Jeff Dunovant, Director of Golf Operations at John A. White Golf Club and First Tee Metro Atlanta
One of the youngsters that I coached and taught and mentored for a long time (through the First Tee) had gone to Grambling State University on a golf scholarship and he applied for this job to work at a golf shop at this golf course (in Louisiana). So he called me and said, “Coach Jeff, I had a great interview. I think I’m going to get the job. It went really well. I think I’m really going to get the job.”
And some time went by and he never received the job and he never got a callback. . . . And what the golf professional said to me is that “he was a great candidate, I wanted to hire him but my membership would’ve fired me if I put a black person in my golf shop.” And so I was kind of shocked that he would say that. Then I had to tell him I was like, “Hey man, if you were a good golf professional, if you’re truly doing the job you’re supposed to be doing, I doubt your membership would’ve fired you over one hire even if he was a black.”
It’s a combination of systemic racism still going on for sure and then it’s like he said, it’s that fear that there is systemic racism and that he would lose his job. He kind of assumed, or maybe he really knew, but I think the assumption is that not everybody is ready for that, you know what I mean? Their membership is not quite ready for that.
One of my closest friends is a white guy, he’s a head professional and we worked together at Charlie Yates (at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta) and he would always tell me. “Jeff I’m trying to take a head professional job at a country club. That’s what I’m interviewing for. I’m interviewing for country club jobs, high-end country club jobs for my next move as I leave East Lake for a first assistant.”
And I told him, I don’t have that opportunity. I can’t pick and choose to turn down jobs. If I’m looking for a job I’ve got to take a public golf course job that is open. I can’t say I’m going to be a head professional at a country club because that’s not going to happen. That’s not going to happen for me. I don’t have that option. I’ve got to be the head pro at City Park in New Orleans or Lake Pontchartrain, a city course, because those are the only opportunities that open up in the industry.