Pete,
I wondered that, too. I think what's news is that the club is admitting to something it denied before, plus Donegan provides new examples and sheds more light on the extent and nature of the discrimination.
I did a search and came up with two references. When you pair those references with the Donegan article ... well, it made me wonder what an expert in civil rights law would conclude.
One reference was a 1996 Newsweek cover article. It quoted a family friend who said Tiger was the only person for whom the club enforced a rule that children could only play with an adult. This friend also said, "The guys in the pro shop were always being asked if he paid for everything."
Paul Moreno, at the time a NGC employee for 30 years and manager, was asked to comment. He said, "I can't give out that information. I can't answer any personal questions."
Another friend was quoted in that article as saying he would try to bring up the treatment to Tiger but Tiger always changed the subject.
Then there was an LA Times column in the year 2000 by Jerry Hicks recommending Orange County name something after Tiger. Hicks mentioned the Navy Club -- and this part deserves to be quoted:
"Woods played most of his adolescent golf at the old Navy Club in Cypress, which purposely keeps no Woods commemorations on display. That's because five years ago Woods told Newsweek magazine he considered it a racist golf course. 'Until Tiger apologizes, no one here wants anything to do with him,' said old Navy pro Dan Rasmussen, who has played dozens of rounds with Woods."
FYI nowhere in that article does Tiger say anything about the club, although a few grafs later he was quoted as saying, "Prejudice will always reign. I won't end it."
And there WAS a quote from Earl that "it's their loss. Tiger won't go near the place anymore." The piece said when Earl first started playing there, some white golfers called him "Sergeant Brown" -- "brown for his skin and sergeant for the highest rank they figured an African-American could attain."
Mark