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PGA Tour Caddie Todd Montoya Reveals He's Gay

Montoya, who caddies for Brian Stuard, is believed to be the first openly gay caddie on the Tour

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PGA Tour caddie Todd Montoya has revealed he is gay. Montoya made the revelation on the Golf Channel , and is believed to be the first openly gay caddie on the Tour. 

In an emotional interview, the New Mexican, who caddies for Brian Stuard, explained his decision to come out to reporter Kira K Dixon : “Something that you kept secret for so many years amongst people that you consider your friends and your co-workers - over the course of time, you grow close to them and until people that I care about know that I’m gay, they really don’t know me for my entirety.”

Montoya has almost 20 years of caddying experience, predominantly on mini-tours. However, since 2016 he has caddied for Stuard on the PGA Tour , and said he has the 39-tear-old American to thank for his support, saying: "I feel 100% different. I feel like I'm walking on air. Brian has given me the greatest gift that I could ever get. I feel like he's given me my freedom."

Montoya explained that he told Doug LaBelle II, who he used to caddie for, the news in 2006, and his reaction gave him confidence: "I called him up and said, 'Hey, Dougie, there's something really important I want to tell you,' and I said, 'I'm gay'. He paused and he said, 'it doesn't make any difference whatsoever'. When someone that is important to you accepts you for who you are, it's a big deal."

Nevertheless, Montoya was reluctant to go more public about his sexuality for fear that if could affect his job prospects: "I think that it was mostly because that was my preconceived notion about the society of people that probably encompass the golf community. I just felt like I would have a better opportunity to get and keep a job if I kept it hidden.”

Montoya caddied for Stuard for four years before opening up to him about his sexuality, but the reaction he received was every bit as supportive as LaBelle’s. Stuard said: "He told me that he'd been living with it for a number of years and it would be tough thing to have to feel like you couldn't tell anybody. I just wanted to make sure that he knew that it didn't change the way I felt about him, he's always been the same Todd to me."

Montoya added: "I went out for dinner that evening and a text came through from Brian that said: 'I just wanted to say thanks for another successful year and I just wanted to say that I really appreciate that you told me and that I feel very grateful that you consider me close enough for you to open up. Don't think for one second that it makes me think any differently of you and the person you are.'"

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Although Montoya is believed to be the first openly gay caddie on the PGA Tour, his news follows professional golfer Tadd Fujikawa, who also opened up about his sexuality in 2018. Montoya hopes he can inspire others who may be struggling with their sexuality to take a similar step: "My hope is that they can see someone who has taken that step and found in their life that it is okay to be yourself and be out."

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories. 

He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game. 

Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course. 

Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.

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Tadd Fujikawa comes out as first openly gay male pro golfer

Tadd Fujikawa, who in 2007 became the second-youngest player to make the cut at a PGA Tour event, has come out as openly gay, and he is believed to be the first male professional golfer to do so. “I can’t wait for the day we all can live without feeling like we’re different and excluded,” he said in a recent post on Instagram .

“I’ve been back and forth for a while about opening up about my sexuality,” Fujikawa, 27, said in his post. “I thought that I didn’t need to come out because it doesn’t matter if anyone knows. But I remember how much other’s stories have helped me in my darkest times to have hope.”

“I spent way too long pretending, hiding, and hating who I was. I was always afraid of what others would think/say. I’ve struggled with my mental health for many years because of that and it put me in a really bad place,” he continued. “Now I’m standing up for myself and the rest of the LGBTQ community in hopes of being an inspiration and making a difference in someone’s life.”

Fujikawa’s golfing career has faltered in recent years, after he burst onto the scene as a teenager. He qualified for the 2006 U.S. Open as a 15-year-old amateur, and he turned professional the following year, after making it to the weekend at the Sony Open in his native Hawaii.

He made a dozen starts in PGA Tour events between 2007 and 2012, the latter seeing the most recent occasion on which he made a cut on that circuit, and he played in the 2017 Sony Open. Fujikawa has also competed on the PGA-sanctioned Web.com and Mackenzie Tours, playing in four events in Canada last year.

Fujikawa has shared his struggles with anxiety and depression in the past, saying in a July social media post that some recent therapy sessions had led to “quite a bit of improvement in my mental health.” In December, after winning the Hawaii State Open for what he said was his first victory in seven years, he expressed gratitude “to everyone who has supported me and helped me to keep going when I was at my lowest.”

In the post this week in which he came out, Fujikawa said, “I don’t expect everyone to understand or accept me. But please be gracious enough to not push your beliefs on me or anyone in the LGBTQ community. My hope is this post will inspire each and every one of you to be more empathetic and loving towards one another.”

“You the man Tadd! The world could use a bit more love these days,” another pro golfer, Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes, said on Twitter on Wednesday, adding, “Keep doing you.”

“The love and support have been overwhelming,” Fujikawa told Outsports . “I’m so glad that I came out. I can finally be the best version of me.”

According to Outsports, a website that examines the intersection of sports and LGBTQ issues, openly gay active female pro golfers have included Mianne Bagger, Alena Sharp and Rosie Jones. In a 2010 book (via Golf.com ), LPGA player Christina Kim estimated that there were “no more than two dozen gay women playing the tour” at that time, out of a total of approximately 230 women.

“Whether the LGBTQ is what you support or not, we must liberate and encourage each other to be our best selves, whatever that may be,” Fujikawa said in his post. “It’s the only way we can make this world a better place for future generations.”

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Tadd Fujikawa becomes first male professional golfer to publicly come out as gay

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Tadd Fujikawa, the youngest player to ever compete in the U.S. Open, has become the first male professional golfer to publicly come out as gay.

Taking to Instagram, the 27-year-old said he was inspired to tell his story on World Suicide Prevention Day.

"I don't expect everyone to understand or accept me," Fujikawa wrote. "But please be gracious enough to not push your beliefs on me or anyone in the LGBTQ community. My hope is this post will inspire each and every one of you to be more empathetic and loving towards one another.

