Two Black pro golfers gave an illuminating insight into the challenges breaking into a sport that historically excluded non-White players.

They discussed how the already steep challenges of breaking into the highest levels of pro golf were even tougher for minorities, including sometimes being seen as representing a whole race.

Panellists Olajuwon Ajanaku, founder of Eastside Golf brand apparel and star of the Hulu documentary Grails, and Shasta Averyhardt, who earned her LPGA Tour card in 2011, were welcomed to the forum yesterday at Chubb Bermuda by Tracy Berkeley, the CEO of the Bermuda Tourism Authority.

Ms Berkeley said the forum and Black Golfers Week was an opportunity for Bermuda to embrace diversity and promote inclusion in the sport of golf.

She said: “Black Golfers Week was created with the intention of attracting golfers and visitors to the island while honouring its rich history.

“It’s an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of Black golfers and acknowledge the structural racial inequities that have historically excluded certain groups from the sport.”

She was opening a forum aimed at facilitating constructive discussion about the issues, a path towards a more inclusive environment particularly for people of colour, and creating a positive impact in the community.

The event sought to shed light on the journeys to success of two American pro golfers and show how they overcame obstacles to reach where they are today.

Ms Averyhardt competed on the LPGA Symetra Tour, where she won the 2012 LPGA Symetra Tour Rising Star Award.

During her career, she has won seven professional tournaments along with qualifying for the US Women’s Open. Last year, she was competing on the LPGA Epson Tour for the 2022 season.

She also spent three years between tour stops with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, pursuing her accounting background as a tax associate, before being lured back into golf.

It was one of the themes that emerged from yesterday’s forum: how important it is to have something to fall back on, during the often uncertain and sometimes lonely pursuit of a tour card in the big leagues of pro golf.

Other central themes in the journeys of both included the necessary support required to break into professional golf from family, friends and companies or at least those of financial means.

But there was also the wrestling with modern-day social issues of acceptance in a world still wracked by a not too distant history of slave labour and an enduring lack of historical inclusiveness.

If mainstream media and corporate America are slowly embracing diversity, equity and inclusion, these pro athletes are living proof of life’s reality of having to deal with the lack of acceptance because they look different from the majority.

They were led into a discussion on the lack of equity and inclusion, especially in a Eurocentric sport that traditionally featured few people of colour.

Both made the case that trying to break into pro golf is already beset with countless challenges.

Gaining acceptance from some because you are a person of colour is just an extra hurdle to overcome.

Ms Averyhardt pointed out the uncomfortable feeling is sometimes related to meeting people who rarely interact with those from different backgrounds.

Another challenge is being seen by some Whites as a representative of an entire race, simply by being the only player of colour in an entire field of entrants.

Ms Averyhardt conceded that she was caught off guard when it was first broached by a journalist.

She says she responded: "My golf ball doesn't know what I look like."

Both underscored the pressure most competitors face in trying to get established on the top pro tours. The lack of money forces them to make key decisions in the heat of the action – decisions that could determine whether they go home with a pay cheque, or empty-handed.

Having sponsorship helps ensure that you can still pay your weekly bills should you fail on the course. But getting a sponsor is rarely easy.

Mr Ajanaku said: “How do you convince people or a company to give a 22-year-old Black guy $50,000 for a year.”

He said: “I got tired of being told ‘no’. You hear ‘no’ a lot. But you can’t take it personal. A lot of nos turn into a yes. I got a sponsor during Covid. It came out of nowhere.”

Ms Averyhardt added: “A lot of times you play a lot of golf with people, hoping to get support. I’ve spent a lot of time playing with them and the answer is still no.”

They both have considered their post-golf futures and how to transition to a job, a passion or a pastime that affords them a comfortable lifestyle. But they are at different phases of that transition.

The tax professional said she was still considering her options.

But the man with the famous pro NBA name knows his future will be driven by the apparel business he began in 2019 with Morehouse College golf team-mate, Earl Cooper.

Pro athletes and other top stars have just fallen in with Eastside Golf. The business has taken off.

As GQ puts it: “Part of the appeal comes from its logo, which conveys the brand’s identity with powerful simplicity: a young Black man dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans with a gold chain around his neck and a club in mid backswing. It’s an image that adorns nearly every product they sell—sweatshirts, hats, T-shirts, ball markers, and socks.”

They see the brand speaking authentically and knowledgeably to golf and urban culture.

The Speakers Forum was hosted and moderated by Maya Palacio of Media Maya, before an audience of about 50 people at the offices of Black Golfers Week sponsor and international insurer Chubb.

A video of the Speakers Forum will be posted to the Bermuda Tourism Authority website in due course.