Is Wells Fargo on the News Again
By Stacy M. Brown | NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
(NNPA) – If there were e'er a perfect wedlock between a corporate sponsor and one of golf'due south alphabet soup organizations, the Wells Fargo Championships at TPC Potomac Avenal Farm provided such a bail.
Wells Fargo, the namesake for the tournament and 1 of the world'south almost prolific financial institutions, has again go embroiled in controversy over accusations of discriminatory residential mortgage policies and lending practices confronting its Black customers.
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour has worked diligently to ensure that, later decades of anti-Blackness beliefs, it's slowly and relatively quietly condign one of the more than inclusive sports in America – if not globally.
Both entities have forged a working human relationship with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade association of America's 230-plus Black-owned newspapers and media companies.
Separately both Wells Fargo and the PGA TOUR have wrestled with challenges of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Together, both entities are working to change negative eyes for which both understand they are responsible for their reputations.
At the championships exterior of Washington, D.C., the game'due south inclusivity proved discernable in fundamental places if non yet on the course itself, where Howard Academy phenom Greg Odom Jr. stood out as the only Blackness role player to participate in a field of 156.
At the exclusive "Executive Club," where corporate citizens savour birds-eye views of the beautiful 16th pigsty and 17th tee, a fantastic mix of nigh 525 patrons yukked it up.
They talked golf, dined on catered meals, swallowed Bud Light, Stella Artois, and Coca-Cola, and enjoyed a full bar.
Interestingly, the large and exclusive tent highlighted how the color of golf is changing.
"I don't recall the game, or at to the lowest degree the PGA Tour and some of its sponsors, see Black and white anymore," Daniel, a D.C. lawyer, said equally Stewart Cink botched a birdie put on xvi but as another downpour emptied the seating area just off the tent.
Daniel didn't want his final name used considering a rival constabulary business firm had provided him the expensive tickets to the Executive Club.
"I've loved this game forever simply could never understand, even every bit a wealthy white guy, why there wasn't this effort or idea that having Black people, all people, included would only make it more attractive," Daniel remarked.
Even equally Odom – who had little time to soak in leading Howard Academy to the PGA Works Collegiate Championships a twenty-four hours earlier – failed to make the cut, there were many opportunities to realize the newly found inclusivity that golf offers.
Well-nigh the Wells Fargo Welcoming Heart at Avenal Farms, African American bank representatives greeted patrons.
They helped the thousands of fans in attendance find their way to and from parking lots, hospitality areas, the course itself, and shuttle buses.
Ticket takers, traffic enforcers, and executives worked while several took time to talk golf game.
When Montgomery County, Maryland native Denny McCarthy strolled from the driving range, a pocket-size group of fans braving the early morning elements yelled encouragement.
That minor group included Darryl McKinley, an African American who works for a bank not named Wells Fargo.
"First, I'm just glad the championships are here because I alive about xxx minutes from hither," McKinley asserted. "Just to see McKinley representing Maryland and Odom repping Howard University and all HBCUs is heady on different levels."
McKinley explained that the presence of McCarthy, who is white, and Odom, a Blackness man, had encouraged many similar him.
"Denny is from hither, so it lets yous know that this area can produce champions," McKinley explained further. "Then you take Greg, a Black human, a Howard University dude doing his thing and shining a spotlight on us in this game. What else practice yous demand to meet to be convinced that the doors are now wide open for anybody in this game."
Though Odom missed the cut, information technology wasn't just the amateur who had problems with the atmospheric condition. Veteran Sergio Garcia fought both the elements and officials after hitting a tee shot that went astray from the rolling terrain at Avenal Subcontract.
Garcia became frustrated with an official after beingness assessed a penalisation for taking too much time while looking for his brawl that went into a run a risk.
Players are allowed three minutes to locate the ball in one case they arrive in the general area where they hit it.
"You want me to swim through the river?" Garcia barked at the official. "I wasn't looking for the brawl there. I was looking for the ball in one case I got onto this side. Does that make sense?"
The moment besides provided a glimpse of the change in golf for some.
"They never used to argue," Alexis Battersby, attention the issue with a group of other women, stated. "Just, this is fun because the game seems more existent to u.s.a.," she said.
Battersby, who said she would attend the entire weekend, joined a group of 12 Blackness women at the championships.
Meanwhile, back within the Executive Lodge, Daniel, the lawyer, offered a grade for Wells Fargo and the PGA Bout.
When told Wells Fargo provided the Black Press with unlimited access to the event, he shook his head in approval.
"That's a start," he asserted. "They accept to exercise many things to improve admission for their African American customers and appoint Blackness people the right manner past doing more with you guys (the Blackness Press)."
He said the PGA Tour'due south efforts are more pronounced.
"You got Odom playing here, and I'm certain they would like to come across more people of color on the course," Daniel stated.
"Simply, I'm also aware that in the corporate offices and other places within the PGA Tour, there are African Americans – men and women and who knows, LGBTQ individuals, who are working important jobs.
"Only, if I'm you lot (the Black Printing), I keep pressing. I'm never satisfied, and neither should African Americans until there'due south physical proof that the efforts take been sustained and the discussion 'diversity' isn't needed in our vocabulary anymore."
The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), known as the Black Printing of America, is the federation of more than than 200 Black community newspapers in the United States.
Source: https://sacobserver.com/2022/05/pga-tour-and-wells-fargo-embrace-golfs-color-of-change-at-tpc-potomac/
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