"I've been back and forth for a while about opening up about my sexuality. I thought that I didn't need to come out because it doesn't matter if anyone knows. But I remember how much other's stories have helped me in my darkest times to have hope. I spent way too long pretending, hiding, and hating who I was. I was always afraid of what others would think/say. I've struggled with my mental health for many years because of that and it put me in a really bad place. Now I'm standing up for myself and the rest of the LGBTQ community in hopes of being an inspiration and making a difference in someone's life. Although it's a lot more accepted in our society today, we still see children, teens, and adults being ridiculed and discriminated against for being the way we are. Some have even taken their lives because of it. As long as those things are still happening, I will continue to do my best to bring more awareness to this issue and to fight for equality. Whether the LGBTQ is what you support or not, we must liberate and encourage each other to be our best selves, whatever that may be. It's the only way we can make this world a better place for future generations."

Fujikawa, a native of Hawaii, came to fame in 2006 when he qualified for the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, reaching the national championship at 15 years old. The next year he made the cut at the Sony Open, becoming the youngest player in 50 years to make the weekend at a PGA Tour event.

Fujikawa chose to forego college golf and turned pro at 16. He has made 14 career starts on tour, with a T-19 at the 2012 Sony Open his best finish. He bounced around the mini-tours for a decade, but last December won the Hawaii State Open after announcing he was battling issues of depressions and anxiety.

Fujikawa asserted that he doesn't want this announcement to focus on him, and hope it helps spread love and acceptance to those in similar situations.

"I can't wait for the day we all can live without feeling like we're different and excluded," Fujikawa said. "A time where we don't have to come out, we can love the way we want to love and not be ashamed. We are all human and equal after all. So I dare you...spread love. Let's do our part to make this world a better place."

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It’s the 86th straight Masters with zero out gay players

LGBTQ visibility in men’s golf has been harder to break through than many other pro sports.

The Masters is the most iconic weekend in golf, and with Tiger Woods competing it’s times-10. Played every year at Augusta National in Georgia it is, as Jim Nantz says, “a tradition like no other.”

Like every other Masters before it, this one will take place with no out LGBTQ athletes. In fact, there’s been only one golfer ever to play on the PGA Tour — Tadd Fujikawa — to come out as gay.

We’ve had an out player in the NFL Playoffs and the NBA Playoffs . We’ve had an out gay player win the MLS Cup . We’ve had out athletes win numerous Olympic medals . Out women in virtually every sport have earned the highest of honors.

Yet an out athlete has never competed on the PGA Tour, let alone the Masters.

There have been various women to come out publicly in women’s professional golf . The men? Zero.

Fujikawa — who’s now a pickleball coach in Georgia — said one of the fastest ways to change that fact would be for a stream of players at the Masters and on the PGA Tour to talk about their acceptance of LGBTQ people, and their friends and family members who are part of the community.

“If the players on the PGA Tour were more outspoken about it, it would help our cause a lot,” Fujikawa told Outsports. “But I think a lot of the players feel that it doesn’t really involve them, so being quiet is OK. I think a lot of them probably don’t care if someone is gay, but if we don’t talk about it the issue it doesn’t get resolved.”

One golf pro who wasn’t shy about waving a rainbow at a tournament is Collin Morikawa , who last year used a rainbow-colored yardage book during the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament.

Yet Fujikawa’s observation is spot-on: Very few male professional golfers over the years have made any public gestures of support for the LGBTQ community. Athlete Ally includes professional athletes as ambassadors for its inclusion programs, and not a single current or former PGA Tour player is one of their ambassadors… except Fujikawa.

On the flip side, various men’s professional golfers have been pushed into apologies for homophobic or off-color comments or slurs they’ve uttered — Justin Thomas being the most-discussed in recent years . At least they apologized.

From the inside, Chris Noble has seen some movement within the PGA.

Noble works with the PGA and said there are conversations happening internally in golf — at various levels — aimed at building inclusion efforts that reach the LGBTQ community. He’s personally created an event this Friday, along with Stonewall Chicago , for the LGBTQ community interested in exploring the sport of golf. It’s open to anyone in the LGBTQ community .

Every effort helps.

There was also an initiative at the PGA Championship a couple years ago where local gay golf pro Greg Fitzgerald had been organizing an entire Pride Day — That effort got turned into a virtual event in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A couple other men, like Fitzgerald, have emerged on the golf scene, choosing to come out publicly. Caddie Todd Montoya recently came out as gay, and Palm Springs-area golf pro Kyle Winn has also shared his story .

Still, you can count the number of out gay players at a Major men’s golf tournament on exactly zero fingers.

Fujikawa was a qualifier for the 2006 U.S. Open, but that was over a decade before he came out publicly.

“Inclusion in golf has gotten better,” Fujikawa said. “However, there is still a long way to go. It’s probably one of the most non-inclusive sports out there today.”

The media has a role to play in this. Fujikawa wants more pros to talk about their embrace of the LGBTQ community, but that likely happens only if members of the media ask them about it.

Everyone has work to do. Tournaments can have rainbow-colored pin flags. Players can open up about their LGBTQ friends and family members. The media can ask more questions.

And the LGBTQ community can show up at more events, share more of golf on social media. Because if we can break through the white, conservative , upper-class sport of golf, anything is possible.

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Where Are All the Gay Golfers?

Sports are becoming more and more diverse and LGBTQ inclusive. As of 2022, around 20 percent of WNBA players are openly gay. A poll conducted by Pink News found that participants ranked tennis as the most gay-friendly sport. So in an age of inclusion, why is golf lacking, and how is the lack being addressed?

Though an estimate from  New Zealand Golf Magazine  states that anywhere from 10–14 percent of golfers are likely to be gay, the number of out professional golfers is low.

In 2006, at just 15 years old, Tadd Fujikawa became the youngest player to qualify for the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) U.S. Open. In 2018, Tadd once again made PGA history, becoming the first male player to openly come out as gay. While other players have come out since then, they are very much a minority in the sport.

Kyle Winn — a PGA member and golf course employee — spent years in the closet, fearing how being outed might impact his career.

“Every time I started a new position at a golf course, the first few months were always hard. Not only was I getting used to a new facility, I was also trying to figure out which co-workers I could trust and which members might be OK with me being gay. It was emotionally draining.” Winn wrote for a piece in  OutSports .

