License to Thrive

Renee Powell, Golf and Social Pioneer

On June 25, 2008, Renee Powell will become the first female golfer and ninth overall golf professional in history to receive an honorary doctor of laws (LLD) degree from St. Andrews University in Scotland.   The other professional male golfers who have been previous recipients of this honor  are Charlie Sifford, Peter Alliss, Nick Faldo, Peter Thomson, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Colin Montgomerie and Seve Ballesteros.

Powell has been a pioneer on and off of the golf course.  She is one of only three African-American women to have competed on the LPGA Tour.  Powell began playing golf at the age of three with her father and began playing competitive golf at age 12 where she became a champion at the national junior level.  She turned professional in 1967 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, playing in the LPGA with another pioneer, Althea Gibson.  She notes that, for safety reason, white players sometimes  had to transport her in their cars from tournament to tournament.  Because some hotels did not allow Blacks to stay there, they also let her stay in their rooms so she’d have a place to sleep during tournaments.  During the 13 years on tour, Powell competed in more that 250 tournaments and was a golf “ambassador” including a USO Tour to meet the troops in Vietnam.  Her post-career journeys have also taken her to England and South Africa to promote the game of golf. 

Currently, Powell runs the Clearview Golf Club in in East Canton, Ohio, a position she has held since 1988.  The course was built in 1946 by her father, William Powell.  William Powell was  U.S. Army veteran who, upon returning from World War II, created the golf course a combat the racial discrimination he and others still faced upon their return to the United States.  As a result of his work, William Powell is  the only African-American to own, build and operate a golf course in the United States. In 2001, Clearview Golf Club earned a berth in the National Register of Historic Places.

Renee Powell has received numerous awards and honors including being selected the inaugural recipient of the LPGA’s “For the Love of the Game” award .  In 1989, she was inducted into the Ohio Woman's Hall of Fame and in 1992, her fanily received the National Golf Foundation's Jack Nicklaus Golf Family of the Year Award.  She also received the Dr. Martin Luther King Drum Major for Justice Award in the world of sports. 

She is involved in the First Tee Program which seeks to expose minorities to the game of golf and encourage their participation at a young age.  As evidence of her commitment in this area, she will be bringing four (4) minority golfers from Clearview to Scotland to play on the Old Course at St. Andrews.