In Miami, Urban Golf Weekend hopes to grow number of Black golfers
From the time he was five years old, Clifton Addison was swinging a golf club alongside his dad when he’d accompany his father on networking outings.
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Now 40, Clifton, the founder of Urban Golf Weekend in South Florida, hopes his five-day charity golf tournament on Miami Beach will pull more Black youth toward the sport, showcasing Black golf vendors and featuring a two-day business and lifestyle expo that includes panel discussions.
“I’ve been playing golf for decades now, and even as an adolescent, I saw how beneficial golf is, and all the relationships that it brings from networking,” he said. “I met endless athletes on the golf course, politicians, celebrities, lifelong friends, and I always knew that I wanted to do something that brought more people of color to the game of golf.”
Addison has spearheaded Urban Golf Weekend for three years, but this year feels slightly different in part because he’s played a role in bringing back the Booker T. Washington Senior High School’s golf club after a 10-year hiatus.
It’s a move he and the school’s principal, Anthony Simons III, say will play a pivotal role in helping students cultivate relationships on and off the golf course.
The team has 15 students and two instructors and meets weekly, Simons said. Because golf courses are becoming fewer and farther between in South Florida, Simons said the team will practice on a simulator in a room on the school’s campus. The team also received a set of golf clubs donated by Addison and the Urban Golf Weekend board.
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Like Addison, Simons also said he also grew up playing golf with his dad and fell in love with the sport. “I met a lot of different people, and saw a different side of life, and you meet people with different stories when you play golf because you always get paired with people,” he said.
Right now, Simons said the team is focused on learning the sport, given many students are first-timers. “It’s about just having fun learning the sport, and that’s our goal right now,” Simons said. “It’s not about competing. It’s not about winning right now. It’s about learning a sport that you can play for the next 60, 70 years of your life, and just what takeaways are you taking away from it.”
For Addison, Booker T. Washington resurrecting its golf club and the success of Urban Golf Weekend is a sign the sport is diversifying slowly but surely. According to a 2019 report by the National Golf Foundation, Black golfers made up 3% of professional golfers in the United States. Their 2025 report showed of the 28.1 million Americans who played on a course in 2024, 25% of them were Black and people of color.
Addison hopes people attending Urban Golf Weekend can find community among other Black golfers and proshops.
“I think that everyone is becoming privy to the fact of how resourceful golf is, and I think organizations like myself are important because we encourage people, not only golfers but non-golfers, to pick up a game,” he said.
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IF YOU GO:
What: Urban Golf Weekend
When: Friday, Sept. 3 – Monday, Sept. 7
Where: Various locations in Miami and Miami Beach
Cost: Non-golfers, $750; golfers, $1,000; Fore the Love Kickoff party, $50
Info: https://www.urbangolfweekend.com/
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