Yvonne Thomas grew up the youngest of four children in a military family in Seaside in the 1970s, and graduated from Seaside High School in 1980. Fort Ord, at that time, was a haven for soldiers who had married interracially and had multiracial children. They were welcome to buy and rent homes in Seaside, and at the schools in the community, Thomas says, “there were some of everybody.”
When Thomas went away to college at USC, she encountered the converse: “Black areas, white areas, Asian areas. I wasn’t used to that.”
Now she is a media professional and entrepreneur based out of Los Angeles who, in order to recuperate from the work grind, discovered and fell in love with golf. She merged it with her degree in sports journalism by founding YGolf web magazine in 2010 to encourage more women and minorities to give golf a chance.
This weekend, that mission expands into the Urban Golf Summit, a new tournament that happens at Bayonet Blackhorse Golf Course in Seaside.
Weekly: What was your earliest exposure to golf?
Thomas: Through my brother. He’s 12 years older than me. He was an athlete at Monterey High School – basketball, track, but he was also interested in golf. So in the early years of the Bing Crosby Clambake [now the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am], my brother would take me to the golf tournaments. That was my first experience watching golf. I wasn’t bitten by the golf bug until I turned 40. I got sucked in. I joined a country club in Southern California and started golfing all the time. I became a member of two women’s golf teams down there. That’s when I started my women’s online golf magazine.
Why did you found the magazine?
To expand the opportunities for golf for women and minorities. Golf is not only a sport you can play into your 80s and 90s if you’re lucky, but it’s a large networking venue. Instead of calling a potential client into your office, you can invite them out for a round of golf. A lot of business deals are sealed out on the golf course. That’s one advantage male businessmen have had over women [who] are intimidated by golf. It’s my mission to open up the doors. It’s fun as well.
What do you like about the game?
The nature aspect of being outside. The beauty of the Monterey Peninsula. Pebble Beach is the actual golf Mecca, but Bayonet Blackhorse is a PGA-rated course with fabulous views of the ocean. It’s kind of a hidden gem.
What do you not like about golf?
I’m innately a competitive person, so even though I’m attempting to use it as a relaxation tool, it can become stressful when you get out there and start competing against your own score.
What do you hope will come out of the Urban Golf Summit?
Our initial idea was to sort of start this like Bing Crosby started his clambake 50 or 60 years ago. He [created] a golf tournament and invited a few of his friends here to enjoy the scenic Monterey Peninsula, and it’s grown into this monster over the years in the AT&T Pro-Am. My idea is to do the same thing, but try to entice more women and minorities to participate in the tournament.
Have you experienced racism, misogyny or prejudice in the golf world?
I don’t perceive it as racism, but I’m always the only black female golfing. It’s just something I’ve been used to. But there are a lot of rules in golf that are misogynist. My golf club in Southern California, for prime time Saturday morning where everyone wants to golf, they only allow the gold members to sign up. And the gold memberships are male.
You have the Masters Tournament coming up. Until [2012], Augusta National Golf Club did not admit female members. They now have two. Condoleezza Rice is one of them.
Who is this tournament at Bayonet Blackhorse for?
It’s for everyone. We’re having what’s called a flighted tournament. Anyone can enter, but you will be paired with people at your own level. We’ve contacted several businesses [for sponsorship] but haven’t gotten confirmation yet.
A portion of the proceeds are going to be donated to a woman’s charity in Seaside called Ladies First and a [scholarship] named in the legacy of a Seaside resident named Pearl Carey.
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