Charles Aikens
Oakland Post
03-02-1994
Sports: Chew Becomes Pro Golfer - Learns Effects Of Fame.
Historically, black athletes have had remarkable psychological impact on society, as indicated in the movie 'The Great White Hope', which is a chronicle of the life of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight Champion.
Like Jack Johnson, former child-golf prodigy Freddie Chew, who recently turned professional at ate 21, has already learned of the adversities that athletes face when dealing with the complex and contradictory effects of fame on African Americans who find it difficult to live up to the very different roles expected of them by black and white America.
Years ago, it was Joe Louis who was being hailed as the world's greatest amateur boxer in the light-heavyweight class. In Joe's first fight promoted that year, he knocked out his opponent Jack Kracken in the first round.
Joe received $50, which would not be a day's meal money for rich baseball, football or golf players of today. Freddie Chew made about $500 in his first professional match started after graduating from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, one of the top ranked golf schools in the nation.
Freddie started playing golf early at age 2, when he was given a set of miniature golf clubs and some plastic balls. As a small, delicate child, Freddie whacked each ball until it was lost, and then when balls were gone, he would hit marbles. By age 5, Chew was using a set of mix and matched clubs bought at the local Goodwill for $3 and cut down at a hardware store. Freddie finished last in his first tournament, but his mother Betty Chew bought him a trophy anyway, to ease his hurt and to relieve some of his frustration.
By age 8, Chew had, like so many other black children, already been introduced to the concept of race, which he says today, is biologically unsound, socially invalid and not something that 'I as a new professional golfer should have to endure, simply because I'll have enough on my mind just trying to win against the best competition in the world.'
Yet, Chew knows the R-word-racial issue will not disappear as he makes footprints in the sand of his professional gold career. He faced his first abject racism at age 8, when he attended a tournament at a Northern California Country Club as an accomplished golfer. He was delivered a piece of watermelon while standing in the Country Club's Pro Shop. Even then, said Chew, 'I knew it was a chilling message, that I was not welcome.'
By age 16, Chew had faced many other racial incidents, but this did not cause him to give up and join youth gangs, the drug world or the other pathologies of the urban community. He continued to practice his first love, golf, and was eventually able to go to the other side of the economic fence where manners are highlighted as in any Amy Vanderbilt book of etiquette.
'My idol was Jack Nicklaus,' said Chew, 'but I don't have any idols anymore. I liked Nicklaus, because he was golf's biggest money winner.'
Chew passed up a lot of scholarships to prestigious schools to become a golfer at the University of Arizona, which was ranked #1 in the nation in team golf. Still, he had not gotten away from racial incidents, a black cat was set near him, just as many were set with Jackie Robinson when he integrated baseball with the former Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Chew was denied access to clubhouses and found his photograph mysteriously missing from the wall of champions of a prestigious juniors tournament. At these junior tournaments, it was not unusual for him to be the only black on the playing field or, for that matter, on the entire premises.
By age 17, Chew had gotten over the shock that comes from being labeled an inner city street kid, of which was the wrong label anyway, he had never sought the streets, his forte was golf, and he went from the American Junior Golf Association All American team to a brilliant high school senior year at Robert Lewis Stevenson in Pebble Beach, by winning the North/South Junior Championship and his first national title.
Freddie's mother, Betty, now has a living room filled with trophies and plaques from various local tournaments that he has played in during the last dozen years.
All Freddie has ever wanted to do, is play on the PGA Golf Tour, and he has prepared himself well by playing for both Arizona and the 6th rated UNLV team after being recruited away from Arizona. He went to the Nevada school with 60 junior tournament victories, leaving the #1 ranked Arizona team for the 6th ranked UNLV, in order to 'further my game.'
Enroute to these colleges, Freddie turned down scholarship offers from Stanford, USC, UCLA and Illinois. He played for coach LaRose at Arizona, one of the most competitive coaches in golf.
After spending two years at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and graduating with the bachelors in advertising and communications, Chew turned professional, and will now pick up his tournaments on the Nike Tour, and he says, 'I may even play in the Canadian Tour. I'm young, and I want to learn to play as a professional before getting on the PGA (Professional Golfers Association) tour.'
The hardest task of being a golfer, is to find sponsors, and golfers have to pay for air fares, hotels and green expenses, and this is hard to do if a player is not winning. Chew is seeking sponsorships from Nike, Ding and Titelist.
Dr. Miles McAfee, who has been the advisor/agent for Chew during his struggling amateur days said 'Freddie has been accepted at numerous graduate schools after scoring high on his GSAT exams, and I hope he will ge this law degree, because it will take some of the pressure off of him from having to make it as a golfer.'
'I've prepared for professional play all my life,' said Chew, who had not played for six months due to an operation on his wrist that had left him physically unable to play.
