{"id":17619,"date":"2020-11-09T13:09:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T19:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=17619"},"modified":"2020-11-09T13:09:50","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T19:09:50","slug":"renee-powell-talks-childhood-early-golf-success-playing-on-lpga-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=17619","title":{"rendered":"Renee Powell talks childhood, early golf success, playing on LPGA Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the global golfing community, Renee Powell is a well-known pioneer and advocate for the game and inclusion. Her hard work continues to be honored, with the\u00a0Charlie Bartlett Award (presented in April at the Masters any other year)\u00a0being the latest recognition for her\u00a0\u201cunselfish contributions to the betterment of society.\u201d\u00a0This\u00a0is the second<\/a>\u00a0in a three-part series on Powell and her efforts to continue the legacy of her family.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Even after all these years, Renee Powell can get downright poetic when she walks\u00a0outside and looks around the golf course that is her front, back and side yard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI love nature,\u201d she says in the company of a visitor. \u201cMan didn\u2019t make that tree. Man didn\u2019t make that sky. Look at the changing of the leaves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe sun\u2019s staying up, and it\u2019s not falling down on us. The moon\u2019s not going to fall down on us. There\u2019s a higher power than any of \u2026 us.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

She worries about the world, and the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I almost think we live in an atheistic country,\u201d she said, before catching herself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be optimistic,\u201d she went on. \u201cYou have to keep hope or people just shrivel up and die. Because there are many more good people in the world than bad people. There are more people also who understand that God is still in control.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Powell counts herself fortunate to have grown up with parents who were strong role models.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was really nice and really calm,\u201d she says. \u201cMy dad was \u2026 tough . My parents were strict. I was glad they were because after I got out in the world, their example always turned negatives into positives.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Always, there was golf at Clearview, the course her father began building the year she was born. Bill Powell taught her the game, true, but with a course to run, he left Renee on the course on her own for countless hours.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She was an experienced player by the time she was in grade school. She attended East Canton schools for three years. She was the only Black girl in her classroom, which, in the 1950s, entailed a subset of issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Facing racism as a girl<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cI had so many problems with students and teachers because I was the only one in my class that looked like me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was third grade when everything happened. I was 8 years old. Do you remember being 8?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy first friends said they couldn\u2019t play with me because I was colored. One time a boy was chasing me on the playground with a knife, so I ran inside. The teacher said, \u2018Nobody\u2019s chasing you.\u2019 She put her hands on my shoulders and marched me out to the school door. She sent me out, and locked the door. I remember just standing there on the steps. I didn\u2019t want to go back on the\u00a0playground.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt got to be incident after incident after incident. I came home crying all the time. My parents had to go up to the school to try to handle things. So my parents took me out of here and enrolled me in St. Benedict\u2019s. \u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

She enrolled at St. Benedict\u2019s in Canton for fourth grade, shortly after Rosa Parks famously refused to give up a bus seat in Alabama.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt might have been fifth grade when our bus driver picked me up to go to St. Benedict\u2019s and told me to go to the back of the bus,\u201d Powell said. \u201cI was in a seat and said, \u2018I\u2019m not gonna move.\u2019 He said, \u2018The bus isn\u2019t gonna go until you go to the back of the bus.\u2019 And all the kids started laughing at me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew not to go to the back of the bus. I went to the middle of the bus and sat there. I didn\u2019t get angry. It was insulting. I knew what the driver said wasn\u2019t right, and I knew when the kids started laughing, that wasn\u2019t right. I mean, you know right from wrong, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI came home and\u00a0told my mom what happened and she called the priest \u2026 and the priest hung up the phone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad wasn\u2019t Catholic. He was Methodist. He was on the course, all muddy from working, when he was told about it. He got me in the car and and drove to see the priest. They had a nice gentleman\u2019s discussion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, the priest had respect for my dad and for my mom.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another incident during the St. Benedict\u2019s days sticks with her.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were twins,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of them called me the \u2018n\u2019 word, and I stood there and went \u2026 shoom \u2026 slapped him across the face.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe next day I was at school again, and I thought about it, and when I saw him again, I went \u2026 wham \u2026 and I slapped him again. He never said anything about it. And he never called me that again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like I got angry. It was more along the lines of, I can\u2019t believe he said that.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

