Atlanta-Olajuwon Ajanaku thought that golf was a majority-black sport.
He grew up on the east side of Atlanta, a majority African -American community in a predominantly black city, and learned to play golf at 6. He was surrounded by black children, black parents and black coaches in the public courses in his neighborhood. It was not until the first Ajanaku tournament in primary school that realized that his own experience was unique.
“I thought golf seemed from where it was,” Ajanaku said. “But then you go out and go to these tournaments, you see that it is a completely different world.”
Due to the high start of the game costs, limited access to golf facilities and the lack of exposure, black participation in the game has traditionally been delayed. A report from the National Golf Foundation 2019 found that only 3% of recreational golfers were black. And at the highest level of golf, only four black golfers have a PGA Tour state of more than 200 players, and a LPGA Tour player is black.
That is why, in 2019, Ajanaku and his best friend and former golf teammate by Morehouse College, Earl Cooper, founded Eastside Golf, a lifestyle golf clothing brand with a wink without complexes to black culture. The brand logo, called “Swingman”, presents a black man with blue jeans, white shoes, a baseball cap and a golden Cuban link chain necklace while swinging a golf club.
“I was literally trying to become a logo and express how I felt in the golf course,” said Ajanaku, who played professional golf for a brief period after university, but I could not ensure enough sponsorship at that time to make a race with that. “I want to feel like me, but I want to continue playing the game I love.”
With poles with the name of the brand in the writing of large scripts, bucket hats in several pastel colors and golf shoes with the Swingman logo replacing the famous imprint of Jordan Jumpman (thanks to a coveted collaboration of Jordan Golf), Cooper and Ajanaku say that the brand is to change the persecution of the golfers while it comes from the fashion of golf and fame.
“Often in golf, we adore exclusivity,” Cooper said, referring to how the game is generally relegated to private field clubs with membership rates that, by default, exclude many people.
“Our brand is for the masses.”
In 2024, Cooper, Eastside Golf said, exceeded $ 10 million in revenues, compared to $ 1 million in 2020. But it is not about bringing money. Eastside Golf, said Cooper, has donated thousands to his alma mater, Morehouse College, where they graduated 15 years ago. They also sponsor the university golfers, have signed Joseph Bramlett, one of the four black golfers of PGA Tour-status, and used a diverse staff of almost two dozen people. They can count a variety of celebrity ambassadors, including Musical producer DJ Khaled and actor Anthony Anderson, and brand associations with Dre Beats and Atlanta braves, among others, in addition to a sprites commercial and brick stores in Detroit and Tokyo.
But much of Eastside Golf’s work is also about reaching everyday golfers.
“One of the reasons why I play golf is a small soft act of rebellion, which shows that we are here, we can play it athically and mentally,” said Brittany Christian, a black woman from Georgia who accredits the Eastside Golf with the construction of links between black golfers. “It means a lot.”
During the last two years, Eastside Golf has organized “days of the community” in main cities such as Dallas and Chicago, where he buys a complete golf course for the day and offers free Tee schedules, food and music, and of course, golf lessons. The events are open to all, but the overwhelming majority of attendees are African -American.
“We are here to show that golf is accessibility, not only for the golf course itself, but for people,” Ajanaku said. “And that is the force of what golf is.”
On the most recent community day in early August, a team of five preteens (and their parents) joined more than 300 players in the Golf Charlie Yates field in Atlanta. Three of the five fired a hand when asked who was the best golfer.
Jacob Smith, thirteen, who has been playing golf since the age of 2, said that Golf teaches him lessons that he can apply every day.
“You can always recover,” he said. “If you hit a bad shot, the next shot could always be great.”
Mason Madison, 11, who started playing golf three years ago, said golf is “honestly more than fun. There is also the part where you should work to improve, so that it can be more fun.”
The energy around these events, for Ajanaku, recalls the environment in which he first learned the game from which he is still in love today. It is inclusive, diverse and openly, but historically, that is far from the norm.
“The way in which golf is established, and you look like then and how it is now, follow the pattern of racism in the United States,” said Ramona Harriet, a black golf historian and author of “a missing link in history: the trip of African Americans in golf.”
The black golfers in the United States were historically excluded from the game in many spaces. After the golf arrived in the United States from Scotland in the 18th century, it became a sport for field clubs, where blacks were prohibited from membership. In the United States, the black golfers were relegated to Caddie roles during the 1980s, many using their experience to help white players become champions. The PGA Tour maintained its “Caucasic” only “membership clause until 1961, while some private clubs remained only white as recently as the 1990s.
Even Greens rates and strict clothing codes have excluded some who want to play but cannot pay all accessories.
Despite the challenges, the black golfers have highlighted. John Shippen became the first African -American golfer to play at the United States Open in 1896. More than 60 years later, Charlie Sifford became the first black member of what finally became the Tour PGA in 1961. Two years later, Althea Gibson, better known for her skill in the tennis court, became the first black woman. The USA. Open for golf. And Tiger Woods, possibly the best golfer of all time, has opened the game for black golfers in the last 30 years. Today, he is tied for the first time in PGA Tour Wins, second in the main male championships and has a litany of other records.
Woods inspired generations, including Ajanaku and Cooper, to dream of what is possible. Now, the duo expects Eastside Golf to do the same for others, and they themselves. Ajanaku is currently working to return to the professional level, this time in the long term.
“I started this brand because I was tired of telling me ‘no’,” said Ajanaku. “I obtained more than 300 ‘Noes’ with launching Olajuwon as a professional golfer and then also launch Golf Eastside. So why not take the business route and sponsor me?
Correction (September 1, 2025, 2:06 pm et): An earlier version of this article erroneously established the number of black golfers who play on the LPGA tour. Mariah Stackhouse is currently on the tour.
