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For Black History Month, WOL News Talk 1450 AM, WYCB My Spirit 1340 and Praise 104.1 will be taking a look at golfers who came before Tiger Woods and the struggles to play the game in a segregated society. Today we take a look at Mel Blackwell.

Mel Blackwell started playing golf about 30 years ago. He quickly found out how difficult it would be to play at some of the Golf courses around the country. As a result, Blackwell joined the famed Golf Group the Pro Duffers.

In the late ’50s, a group of golfers from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known as the “Del Val” golf club contacted several of their former Howard University classmates who lived in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. The two groups played Golf against each other because none were permitted to join any of the major tours. Afterward, the nine Golfs from Howard created their own group and settled on a name: The “Pro Duffers.”

Now with 15 chapters across the United States, the Duffers are the biggest African-American Golf group in the country.

 

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