Fujikawa and Winn did come out, and they are helping to make professional golf a more inclusive place. However, there have still been no openly gay men to play in the PGA Tour or Masters. We’ve had out athletes in professional baseball, soccer, tennis, and the Olympics, so why is golf, and men’s golf in particular, so far behind? Winn speculates in his article that the conservative culture in golf may be a contributing factor.

“Some of us golf professionals have been lucky to work in progressive areas, but at its core it is a conservative, white, straight, cis-male dominated industry,” he wrote. “It has gotten better, but we have a long way to go.”

When polled, professional golfers have more often than not supported conservative or Republican politicians and ideals. A poll conducted by  Sports Illustrated  in 2016 showed that more than 50 percent of participants would not vote for Hillary Clinton, even if she guaranteed tax cuts. A different survey conducted by the Irish Times found that 89 percent of respondents would accept an invitation to golf with Donald Trump. In short, conservatism is the name of the game in golfing politics.

So, is it so shocking that homophobia would also be prevalent on the course and in the country clubs? Homophobic and anti-trans sentiments seem to be a staple in traditional conservative values, as shown by recent legislation such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bills pushed by Republican leaders like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

In his article, Winn describes the golf course as “a place some people can congregate and use racist, misogynist and homophobic terms and get away with it because ‘they’re at a golf course.’” Look no further for proof than professional Justin Thomas saying a homophobic slur at a tournament in 2021.

There is a history of exclusion and hate in golf, and arguably a culture that still perpetuates these attitudes today, but there are also signs of progress and inclusion.

PGA released a statement in 2021, committing to taking action to make golf more LGBTQ inclusive and welcoming. Out players such as Fujikawa have spoken about the future they want to see in golf, telling Athlete Ally, “I just hope that all LGBTQ athletes can feel like we are a part of a safe place; where we can play the sport we love; and can still be authentically ourselves” during an interview from 2019.

Maybe in the future, the golf course will be, not a place where hateful comments and sentiments are allowed, but instead a place of sportsmanship, where golfers congregate to be around each other and foster a community to appreciate the sport they all love.

Opinion: Gay men are nearly invisible in golf, but we’re not non-existent

The familiar rap against golf is that expressions of diversity in our game are limited to wearing unconventional shades of khaki, that it’s a buttoned-up, hidebound world that stubbornly remains the preserve of white, male, affluent, conservative, Christian, heterosexual, country club Republicans with woeful fashion sense.

Admittedly, you can throw a pebble on the PGA Tour and hit someone who ticks all of those boxes — and you wouldn’t have to aim carefully — but like all stereotypes it fails to fully reflect a more nuanced reality. A visit to most golf facilities will reveal people separated by race, gender and umpteen other differences but united by a passion for the game. Golf also has diversity not so readily apparent to the naked eye.

During Pride Month, it seems as though every company and industry in the land is displaying rainbow colors, marketing that one suspects is often motivated as much by sales as solidarity. The effort to signal a more welcoming environment is increasingly, if slowly, evident in golf too. This month the PGA of America has been spotlighting gay members , and for several years has stressed that golf’s long-term health and economy demands drawing a more diverse audience.

Signs of a more progressive understanding of who plays golf aren’t limited to Pride Month. Last year, Tadd Fujikawa became the first male player of even moderate prominence to announce that he is gay . While the PGA Tour reported the news on its social media with sober detachment, the USGA tweeted this: “The best thing about golf is that it welcomes everyone to play, and play for a lifetime. Thanks, Tadd Fujikawa, for reminding us that our love of the game unites us all. Your bravery is an inspiration.”

Those stuffy blue blazers had never seemed so colorful.

The LPGA Tour has long been a welcoming ward for lesbians, but gay men are entirely invisible on the PGA Tour and only slightly less so in the broader golf universe. Invisible, but not non-existent. There are some who, for whatever personal reasons, choose not to be open about their sexuality. That’s entirely their business, but it’s not an approach I mirror. The only thing I care to hide in golf is my wretched swing, not the fact that I am gay.

Nor am I marooned in some hostile environment like Patrick Reed in a Ryder Cup locker room. There are numerous prominent figures in golf with gay children or siblings. In an interview with David Feherty a few years ago, Brandt Snedeker said he believed there were gay players on Tour. “I don’t think a gay golfer is going to be that big of a deal. It’s not going to affect my life in any way, shape or form,” he said. Golf could use more Snedekers willing to speak up for tolerance.

Someday a PGA Tour golfer will come out to the pleasant realization that what was to him a seismic announcement is considered by most everyone else to be barely worth the noting. His peers are more likely to care about whether he plays fast.

There are well-intentioned people who insist proclamations about sexuality are unnecessary, but that’s a privilege reserved for those who’ve never been presumed by society to be someone other than who they are. There’s also a rump who will glance at this epistle and frothily demand that liberal propaganda be kept out of golf, though experience unfailingly shows such people object only when the views being expressed contradict their own.

The two constituencies I cheerfully ignore are those who insist that golf is a narrow, intolerant world, and those who wish it were.

I’m often asked if my husband, Michael, plays golf. “No,” I invariably answer, “one psychopath per household is quite enough.” We will celebrate 25 years together next month, and yet his grasp of golf is still best summarized by a long-ago comment when I returned from a particularly dispiriting round notable for its abundance of lost balls and F bombs: “You think you’d have figured it out by now.”

Perhaps. I figured out some stuff, but I guess other things just take longer.

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Pinehurst #10 opened last week. Want to play it?

I’m a golfer, and I’m gay. Get over it.

I like Patrick Reed. His swagger. His talent. His cherubic good looks. But when late last year microphones caught Reed uttering a gay slur after he missed a short putt, I was disheartened, if not all that surprised. After all, the f-word isn’t exactly uncommon.

The incident and ensuing uproar made me think not only about the absence of openly gay players on the PGA Tour but also about my own experience as a gay golfer: Did I putt like a f-ggott? Was I effectively a one-man gay pride parade every time I teed it up? And why are my partner David and I the only openly gay men we know with a golf club membership?

That last question especially interests me.

