[Bill Shamleffer]

I watched Uneven Lies tonight on The Golf Channel.  This is the best thing The Golf Channel has ever put on the air.  Please try to catch this very important documentation of the words and lives of these forgotten men.

[Adam Clayman]

Bill, I just checked the schedule and there's a show titled "Uneven Fairways". Is that the same show?

[George Freeman]

Adam,

Thats the one

[Mike_Cirba]

Bill,

Finally, The Golf Channel is starting to reach its potential as a medium of the history of the game.

It was a wonderful show of human achievement.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

I thought the show was terrific...except for one small thing: Why did TW show up wearing his Nike stuff? This was not a golf tournament. Did he wear that stuff when he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial? I know he gets paid a lot by Nike but somehow I felt this wasn't the time or place to advertise his sponsor.

[Jim Nugent]

Can anyone tell me/us more about the show? 

[Kevin_Reilly]

Can anyone tell me/us more about the show? 

You missed the 5,000 promos for it?   

It is on the Golf Channel, so it will be re-broadcast several times over the next few days.

[Bill Shamleffer]

Bill, I just checked the schedule and there's a show titled "Uneven Fairways". Is that the same show?

Thank you for correcting me per the title.  I was getting the name of this documentary mixed up with the name of the book that it is partially based upon (Uneven Lies: The Heroic Story of African-Americans in Golf, by Pete McDaniel).

[Anthony Gray]

  Is it true that Joe Louis the boxer was the first black golfer in a PGA event? Did they mention that?

  Anthony

[Bill Shamleffer]

Can anyone tell me/us more about the show? 

Uneven Fairways is a 1 hour documentary about the history of African Americans in golf.  It primarily deals with the barriers black professionals faced in the US.  The documentary is narrated by Samuel Jackson and does include some archival footage.  However, most of it is taped interviews with a variety of African American golfers.  No questions are shown, and no interviewer is shown, most of the shots are with one person sitting down with a simple white background, and telling some of their stories of what they faced to be professional golfers in the 1930s through 1960s.

I found this style - to just have the men tell their story and with little else distracting the viewer while each man talked - to be very powerful.

The wonderful thing I find about this show, is that this 1 hour very effectively documents these men's stories, and although there is a sense that there is still some justifiable anger in these men, they are also shown with a wonderful dignity.  In addition, this 1 hour should be an excellent introduction to this part of the history of golf for many future generations.

This is not a feel good show, but it also not depressing, and this is primarily because of the pride each of these men present.  It is similar to how I felt visiting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.  It is sad and shameful to review this history, but these men did not allow the disgraceful way they were treated keep them from doing what they loved to do and doing it with dignity.

In addition to this documentary, I highly recommend the following books on this subject:

Uneven Lies: The Heroic Story of African-Americans in Golf, by Pete McDaniel

Forbidden Fairways: African American and the Gameof Golf, by Calvin Sinnette

&

Men on the Bag: The Caddies of August National, by Ward Clayton



Here are some links to articles about this show/project:

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/tour-insider/a-simple-act-of-kindness-28452/

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/uneven-fairways/

http://www.golfweek.com/story/uneven-fairways-feature-020909

http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1878792,00.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=3899815

[Bill Shamleffer]

  Is it true that Joe Louis the boxer was the first black golfer in a PGA event? Did they mention that?

  Anthony

It was stated that Joe Louis was the first black golfer in a PGA event.  It was also mentioned that he was allowed to play as an amateur & as a sponser's exemption, and that some African American pros who Monday qualified were not allowed to play in that same event due to not being white.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,38536.0.html

[hick]

 will re air on the 15th at seven  and the 16th at nine eastern time. I watched every promo but still managed to not tape it or remember it was on.

[Richard Boult]

yes, this was very well done! These golfers had such a great attitude and demonstrated such perseverence for having to deal with the "way things were" back then. My non-golfing wife, who often is in the vicinity of the TV when I'm watching something golf related even mentioned that this was the best thing she's seen me watch on the golf channel.

[hick]

it just came on the golf channel at 1:30 et

[tlavin]

I watched part of it last night, but couldn't stay away from the Duke NC game.  It is a very informative and watchable documentary about a particularly shameful part of golf history.  Racial discrimination in all forms is abhorrent, of course, but it did amaze me that the PGA, as recently as 1960 or 1961 had a caucasian only clause.  The message that the filmmaker conveys very well is that it is non-sensical to prohibit somebody from competition because of their race.  Great interviews with some old-timers who lived through this period were my favorite part so far.  I'll catch the whole show in the next couple days.

[Joel_Stewart]

I also thought it was terrific, Emmy award winning TV. 

I've never heard of James Black who (I think it was him) said in the 1960's he was the best player in the world.  Thats a big statement considering Palmer was in his prime and many others.

Tiger didn't add much except to say that if these guys had not layed the ground then his father (Earl Woods) may not have taken up the game.

[Carl Johnson]

As a Duke grad, I found it very easy to watch Uneven Fairways rather than the game against Carolina.  A couple of observations about this excellent program.  First, most of the time was taken up by comments from African-American golfing pioneers.  Sort of a memoir approach.  Outstanding.  On the other hand, I was struck by the relative absence of archival still photos, etc., and film.  I would have liked more of that (and in a two hour show rather than a the one hour alloted).  The shame is that there may not be much of that much available.  Second, in the half-hour discussion following the program, with Vince Cellini, Jim Thorpe, Pete McDaniel and a couple others, I thought the discussion focused too much on the absence of African-Americans among the touring pros and not enough on simply getting African-Americans into the game, period.  Did I misread the discussion?

[Tomas Hannell]

The program made the Bermuda's Royal Gazette take noie:

http://www.royalgazette.com/siftology.royalgazette/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7d9272b30030028&sectionId=75

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