I watched Serena Williams lift her fifth Wimbledon Women's Title.

It got me wondering.

I don't see any huge influx of black players into Tennis due to the Williams Sisters' success.

What of Golf? I am a non-golfer who takes a passing interest in golf. Was there a huge influx of black players into golf due to Tiger? I don't think so.

I'm sure there has been quite an influx in both golf AND tennis. You just don't see them because they're not on tour. I am obviously just guessing here and I have zero to back up my statement, but when I was teaching junior golf clinics in 2000-2005, there was a big increase in the percentage of black kids coming out to play. I don't know if tennis is seeing the same thing now that golf saw 10-12 years ago, but I'd imagine it's gone up at least by definition of the word increase. (maybe not as much to use the term influx)

There are all kinds of black guys I see on my home course. Most of them are older guys so I assume they've been playing since B.T. I can't say I see many young black golfers.

Black people will play sports they like to play. They shouldn't feel obliged to play golf because a partial black guy is really good.

I'm way more likely to see a black golfer than a hispanic golfer even though I live in an area where the hispanics outnumber the blacks probably by 5 to 1. I always wonder if the maintenance guys ever try to take up the game. Sadly, I doubt it. Golf is really a game where someone needs to take you out and show you the game. These guys aren't likely to get those opportunities. And they probably don't feel welcome with idiot white guys yelling "Quatro!" at them with their frat buddies.

But golf is a damn fun activity. I don't care what color you are if you get out there enough times you will get bitten by the bug and you'll love it.

the media loves to talk about how tiger made golf "cool" and made it ok for black kids and/or poor people to play, as if they can't do anything unless there's a famous black person doing it first. It's simply not true tho, at least not from my observations playing most of my rounds at a muni course where a lot of black kids/people have access.

Black kids generally don't play golf for the same reasons every other non-golfer doesn't play: because it's a ****ing expensive game. It always has been and Tiger's existence didn't magically put hundreds of dollars into the pockets of black kids to afford clubs and greens fees.

There's a good number of middle aged and older black men that play at my local course, and most of them have been playing for 20+ years, just like the middle aged men of every other race.

Of course a lot of people took up the game because of Tiger, but I don't see any evidence that those new golfers are a different demographic than new golfers before Tiger. The economic limitations of the game are just not that easy to overcome.

And why would it be any different in any other sport or any other profession? Do you think we're going to see a huge influx of black politicians just because Obama is president?

I wonder how many white people in their 20s or younger took up golf because of Tiger.

In any case, as some people have already mentioned I see plenty of black golfers when I play--but most of them are 40s-50s or older. I do occasionally see 20-something black guys playing, but those are pretty rare compared to the large number of white guys in their 20s.

Ultimately, this is it.

Yeah I think older rich black people play at about the same rate as older rich white people. And the first tee program has done a lot more than the "Tiger boom" to raise participation among younger inner city black kids for this reason.