I took up golf at 39, when I became a partner at a large consulting firm near Washington, D.C. Our company, where David is also a partner, was hosting a scramble, and I wanted to show my support by participating. I’m athletic; I used to play lacrosse competitively. How hard could golf be? That misguided thinking led me to our local golf shop where a persuasive saleswoman talked me into $3,000 worth of clubs. (I was officially all in!) I picked up some new duds, too, because if my game wasn’t going to look good, I sure as hell was.

The golf bug bit me hard. Despite flubbing virtually every shot at the outing, I wanted to play more. A lot more. David was amused. After my equipment splurge, he looked at me and said, “If you’re spending that much, you are going to play.”

“If I’m playing, so are you,” I said.

A loyal partner and fierce competitor, David couldn’t resist. He dashed out and bought his own clubs. That was almost seven years ago, and so began an adventure that will last the rest of our lives.

The Search for a Club

Neither David nor I ever imagined we’d join a golf club. We both come from blue-collar backgrounds — country clubs just weren’t in our DNA. Besides, what club would welcome in a same-sex couple? We pressed on, though, motivated mostly by economics. At the time we were playing four to six times a month. Green fees and travel expenses were a significant investment. Also, we weren’t playing enough to truly improve. A club membership, we reasoned, would allow us to save money, play more and — who knows? — maybe find more golfers like us.

We live in Arlington, Va., right outside Washington, D.C., a hotbed for golf clubs. Financially, not much was off limits to us. Our priority was finding a spot near our home that offered amenities beyond golf. We toured many clubs, some nationally renowned. We listened to pitches, zipped around properties on golf carts, and inquired about initiation fees and waiting lists (10 years and a non-refundable down payment? Are you serious?!).

At the end of each meet-and-greet, we’d ask a simple question, “How do you deal with us?”

The response would generally come in the form of awkward “ah-hems,” restless shifting in seats and the occasional mumbled “Sorry, what do you mean?” When our search began, we’d agreed not to disparage clubs that rejected us for being gay. After all, private clubs are by nature self-selecting associations, and while their homogeneity has undoubtedly contributed to their long-term struggles, we weren’t on a crusade. We simply wanted to find a membership that would embrace us.

Several clubs subtlety refused us or said that we could each join as single members, which would require us to pay twice the dues, fees and initiation. That hardly seemed fair. But that’s the thing with private clubs—they can make arbitrary rules that are difficult to challenge. We walked away from those clubs wiser, if somewhat despondent. Perhaps we needed to reassess our strategy and wait for clubs to catch up with modern times, assuming they survived that long.

Then we visited Army Navy Country Club.

ANCC, as it’s known, was established in 1924 and has two campuses: one in Arlington, near the Pentagon, and another in the nearby suburb of Fairfax. At the time, the club was undergoing a major renovation of both its clubhouse and course (some of the 54 holes were designed by Donald Ross) with the goal of revitalizing its membership. ANCC was perfect. It was just two miles from our home, we felt comfortable there and it already had a number of gay members, if not openly gay members.

David and I are quite “out.” We don’t hide our relationship from anyone and have no interest in assuming a lifestyle that would force us to do so. We knew that if we joined ANCC, we would be outliers, the only truly openly gay couple. We had to be certain that we could handle the heat if we inadvertently created an “issue” for the club. After two weeks of weighing the pros and cons, we decided that we wanted in.

When the paperwork cleared and we were officially approved as members, the darndest thing happened: The earth didn’t open and swallow the club in a hail of fire and brimstone. We weren’t met at the gates by a pitchfork-toting mob. Our initiation was remarkably… unremarkable. That was nearly three years ago.

Life as a Gay Member

As new members, we felt that it was important to be seen and to be active — to help demystify what it means to be gay. David and I prepared ourselves for the inevitable microscope and decided that for the first few weeks we’d “man” up our appearances a bit. With new, tightly cropped haircuts and more conservative clothes (yep, polos and khakis), we entered into country-club life.

In our first round at ANCC, we were paired with an affable retired one-star general who had served in Iraq. On what was our 16th hole, David skulled a chip that hit the general squarely in the chest. He took it well but hasn’t played with us since. I’d like to think that’s because of our shaky swings and not because of our orientation. A week or so later we encountered a fuller measure of country-club life when we were paired with an older gentleman who still played with persimmon woods. It was a Sunday morning and, as is customary, the pace was a bit slow. The man, probably in his 70s, glared at the group ahead of us and remarked with disgust, “That wouldn’t have happened in my day.”

The foursome was all women.

In his day, he explained, spouses (read: women) were not permitted to play before 11 a.m. We didn’t have the heart to tell him our situation.

Our first real “issue” came a few months later. During a busy holiday weekend, David and I were playing as a threesome with a new friend. In the middle of the round, David chipped his ball over a green and into some woodchips. A player in the group ahead picked up the ball and slipped it into his bag. When I asked for the ball back, he became agitated, explaining that he had “waved” the ball in the air. Because no one claimed it, he contended, it was his to keep. After a few more moments of heated discussion about just “wanting to have a nice day” with his daughter who was home from college, he hurled the ball at David. Uncertain of the ruling, we allowed David to play the ball as it lied without penalty and went on our way.

After the round, another retired one-star general (there are many at ANCC) confronted us and demanded to know what had happened and why we had used profanity. David chirped up: “This gentleman was totally in the wrong. He picked up a ball in play and wouldn’t return it. Aren’t my partner and I entitled to enjoy our round at least as much as this member and his daughter, or does that only apply to straight people?”

After a moment of perplexed calculus, the general quickly retreated.

Being gay in the golf world is an odd dynamic. A couple of months ago, David and I took a road trip through the South. Our last stop was at a well-known golf resort where we had booked a single room with a king bed. Shortly before arriving, I called to confirm the reservation and learned that the hotel had changed our request to two full beds. They hadn’t realized we were a couple.

“But we are a couple…” I began.

They told us they would amend the reservation, but when we checked in we discovered the booking was still for two beds. I don’t believe there was any malicious intent. I just think the notion of a gay couple on a golf trip was more than they could process.