The personable and intelligent youngster is expected to be such a force in golf, that he is not talked about as the great black golfers as Calvin Peete, Jim Dent, Lee Elder, Charlie Sifford and Jim Thorpe. 'I'm trying to be a golfer,' said Chew, 'and I don't want to be compared to the top five black professionals, because it's hard enough to make it, and I don't think of golfers who are white or black, because it's a waste of time to consider race. The game is more economical than sociological, and a professional golfer should be trying to be as successful as those who are the greatest. I think sometimes, the media will try to place too much of the burden of being a top black golfer on my shoulder. If more blacks played, the hype would not be a bind on me.
Still, Freddie may be the spark that inspires a dying breed of young black golfers, who reports say, are not on the horizon. 'I don't think a generation of blacks has been lost,' said Lee Elder, 'but it's certainly in a position to be lost if we don't do something to enhance the situation.'
'Sure, I want to be a positive role-model,' said Chew, especially for young children. Nevertheless, I can't have the immediate impact of a Michael Jordan at this stage. I'm not a law-maker or politician and there are many people trained in those areas who can do a much better job than me. Yet, I would not find it hard to donate funds to someone who was working toward the advancement of mankind. I just see golf as something I enjoy, and it has taught me to deal with disappointment and hard work.
'Yet, there are problems when society gets caught up in making role models of me just because I'm a black golfer. It seems that golf and social causes are totally separate.'
Nevertheless, Chew said, 'I want to have leadership qualities and also the freedom to choose my own means of attaining them. I want to make independent decisions concerning my professional golf skills.'
As a young golfer, Chew attended the private Robert Lewis Stevenson School where he met the wealthy and matured from a 5' 8 inch 135 pound youngster to his present 6' slim and trim frame that resembles a basketball player. He got away from a neighborhood rampant with drive-by shootings and tragedy and into an environment where reflection and introspection was prevalent. He defined the object of his life, and became content and happy while traveling throughout the country and playing against good competition.
Freddie knows that no matter how good he gets in golf, the things that perturb man's soul will not be ended, but he thinks that the secret of his being is not only to live, but to have something to live for, and golf is his first love along with his mom, who is a former sharecropper and single parent since he was age 2. He says, 'golf is color-blind, the scoreboard is the great equalizer, and if I can score in the 67's, I will be in the U.S. Open Champion, and maybe then, I will inspire someone else who will say, 'If Chew can do it, so can I.'
Ethnic NewsWatch SoftLine Information, Inc., Stamford, CT
Oakland Post
03-02-1994
Sports: Chew Becomes Pro Golfer - Learns Effects Of Fame.
Historically, black athletes have had remarkable psychological impact on society, as indicated in the movie 'The Great White Hope', which is a chronicle of the life of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight Champion.
Like Jack Johnson, former child-golf prodigy Freddie Chew, who recently turned professional at ate 21, has already learned of the adversities that athletes face when dealing with the complex and contradictory effects of fame on African Americans who find it difficult to live up to the very different roles expected of them by black and white America.
Years ago, it was Joe Louis who was being hailed as the world's greatest amateur boxer in the light-heavyweight class. In Joe's first fight promoted that year, he knocked out his opponent Jack Kracken in the first round.
Joe received $50, which would not be a day's meal money for rich baseball, football or golf players of today. Freddie Chew made about $500 in his first professional match started after graduating from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, one of the top ranked golf schools in the nation.
Freddie started playing golf early at age 2, when he was given a set of miniature golf clubs and some plastic balls. As a small, delicate child, Freddie whacked each ball until it was lost, and then when balls were gone, he would hit marbles. By age 5, Chew was using a set of mix and matched clubs bought at the local Goodwill for $3 and cut down at a hardware store. Freddie finished last in his first tournament, but his mother Betty Chew bought him a trophy anyway, to ease his hurt and to relieve some of his frustration.
By age 8, Chew had, like so many other black children, already been introduced to the concept of race, which he says today, is biologically unsound, socially invalid and not something that 'I as a new professional golfer should have to endure, simply because I'll have enough on my mind just trying to win against the best competition in the world.'
Yet, Chew knows the R-word-racial issue will not disappear as he makes footprints in the sand of his professional gold career. He faced his first abject racism at age 8, when he attended a tournament at a Northern California Country Club as an accomplished golfer. He was delivered a piece of watermelon while standing in the Country Club's Pro Shop. Even then, said Chew, 'I knew it was a chilling message, that I was not welcome.'
By age 16, Chew had faced many other racial incidents, but this did not cause him to give up and join youth gangs, the drug world or the other pathologies of the urban community. He continued to practice his first love, golf, and was eventually able to go to the other side of the economic fence where manners are highlighted as in any Amy Vanderbilt book of etiquette.
'My idol was Jack Nicklaus,' said Chew, 'but I don't have any idols anymore. I liked Nicklaus, because he was golf's biggest money winner.'