She spent her high school years at Canton Central Catholic, before there was a St. Thomas Aquinas, which became her brother Larry\u2019s high school. One bus took Renee from East Canton to St. Benedict\u2019s, and from there to St. Anthony\u2019s, where a different bus carried students to the high school.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What was the Black population at Central Catholic in the early 1960s?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was Alan and his brother, Howard \u2026 Howard came by three years ago \u2026 it was the first time I had seen him since high school. Then when you went in the main door at Central Catholic, the boys went that way, and the girls went that way, so you never saw the boys. There was one girl who was a senior when I was a freshman, and what was a senior going to say to a freshman? And then there was me. So that was the Black population of our school.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan and Howard were the Page brothers. Alan Page, a year older than Renee, became a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman and then a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recently, Clearview had visitors from up Alan Page\u2019s way.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were two guys from Minneapolis in their 20s,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were interested in history and the contributions Black people have made to the game of golf and the world in general. It was a like a pilgrimage.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe one guy was celebrating his 24th birthday. They came out and played three days in a row. They were funny. They said, \u2018What\u2019s it feel like to be a legend?’\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Golf prodigy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Two figures stand out as the best junior girls golfers to come through Stark County.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One is\u00a0Massillon\u2019s Eva Shorb, who would marry a man named Tom Weiskopf, with whom she had a son who grew up to win the 1973 British Open. The other is Renee Powell.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Renee became unbeatable in local and regional youth golf tournaments, some of which her parents had to fight to get her entered. She was between her sophomore and junior years at Central Catholic when she became the first African-American to play in the U.S. Girls\u2019 Junior Championship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my first big tournament,\u201d she said. \u201cI was 16. Back then, when you read the write-ups, I was a referred to as \u2018Renee Powell, a Negro from Ohio.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe tournament was at the Country Club of Buffalo. There were like four Rolls Royces sitting outside the clubhouse. I was like, wow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Dey\u00a0was the director of the USGA then, before he was the first commissioner of the PGA Tour. I remember he was so nice. They came out to greet my dad and me, and he said, \u2018We want to welcome you, Mr. Powell, and we want to let you know that the only thing the USGA requires is that you have a golf game \u2026 and Renee has that.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dey\u2019s words hit Bill Powell where he lived. Half of what Bill loved about golf was that the scorecard didn\u2019t lie, and it was colorblind.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Renee lost in the quarterfinals. Mary Lou Crocker, who became a friend for life, won the tournament. Powell and Crocker played on the LPGA together for more than 10 years. They were part of a USO group\u00a0that flew to Saigon to help entertain U.S. troops during the Vietnam War.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In later years, Crocker would come up from Texas with a carload of golf gear and help Powell with her junior program at Clearview. When Crocker died in 2016, the obituary requested that in lieu of flowers contributions be made to Clearview Hope Veterans, whose mission simply is to give those who served a haven to play golf.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Off to college<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After Central Catholic, Renee enrolled at Ohio University. She became captain of the women\u2019s golf team and helped the golf coach teach\u00a0classes. She transferred to Ohio State and became a golf captain there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She has lived a lifetime knowing the phrase \u201cfirst African American to \u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That applies to being the first to captain a golf team at a major university.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She enjoyed the part of campus life that was merely about being a college girl.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNancy Popa and I were on the team together when Ed Sneed was on the men\u2019s team,\u201d she said. \u201cNancy would say, \u2018I\u2019m gonna marry that guy,\u2019 and she did \u2026 and they\u2019re still married.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ohio State fought for\u00a0her in an issue pertaining to the Ohio Golf Association state tournament. For that, she remains grateful.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was the best female amateur golfer in the state, but I never played in that tournament,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reason was that they played at events where Black people were not allowed to play.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ohio State, a member of and substantial donor to the the state association, informed officials the relationship would end if Powell\u2019s application to the state tournament was not accepted,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking, wow, this university with 40,000 students is taking a stand for one individual,\u201d she\u00a0said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Life on\u00a0the LPGA Tour<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Powell qualified for the U.S. Women\u2019s Open while in college and before joining the LPGA Tour in 1967. She became the second African-American on the Tour, following Althea Gibson, who had been a major tennis star before turning to pro golf in 1964, at age 36.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of the players on Tour knew Powell, or knew of her, from her successes as an amateur.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe problems came from outsiders,\u201d Powell said. \u201cThe \u201960s were a turbulent time. We played in places in the deep South where there were many challenges, but it wasn\u2019t only in the South. There were plenty of places elsewhere in the country where I wasn\u2019t welcome as a Black woman in golf. There were always people who welcomed me with open arms, too.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Powell played on the Tour for 13 years. The early years were the most trying in terms of prejudice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSandra Post and I roomed together a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019d be in restaurants and people didn\u2019t want to serve us because I was there. Reservations were lost at hotels. I\u2019d be stopped on the way into locker rooms, even though I had the same credentials. There were the threats on my life \u2026 for playing on my Tour in my country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI ran into a lot of racism because it was the \u201960s and there was so much going on. These were times when Black people were still being lynched. I was traveling throughout the South, to Selma, Alabama, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, getting obscene phone calls to my hotel room and things that my white colleagues were not running into.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNothing like that had ever happened to me before. It dawned on you that people have good access to us on a course. They walked down fairways with us. It played on your mind.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kathy Whitworth, who won 88 times on the LPGA Tour, became an ally. One time while trying to check into a hotel during a Tour stop in Idaho, Powell was told no reservation could be found.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whitworth guessed what was happening and told hotel management, \u201cEither we all stay, or we all walk.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