Back at the club, David and I have made great friends, and others who turned out not to be the kind of friends we’d hoped for. (Note to those of you who like the idea of having a token “gay friend”: We are not something to be collected.) On the course, we’ve encountered no other major issues beyond the latent homophobia that permeates most sports. It’s disturbing how frequently I hear male golfers calling themselves a “fag” or a “Mary” for leaving a putt short.

David and I have made a game of seeing how long it takes our golf partners to figure out our relationship. Golf talk with strangers typically begins with questions about marriage, kids, dogs, where you live. As David and I respond with the same answers, one after another, our playing partners eventually catch on, usually somewhere between the 9th and 13th holes. We’ve had only a few partners quit on us at the turn, having suddenly “remembered” a previously scheduled appointment. Some members have really engaged with us, but most couldn’t care less who we are as long we don’t hold up play.

Why Golf Clubs Should Loosen Up

Private golf clubs in America are struggling. According to the National Golf Foundation, private club memberships are down on average 13% since their peaks and rounds are down 17%. Many clubs are cemented in a bygone era and haven’t made enough of an effort to enter the new millennium. “Build it and rich white people will come” seems to be a mantra that they can’t get past, even though it’s no longer a sustainable business model.

For clubs to thrive and remain relevant in our society, they should aim to attract a wider range of members and establish ecosystems that will allow them to prosper. Our club, for example, has made a concerted effort to attract a younger and more diverse membership. We’ve redone the clubhouse, added tennis courts and junior tennis courts, along with more outdoor space. There’s talk of expanding the swimming facilities and re-doing the secondary clubhouse in Fairfax. The average age of our membership has dropped from the late 60s to the 50s.

David and I made a great choice. We love the game and we’ve come to love our club despite the occasional hiccups. We’ve shaken things up and altered how at least a few people think. Or at least we hope have. We’ve even helped a few closeted gay members come out at the club without fear; one member, an Annapolis grad, told us he didn’t add his partner as a “spouse” or “guest” member lest people learned that he was gay. We’ve also acted as a sounding board for members with gay children. Perhaps what these members see in us is that their kids can do or be anything. They can work for the CIA, run a business, or, yes, even join a golf club.

Ultimately, though, David and I don’t want to be seen as trailblazers or pot-stirrers. We simply want our fellow members to see us for exactly who we are: two guys who are crazy about golf.

Roger Hockenberry is CEO of Cognitio, a strategic cybersecurity consulting firm in McLean, Va. He and David recently celebrated their 13th anniversary.

For more news that golfers everywhere are talking about, follow  @golf_com  on Twitter, like us on  Facebook , and subscribe to  our YouTube video channel .

The Masters Still Sizzles. But Is Golf Scaring Off Its Fans?

M asters weekend is here—golf’s prestige showcase, high season for green blazers and pimento cheese sandwiches, a fairway feast among the azaleas in fussy, phone-free Augusta.

Who’s going to win? Prediction: A golfer! My prediction is almost never wrong.

The Masters thrives on traditionalism and mystique, its organizers believing the event is bigger than any player, and they are probably correct. But the excitement for this year’s tournament feels like even more of a reality distortion field than usual, because of what’s happening broadly in the sport:

Golfers are worried that they’re losing–losing you.

Not losing you to the customary golf nap, a cherished ritual for watching TV golf, even during the Masters. They’re worried they’re losing you permanently.

We’re two years into golf’s civil war—an exasperating fight between the incumbent PGA Tour and the challenger, Saudi-funded LIV Golf. Despite claims of a pending merger, the battle drags on, with separate entities, bosses, tours, fields, and styles of competition—not to mention sulky grumbling over world ranking points.

On and on it goes, a tedious fray over money and power, starring the private jet clubhouse class.

Now the most obvious outcome is happening. You have key players—on both sides—getting nervous they’re pushing away the loyal golf fan. Majors like the Masters will always draw an audience, but other events?

“I just think with the fighting and everything that’s [gone] on over the past couple of years, people are getting really fatigued,” PGA Tour stalwart Rory McIlroy said recently. “It’s turning people off men’s professional golf, and that’s not a good thing for anyone.”

A member of the PGA Tour’s policy board until last fall, McIlroy said television ratings for “PGA Tour events this year” were “down 20% across the board.”

“That’s big,” he said. “I would say the numbers on LIV aren’t great, either, in terms of the people tuning in.”

Hey friend: If you’re sitting there in a LIV RangeGoats team polo, wearing a Fireballs team hat, debating a purchase of some $80 LIV Golf boardshorts, with your television permanently tuned to the CW Network, I’ll say that Rory owes you an apology for questioning your LIV Golf passion.

But I don’t get the impression that LIV Golf is filling the sports world with excitement, either.

In December, the nouveau no-cut team golf tour scored a coup, luring reigning Masters champ Jon Rahm with a nine-figure payday, and the signing barely budged mainstream interest. It’s easier to get people to talk about their sixth-favorite show on Hulu than to get a spirited LIV chat going among casual fans.

Rahm, who got his own expansion team (Legion XIII), has already fretted about LIV’s 54-hole format (“I definitely wouldn’t mind going back to 72 holes,” he said) and professed nostalgia for PGA Tour events he can’t play anymore. He’s in Augusta as defending champ, but LIVers (especially ones without major victories) remain miffed they’re not getting Official World Golf Ranking Points, costing them potential chances to play major tournaments.

This is what fans think: Boo hoo hoo, let me dry those tears with a $100 bill. No one entered a LIV deal blind to the potential drawbacks. As Don Draper once howled behind his desk: That’s what the money is for!

A startup league in any sport is always going to face headwinds, and LIVers are being paid mightily to endure the public ambivalence. Early LIV signees like Phil Mickelson argue these are just growing pains for an overdue revolution in a sport slow to modernize.

“Right now, we are in the disruption phase,” said an optimistic Lefty.

But other LIVers worry. Rahm’s fellow escapee, Bryson DeChambeau (Crushers), echoed McIlroy’s comments about fans being worn out by the PGA Tour vs. LIV clash.

“The fans are what drive this sport,” said DeChambeau, who led the Masters after day one with a 7-under par opening round. “If we don’t have fans, we don’t have golf.”

