UGA executive director Ty DeLavallade poses with a 2024 Jim Thorpe Invitational participant.
The UGA had purses for men at its invitationals in the past, but DeLavallade thought it was important to focus on supporting the women’s event, especially considering this almost unfathomably reality: The number of Black women who have been members of the LPGA Tour in its 75-year history is in single digits—eight.
“We saw the energy around women’s sports right now, and we wanted to make sure we did our part as an organization to feel that and support it in a way no one else had done in the past,” DeLavallade said.
Like many others, DeLavallade watched the rise of Tiger Woods beginning in the mid-1990s and saw the potential it created for young golfers of color. But 28 years after Woods’ watershed first Masters win—and 50 years removed from Elder being invited to compete at Augusta National—there have been few Black golfers to reach the upper levels of pro golf on the PGA Tour-sanctioned circuits.
DeLavallade thinks the issue has been that while Black adults were inspired to take up golf during the Tiger boom, most kids either didn’t share that excitement or didn’t have enough access to the game, despite programs such as First Tee. The cost of golf, access to play and instruction, and even the ability to get to courses have continued to be barriers in underserved regions, he believes. DeLavallade notes the skyrocketing cost of rounds, equipment and even clothing in the post-COVID era, while also acknowledging the benefits of programs such as Youth on Course, which reports saving families $15 million annually in green fees while providing scholarships and internships.
A young girl hits a shot on the driving range at the UGA's 2024 Jim Thorpe Invitational.
“There are some really amazing, talented kids out there, and we’ve just got to invest in them,” DeLavallade said. “Claps and likes and hearts on social media don’t do anything for these kids. We need to re-invest back into this particular culture in golf.
“There’s a lot of money in high school and college players, but the investment should be in the 8- to 12-year-olds. There’s the future of the sport. If we don’t invest in that, we’re not going to be looking at anything on TV.”
The UGA, DeLavallade said, has plans to create a brick-and-mortar academy near his home in Washington, D.C., with satellite facilities in other parts of the country to follow. More immediately, they are producing a MasterClass online series, funded by sponsors, that will target parents, aspiring players and anyone else who aspires to be a part of the golf industry.
There has been so much accomplished in a century of UGA work, and so much still to be done.
“We’ve had a vision,” DeLavallade said, “and the big, big picture to is rebuild the pipeline and get this organization back to being a beacon of hope.”