Chew passed up a lot of scholarships to prestigious schools to become a golfer at the University of Arizona, which was ranked #1 in the nation in team golf. Still, he had not gotten away from racial incidents, a black cat was set near him, just as many were set with Jackie Robinson when he integrated baseball with the former Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Chew was denied access to clubhouses and found his photograph mysteriously missing from the wall of champions of a prestigious juniors tournament. At these junior tournaments, it was not unusual for him to be the only black on the playing field or, for that matter, on the entire premises.
By age 17, Chew had gotten over the shock that comes from being labeled an inner city street kid, of which was the wrong label anyway, he had never sought the streets, his forte was golf, and he went from the American Junior Golf Association All American team to a brilliant high school senior year at Robert Lewis Stevenson in Pebble Beach, by winning the North/South Junior Championship and his first national title.
Freddie's mother, Betty, now has a living room filled with trophies and plaques from various local tournaments that he has played in during the last dozen years.
All Freddie has ever wanted to do, is play on the PGA Golf Tour, and he has prepared himself well by playing for both Arizona and the 6th rated UNLV team after being recruited away from Arizona. He went to the Nevada school with 60 junior tournament victories, leaving the #1 ranked Arizona team for the 6th ranked UNLV, in order to 'further my game.'
Enroute to these colleges, Freddie turned down scholarship offers from Stanford, USC, UCLA and Illinois. He played for coach LaRose at Arizona, one of the most competitive coaches in golf.
After spending two years at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and graduating with the bachelors in advertising and communications, Chew turned professional, and will now pick up his tournaments on the Nike Tour, and he says, 'I may even play in the Canadian Tour. I'm young, and I want to learn to play as a professional before getting on the PGA (Professional Golfers Association) tour.'
The hardest task of being a golfer, is to find sponsors, and golfers have to pay for air fares, hotels and green expenses, and this is hard to do if a player is not winning. Chew is seeking sponsorships from Nike, Ding and Titelist.
Dr. Miles McAfee, who has been the advisor/agent for Chew during his struggling amateur days said 'Freddie has been accepted at numerous graduate schools after scoring high on his GSAT exams, and I hope he will ge this law degree, because it will take some of the pressure off of him from having to make it as a golfer.'
'I've prepared for professional play all my life,' said Chew, who had not played for six months due to an operation on his wrist that had left him physically unable to play.
The personable and intelligent youngster is expected to be such a force in golf, that he is not talked about as the great black golfers as Calvin Peete, Jim Dent, Lee Elder, Charlie Sifford and Jim Thorpe. 'I'm trying to be a golfer,' said Chew, 'and I don't want to be compared to the top five black professionals, because it's hard enough to make it, and I don't think of golfers who are white or black, because it's a waste of time to consider race. The game is more economical than sociological, and a professional golfer should be trying to be as successful as those who are the greatest. I think sometimes, the media will try to place too much of the burden of being a top black golfer on my shoulder. If more blacks played, the hype would not be a bind on me.
Still, Freddie may be the spark that inspires a dying breed of young black golfers, who reports say, are not on the horizon. 'I don't think a generation of blacks has been lost,' said Lee Elder, 'but it's certainly in a position to be lost if we don't do something to enhance the situation.'
'Sure, I want to be a positive role-model,' said Chew, especially for young children. Nevertheless, I can't have the immediate impact of a Michael Jordan at this stage. I'm not a law-maker or politician and there are many people trained in those areas who can do a much better job than me. Yet, I would not find it hard to donate funds to someone who was working toward the advancement of mankind. I just see golf as something I enjoy, and it has taught me to deal with disappointment and hard work.
'Yet, there are problems when society gets caught up in making role models of me just because I'm a black golfer. It seems that golf and social causes are totally separate.'
Nevertheless, Chew said, 'I want to have leadership qualities and also the freedom to choose my own means of attaining them. I want to make independent decisions concerning my professional golf skills.'
As a young golfer, Chew attended the private Robert Lewis Stevenson School where he met the wealthy and matured from a 5' 8 inch 135 pound youngster to his present 6' slim and trim frame that resembles a basketball player. He got away from a neighborhood rampant with drive-by shootings and tragedy and into an environment where reflection and introspection was prevalent. He defined the object of his life, and became content and happy while traveling throughout the country and playing against good competition.
Freddie knows that no matter how good he gets in golf, the things that perturb man's soul will not be ended, but he thinks that the secret of his being is not only to live, but to have something to live for, and golf is his first love along with his mom, who is a former sharecropper and single parent since he was age 2. He says, 'golf is color-blind, the scoreboard is the great equalizer, and if I can score in the 67's, I will be in the U.S. Open Champion, and maybe then, I will inspire someone else who will say, 'If Chew can do it, so can I.'
Ethnic NewsWatch SoftLine Information, Inc., Stamford, CT