The risk is alienating an audience which gets tired of the bickering and doesn’t come back; it’s happened in other sports The solution, both McIlroy and DeChambeau believe, is a PGA Tour/LIV Golf agreement as soon as possible.

“I want the train to speed up so we can get this thing over and done with,” said McIlroy.

Mirrored DeChambeau: “It needs to happen fast.”

The sport appeared headed in that direction last June, when the PGA Tour shed its moral indignation about LIV and stunningly announced it would partner up with its nemesis. But it’s nearly a year later, a major deadline was blown, then extended, and no deal has been formalized. The PGA Tour has added significant outside investment to give it financial ballast, but it…

Zzzzzzzzz. See, you’ve fallen asleep, haven’t you?

This is the problem. In lieu of a deal, the cold war continues, the players are tired of it, and the public reaction is…to fall asleep.

It’s like the old saying: You think it’s hard to stay awake following the inner machinations of one pampered professional golf tour? Try staying awake for two.

Golf needs to know: Sports fans are easy. They want to see the best athletes compete, against each other, for genuine stakes. They don’t want a messy, split schedule with differing formats. They don’t want to think about screwy rules for qualifications and rankings.

They want golf. They don’t want splintering and confusion. They want to argue about Scottie, Rory and Rahmbo. They want to see Tiger Woods, still competing despite age and injuries. Fans want to watch their favorite players play—and again, apologies if you’re sitting there in a RangeGoats polo—I don’t think they give a rangegoat’s tail about the RangeGoats.

They want to see what they’ll see this weekend in Augusta. The Masters does it right. Just ask them.

Write to Jason Gay at [email protected]

Masters field 2024: All golfers at Augusta: Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy

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Golf's Great Divide Continues, But LIV Golfers May Have a Point

Yes, the LIV players caused the schism by taking the money, but Bob Harig says the big-picture issues of pay for everyone was helped by their move.

• Author: Bob Harig

MORE WEEKLY READ: Time for Stars to Shine | Tiger at Augusta  | Hatton and the Ryder Cup

There was a good bit of reaction to the comments from several LIV Golf players last week who expressed their desire to see the game come back together .

Phil Mickelson talked about the game becoming “much more global” and Jon Rahm noted the potential for a “better product for the fans” and Bryson DeChambeau said “it needs to happen fast ... for the good of the sport.”

Of course, the blowback in many circles was intense. The general reaction to those comments was that the game would not be in this situation if those players had not taken the hordes of cash to join LIV Golf.

And yes, on the surface, that is exactly right. Had nobody taken the offers, the game would still see all of them competing together on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

But that also misses a big picture. Yes, of course, had there been no disruption there would be no divide. But there would still be the age-old issue of guaranteed pay for the stars, the basis for all the upheaval.

And yet, many of the riches they’ve received have also resulted in greater monetary opportunities for those who remained—a fact that Mickelson pointed out.

Phil Mickelson said at LIV Golf Miami that not everyone sees far ahead in golf's current disruption.

Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

“If you look at all the changes that have taken place with equity for players, elevated events, increases purses … none of that was an option for the guys who left (for LIV),” Mickelson said last week in Miami. “Had LIV not happened and we not done what we did, none of that would have happened now.

“I knew the first two years were going to be difficult. But in the end, where it ends up I think the game is going to be a lot more global, appeal to a lot more people. Appeal to a lot younger crowd and is going to be in a much healthier place in the end.

“But in the disruption phase, which is what we’re in, sometimes not everybody sees that far ahead.”

When LIV golfers say they want the game to come back together, they are not suggesting going back to the PGA Tour. Many are perfectly content with LIV Golf. But they want an avenue to compete against the best more often than just the major championships.

And that’s where it would get interesting if there is ever a deal between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Rory McIlroy has suggeste a Champions League-type of competition that would see the best players from all the tours compete outside the current structures.

There have been calls for PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf events to see their top players funnel to one big circuit outside of the respective tours.

“How great would it be to have these signature events have a team aspect as part of it?” DeChambeau said during an interview at Doral. “It increases the value of those tournaments. You create a 50-50 partnership on the team stuff and call it day. We have certain events outside of the PGA Tour, we play on the PGA Tour and we came together at the end of the season like the NFC-AFC (in the NFL). It’s not a hard fix.”

It is difficult if you are not in favor of team golf, and there appears to be considerable pushback to that idea on the PGA Tour side. How that is resolved is one of the big issues going forward.

But LIV Golf appears content to ride it out. It continues to plan for a future without an agreement as it keeps adding smaller sponsorship deals for its teams while locking down future venues.

If the idea was that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF, was going to shutter LIV Golf as part of an agreement, that seems to be far off.

Hence his meeting three weeks ago with Tiger Woods in the Bahamas has taken on more intrigue. Since joining the PGA Tour Policy Board as a player director last year, Woods has stayed neutral on his feelings about the PIF and its possible investment in PGA Tour Enterprises. But previously, he was no fan of LIV Golf and spoke out against it.

Meeting Al-Rumayyan was viewed as important. What they discussed and how much it might have swayed Woods in any manner is unclear.

“Huge. Huge step,” DeChambeau said. “And I appreciate them for doing that. I think it was necessary. A big step for the game of golf. I just don’t know what his intentions (Woods) are. Nobody does. I wish for them to have the best intentions for the game of golf.”

“I have nothing but respect for Tiger. He’s been so amazing for the game. He inspired me to play the game. ... Let’s bring it back together. That’s all that matters now. I don’t care who is the resistance. Let’s come to terms and figure out, sit down in a business room, see what works for both sides.”

Again, it will be easy to take shots at DeChambeau here. None of this occurs if the players who left had not done so.

But as Mickelson said, there’s a good chance that the big purse increases seen through the signature events and the private equity that will make PGA Tour players part-owners of PGA Tour Enterprises would not have occurred, either.

And so complaining about who did what and when they did is not going to change golf’s current plight.

What happens next? To be determined.

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Masters 2024 props, golf odds: Expert reveals top PGA Tour prop bets, parlay picks for Augusta National

Mike mcclure locked in his expert pga golf prop picks and parlay for the masters 2024 at augusta national.

