Why no gay golfers on the PGA Tour?
In 2006, Hawaii-born Tadd Fujikawa played in his one and only major golf championship, the U.S. Open. He did not make the cut. Today, his X page tells us he is the pickleball pro at Sea Island Resort.
Despite his humble career, Fujikawa does have one major distinction. When I google "gay golfer," he shows up at the top of the feed. He is the gay, male golfer.
In two weeks, 86 golfers will tee up at the Masters. Last week, 144 golfers competed in the Players Championship. None of the golfers in either tournament is openly gay, probably not even covertly gay.
The numbers are all over the place, but somewhere between 3% and 5% of adult males identify as gay. Splitting the difference there should have been six openly gay golfers at the Players. There weren't any.
We know more about golfers' private lives than we do those of most professional athletes. At the end of each tournament, the winning golfer's inevitably beautiful wife rushes out to embrace him, often with kids in tow.
The excellent Netflix series "Full Swing" takes the viewer behind the scenes to the golfers' homes. Not only are the golfers disproportionately heterosexual, but, for young guys, they are also disproportionately married.
The media assume, of course, that golfers are more deeply closeted than other adult males. "It's the 86th straight Masters with zero out gay players," reads the headline of an OutSports article. "LGBTQ visibility in men's golf has been harder to break through than many other pro sports."
Visibility, however, is not the issue. Each pro golfer is the CEO of his own enterprise. He does not have to worry about alienating teammates. He doesn't have any teammates. He has employees.
Sponsors are not a worry either. Advertisers would queue up to get a piece of the first "out" golfer. The world's 98th-ranked golfer could put himself in the top 10 of endorsement charts even if he just came out as "bi."
The only reason for golfers not to come as gay in today's gay-friendly environment is the most obvious one: They are not gay.
I would propose that there is one common denominator among top golfers that an honest sociologist might want to examine. What follows are excerpts from a few family histories that may shed some light on the issue:
Tiger Woods "was a child prodigy who was introduced to golf before the age of 2 by his athletic father, Earl Woods."
"Jordan [Spieth] has openly spoken about the positive impact of his parents on his life and career. Their support and direction have, without a doubt, added to Jordan's progress in the realm of golf."
"Mike Thomas is a common sight at the side of his son, Justin, during practice rounds on the PGA TOUR. … The story behind Mike's club is a special one that illustrates the strong relationship between father and son."
"Apart from logging extra hours at work and the long years without any vacations, [Rory McIlroy's] father was also a big influence in getting him interested in the sport."
"The love and affection that Collin Morikawa's parents and brother show him are part of the motivation he enjoys to keep going in life. He once noted that his parents introduced him to golf when he was 5 years of age, and since then, there have never been regrets."
Almost all successful pro golfers had supportive parents and a close relationship with their fathers. Most of those fathers were golfers themselves, often club pros. In fact, it is very difficult to succeed at a high level in golf without an early start and consistent training.
Less is known about Fujikawa's background, but we do know this. In his senior year in high school, his father, Derrick, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. This is a basketball bio, not golf.
So much of the research on homosexuality is tainted by confirmation bias the public has no good way of knowing what causes it.
I find compelling the thesis that a strong loving relationship with a hands-on father minimizes the likelihood of a son emerging as gay. The PGA tour would be a good place to test that thesis.
The problem is that no funder would support that kind of research. If there are no more born gays than there are born golfers, the whole "God made me this way" paradigm collapses.
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