A room key appeared.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Powell said she took her time on Tour as a job, not a crusade, but often enough, one of her fellow pros would ask about the Black experience on a predominately white tour. Hall of Famer Carol Mann, who won 38 times on Tour, was among the curious.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCarol Mann always got deep,\u201d Powell said. \u201cI would say, \u2018OK, this is my world, Carol. Almost everywhere I go, I\u2019m the only Black person. So let\u2019s change roles. Imagine you were the only white person and everyplace you go it\u2019s only Black people. A tournament. A banquet. Wherever. Imagine that and you can answer your own question.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The worst of being a Black player in that era was death threats. More common were such things as a spectator jingling change in a pocket while she putted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Powell was competitive on Tour but not spectacular. Twice she tied for 20th in the LPGA Championship. She won a tournament in Australia. She placed fourth on a states-side tournament.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Staying out there was expensive. In terms of peace, love and fun, this wasn\u2019t like knocking the ball around at Clearview while daddy mowed a green.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe always talk about how golf is such great therapy,\u201d she said. \u201cGreat therapy \u2026 unless you play it for a living.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

She moved to England for a while while picking her spots with a Tour schedule. She found a job overseas as a pro at a private club. She designed clothes and wrote for a golf magazine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1996, she came home to Clearview. And that is where you will find her in 2020, and where her heart will always be.<\/strong><\/p>\n

WHO IS RENEE POWELL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Renee Powell (born May 4, 1946) is an American professional golfer<\/a> who played on the US-based LPGA Tour<\/a> and is currently head professional at her family’s Clearview Golf Club in East Canton, Ohio<\/a>.<\/sup> She was the second African-American woman ever to play on the LPGA Tour.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The daughter of golf course entrepreneur Bill Powell<\/a>, Renee grew up in Ohio and took up golf at an early age. After winning several youth amateur trophies in her teens, and captaining the women’s golf teams at Ohio University<\/a> and Ohio State University<\/a>, she turned professional in 1967. She moved to the UK in the 1970s to further her career and joined the British PGA<\/a>. In 1977, she became the first woman to compete in a men’s golf tournament. Following her retirement in 1980, she appeared as a television commentator and became the head professional of the Clearview Golf Club<\/a> in 1995.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Powell is a member of the Ohio Golf Hall of Fame. She is also a member of Sigma Gamma Rho<\/a> sorority. In 2017, she was inducted to the PGA America Hall of Fame.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Powell and her family were awarded the Jack Nicklaus Golf Family Award from the National Golf Foundation<\/a> (NGF) in 1992. She was elected as a member of the PGA of America<\/a> in 1996. The LPGA honored her with a Service Award in 1999. In 2003, she was awarded the First Lady of Golf Award from the PGA.<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2013, Powell was inducted into the Stark County Amateur Hall of Fame. She earned a Black Enterprise<\/a><\/i> Women of Power award in 2016. Powell was later inducted into the PGA America Hall of Fame in 2017. Her father had also been an inductee, making the pair the only father \/ daughter combination to both receive this award. Upon induction, Powell said, “To be inducted into the PGA hall of fame alongside my father is extremely special as he was my only instructor over these many years.”<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

Powell earned an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of St Andrews<\/a> in 2008. In 2015, was invited to become one of the first women members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews<\/a>. At the formal luncheon at the club, she was allowed to bring one guest and Powell chose to bring her friend, Franco Harris<\/a>. At the university in 2016, the women’s team named their tournament after Powell. In 2018, Powell came back to St Andrews<\/a> for a ribbon cutting ceremony for two new student residence halls at the university, one of which was named after her. Powell and her family were honored with the Old Tom Morris Award<\/a> by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America at the 2019 Golf Industry Show.<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

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In the global golfing community, Renee Powell is a well-known pioneer and advocate for the game and inclusion. Her hard work continues to be honored, with the\u00a0Charlie Bartlett Award (presented in April at the Masters any other year)\u00a0being the latest recognition for her\u00a0\u201cunselfish contributions to the betterment of society.\u201d\u00a0This\u00a0is the second\u00a0in a three-part series on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,1314,1456,1156,110,2416,13,2404,14,1,7,9,10],"tags":[3186],"class_list":["post-17619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-entertainment","category-global-business-entrepreneurs","category-global-news-updates-and-more","category-global-sports","category-golf-sports-news","category-hall-of-fame","category-health","category-high-school-sports","category-most-commented","category-news","category-sports","category-us","category-world","tag-lgpa","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}