The first 2024 Masters tee times will begin at 10:30 a.m. ET on Thursday after weather delayed the start of the opening round. At 100-1 to win outright in the 2024 Masters odds, it's unlikely that Tiger Woods will pick up his sixth career green jacket this week at the Masters 2024. However, there are still plenty of intriguing Masters Tiger props on the board for golf bettors to consider before he tees off. The latest 2024 Masters prop bets list Woods' Round 1 score over/under at 73.5, with the Over favored at -165 (risk $165 to win $100).

Other Tiger prop picks include a top-10 overall finish paying +900 and a top-20 performance returning +350. Which 2024 Masters props should you target involving Woods and every other golfer in the 2024 Masters field? Before locking in your 2024 Masters prop picks or entering Masters pool picks, you need to see what SportsLine DFS pro and PGA expert Mike McClure has to say . 

McClure is a DFS legend with over $2 million in career winnings, and he's been red-hot on his PGA picks dating back to the PGA Tour restart in June of 2020. McClure uses his proprietary simulation model to analyze the field and crush his  golf picks . He is up almost $9,500 on his best bets since the restart.  

McClure's model predicted Jon Rahm would finish on top of the leaderboard at the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions and The American Express. At the 2023 Masters, the model was all over Rahm's second career major victory heading into the weekend. It was the second straight Masters win for the model, which also nailed Scheffler winning in 2022. 

This same model has also nailed a whopping 10 majors entering the weekend. Anyone who has followed McClure's picks has seen massive returns.  

Now, McClure has dialed in on the Masters golf tournament and just locked in his top prop picks and PGA predictions. You can only see McClure's Masters 2024 prop picks at SportsLine .

Top 2024 Masters prop picks

We can tell you that one of McClure's favorite Masters prop picks is Ludvig Aberg to be the top debutant at +275. Despite turning pro less than a year ago, Aberg comes to Augusta in strong form. He's already picked up wins on both the PGA Tour and European Tour in the past seven months.

He's also made every cut during his 2024 PGA Tour schedule and hasn't finished worse than 25th in his past six events. His average finish position during that span is 12.8 and he's posted four rounds of 66 or lower this year, including an astonishing 63 in Round 4 of the Sentry. Wyndham Clark is the only other first-time Masters player who can claim a comparable recent run to Aberg, so McClure loves the value of betting on Aberg at a return that approaches 3-1.  You can see who else to back at SportsLine .

How to make Masters 2024 prop picks

McClure has also locked in a slew of other prop bets for the 2024 Masters, including a prop that pays almost 20-1 and comes from an unlikely player. You can find out who it is, and check out all of McClure's Masters prop picks at SportsLine .

Who wins the Masters 2024, and which golfer should you target for almost a 20-1 payout? Visit SportsLine now to get Mike McClure's Masters 2024 prop picks, all from the golf expert who is up almost $9,500 on his best bets since 2020 , and find out.

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Jack nicklaus, gary player, tom watson want 'best outcome' of pga tour-liv dispute, share this article.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson want to see the PGA Tour-LIV Golf dispute get settled.

Speaking during a joint press conference after the three legends hit the ceremonial tee shots to the 88 th edition of the Masters , Watson shared a special moment during the Champions Dinner , which brought together 33 of the past winners – seven of them members of LIV – in their Green Jackets and Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Fred Ridley, on Tuesday evening.

“We were sitting down and we were having great stories about Seve Ballesteros and people were laughing and talking. I said to Mr. Ridley, I said, ‘Do you mind if I say something about being here together with everybody?’ He said, ‘Please do.’

“And I got up and I said – I’m looking around the room, and I’m seeing just a wonderful experience everybody is having. They are jovial. They are having a great time. They are laughing. I said, ‘Ain’t it good to be together again?’ ” Watson recalled.

He added that he hoped the players would take it upon themselves to reach a resolution, sooner rather than later.

“We have to do something,” Watson said. “We all know it’s a difficult situation for professional golf right now. The players really kind of have control I think in a sense. What do they want to do? We’ll see where it goes. We don’t have the information or the answers. I don’t think the PGA Tour or the LIV Tour really have an answer right now. But I think in this room, I know the three of us want to get together. We want to get together like we were at that Champions Dinner, happy, the best players playing against each other. The bottom line: that’s what we want in professional golf, and right now, we don’t have it.”

Nicklaus echoed that sentiment and placed his trust in PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan to lead the way.

“The best outcome is the best players play against each other all the time. That’s what I feel about it. And how it’s going, I don’t know, I don’t want to be privy to it,” Nicklaus said. “I talked to Jay not very long ago, and I said, ‘Jay, don’t tell me what’s going on because I don’t want to have to lie to the press and people that ask me questions.’ I said, ‘How are you doing?’ He said, ‘We’re doing fine.’ I said, “OK, that’s all I want to know.’ If Jay thinks we’re doing fine, we’ll get there, I think we’ll get there. And I certainly hope that happens, the sooner the better.”

Player touched on how that division in golf and attention on the greed in the game has turned off the public. But he also noted that the players who had stayed loyal to the PGA Tour needed to be compensated in some way (which they will be through the infusion of capital into the Tour’s new for-profit arm from private equity investment.)

“Anytime in any business whatsoever, not only in the golf business, there’s confrontation, it’s unhealthy. You’ve got to get together and come to a solution. If you cannot, it’s not good. The public don’t like it, and we as professionals don’t like it, either,” Player said. “But it’s a big problem because they paid all these guys to join the LIV Tour fortunes, I mean, beyond one’s comprehension and the players that were loyal, three of us and others. Now these guys come back and play, I really believe the players, that if they are loyal, should be compensated in some way or another. Otherwise, there’s going to be dissension.”

Wise words from three of the all-time greats, who still care deeply about the state of professional golf.

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Nearing 50, Brian Gay prepares to defend in Bermuda

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HAMILTON, Bermuda – Afternoon sun was starting to pop out from beneath a thick blanket of clouds Wednesday afternoon, a welcomed sight after overnight rain and heavy morning wind had brought the Butterfield Bermuda Open to a halt.

With the pro-am canceled and Port Royal Golf Course closed, it had been standing room only most of the morning at The Duchess café, inside the Fairmont Hamilton Princess lobby. But now, “Bermy,” as the natives love to call their home, was starting to get its shine back, comfortable warmth enveloped the island, and the buses and ferries were running to Port Royal.

The course was still closed for maintenance, but the range and putting green were opened and so the lobby was bustling with players, caddies, and golf bags, everyone seemingly in pursuit of transportation.

Yet a glance over the left shoulder offered a glimpse of the most veteran of all the competitors in this week’s field. Brian Gay had a range session on his mind and a golf bag over his left shoulder, but why?

The man who this week will be teeing it up in his 629th PGA TOUR tournament and whose 50th birthday will be in about six weeks smiled. “Because I haven’t hit a ball since Saturday,” he said.

“That’s the longest time I’ve gone without hitting a ball before a tournament. It’s not normal for me.”

Understood, and with that, Gay hustled to get a bus.

But the thought occurs that here in Bermuda, Gay has mastered the art of “not normal” and harken back to a year ago for definitive proof. It’s rare for 48-year-olds to win on the PGA TOUR, especially those who are relatively short of today’s supreme power, and most definitely those who have missed the cut in nine of their previous 11 starts over a period of five months.

Ah, but when Gay stuffed an approach to the 72nd hole and tapped in for birdie to force a playoff, then made a 10-foot birdie putt on that same hole a few minutes later to beat Wyndham Clark, arguably one of the PGA TOUR’s most unheralded success stories had registered his fifth career win, albeit for a variety of reasons that were “not normal.”

“This is absolutely insane,” Gay told The Golf Channel that Sunday after his 7-under 64 in the final round included birdies on six of his last 10 holes. “I’ve been playing awful, and it’s been a struggle.”

Indeed, Gay had missed the cut in his first two starts to the 2020-21 season. He had missed the cut in seven of nine starts to end the 2019-20 campaign. No one could have blamed him if he surrendered to the background and waited for that first tee time on the PGA TOUR Champions, except that like just about anyone who has fallen in love with Bermuda, Gay feels rejuvenated down here.

“I don’t mind the wind and Bermuda grass is something I grew up on,” said Gay. “And (Port Royal), it’s not a bomber’s course; you don’t necessarily have to hit it far and there are plenty of birdie opportunities.”

He had finished third in the debut of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in 2019, so the comfort factor was there. As for his assessment of what’s ahead when he plays Port Royal, give Gay high marks. It rewards his precision, doesn’t penalize his “shortness,” and ample scoring opportunities are there. Consider: Gay has made two eagles and 44 birdies in two starts here, good for 33 under and a 66.9 scoring average.

Head coach Buddy Alexander called Gay a “quiet leader” back in 1993 when the University of Florida won the NCAA Championship, and that label can be applied all these many years later.

Twenty-two uninterrupted years on TOUR speaks volumes for his consistency. Only once has he played fewer than 20 tournaments in a year, 11 times he has played in more than 30, and while a long line of bigger, stronger, and more talented players have exploded on the scene, Gay has carved out a splendid career.

Quietly, of course.

Jim McCabe has covered golf since 1995, writing for The Boston Globe, Golfweek Magazine, and PGATOUR.COM. Follow Jim McCabe on Twitter .

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The Masters 2024: Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson call for PGA Tour and LIV Golf unity

13 players from LIV Golf competing at The Masters; Major is first event players from Saudi-backed circuit have competed against PGA Tour stars since The Open; Watch all four rounds live from Augusta National on Sky Sports Golf

By Ali Stafford at Augusta National

Thursday 11 April 2024 17:58, UK

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Golfing greats Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson have all called for unity between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to get the world’s best back playing together frequently in a ‘fractured’ sport.

The all-star trio fulfilled their roles as Honorary Starters at The Masters, following a two-and-a-half-hour weather delay at Augusta National, before discussing the state of the men's game during a lengthy press conference.

The Masters is the first event that PGA Tour and LIV Golf members have competed in the same field since The Open in July, as talks continue to untie the men's game following the Framework Agreement initially announced last summer.

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Watson told reporters about speaking to past winners at Tuesday's Champions Dinner about how great it was to have players from both circuits competing against each other, something he wants to see more frequently in the future.

"We all know golf is fractured with the LIV Tour and the PGA Tour doing the different things they are doing," Watson said in Thursday's press conference. "We all know it's a difficult situation for professional golf right now.

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"The players really kind of have control I think in a sense. What do they want to do? We'll see where it goes. We don't have the information or the answers. I don't think the PGA Tour or the LIV Tour really have an answer right now.

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"I think in this room, I know the three of us want to get together. We want to get together like we were at that Champions Dinner, happy and the best players playing against each other. The bottom line is that's what we want in professional golf, and right now, we don't have it."

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Will players be welcomed back?

Defending champion Jon Rahm is among a 13-strong LIV contingent in the field at Augusta National, five fewer than in 2023, with the lack of world rankings points on offer making it harder for players from the Saudi-backed circuit to earn their spot in the majors.

Rahm said earlier this week about how he still loves the PGA Tour and was open to competing on the circuit again, although Player believes it's going to be challenging to get players back together.

"In any business whatsoever, where there's confrontation, it's unhealthy," Player said. "You've got to get together and come to a solution. The public don't like it and we as professionals don't like it either.

"It's a big problem because they paid all these guys to join the LIV tour, fortunes beyond comprehension. I really believe that the players who were loyal should be compensated in some way or another, otherwise there will be dissension."

The PGA Tour player director met with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund - who bankroll LIV Golf - last month in the Bahamas as part of the ongoing talks between the organisations, although no timeline has been publicly put in place as to when - or if - the deal will be finalised.

"The best outcome is the best players playing each other against each other all the time," Nicklaus said. "How it's going? I don't know. I don't want to be privy to it.

"I talked to Jay [Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner] not very long ago. I said 'Jay, don't tell me what's going on because I don't want to have to lie to the press when people ask me questions'. I 'said how are you doing' and he said 'we're doing fine'.

"I think if Jay thinks we're doing fine and we're going to get there, then I think we'll get there. I certainly hope that happens the sooner the better."

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