Timothy A. Clary / AFP - Getty Images file

Tiger Woods celebrates on the 18th green after winning the 1997 Masters with a record 18-under par.

During the trophy presentation following his first Masters victory, Woods paid tribute to black pioneers such as Elder, Sifford and Teddy Rhodes.

“Those guys paved the way for me to be here,” he said. “I thank them. If it wasn’t for them, I might not have had the chance to play here.”

Back in 1975, Elder was a racial pioneer but he was hardly alone. He was joined on the PGA Tour by seven other African-Americans: Rafe Botts, Pete Brown, Jim Dent, George Johnson, Sifford and his nephew Curtis, and Nate Starks.

Bobby Powell, one of the few black PGA professionals, attended a tournament at Westchester during that era.

“I saw Lee Elder, Pete Brown, a lot of names to look for,” Powell said. “Back in the day, we hoped we could see their names above the cut line. Now, we don’t have but one out there.”

Most black pros started out as caddies, which gave them a chance to get in regular playing time at high-quality courses in between stints on the bag. But the invention of the golf cart largely wiped out that entry point.

“When the golf cart came along, it took a lot of us out of the game of golf,” said Lewis, the First Tee instructor in Atlanta and golf coach at historically black Morehouse College. “That was the way I learned. I used to caddie at the local country club because that was the only way to make some money.”

Also gone are the days when a PGA Tour player was self-taught. Charlie Owens, a two-time winner, played his entire career cross-handed. Charlie Sifford and Calvin Peete, among others, didn’t have high-profile coaches or attend high-priced academies. They got better by playing.

“It’s much more than it was when Chi Chi Rodriguez or Lee Trevino caddied,” Finchem said. “It’s getting kids better, quicker with swing coaches and psychologists. The resources are amazing. It’s a daunting challenge ... to change the look of the tour. It continues to be tougher.”

Starn wants to see Woods take advantage of his popularity and influence by taking a strong stand on social issues.

But he also puts onus on others to help bring more diversity to the PGA Tour.

“Tiger is hugely important as a role model. He’s spoken of his own pride and affection for black golf pioneers,” Starn said. “What really gets me is why are we talking about the one golfer of color on the PGA Tour? Why is this viewed as his problem? Why doesn’t a Phil Mickelson or a Davis Love or a Fred Couples speak up about these issues?

“It’s a real mistake to say Tiger is somehow responsible for fixing these questions,” he said, “when the problem really belongs to the whole PGA Tour.”

Golf’s governing bodies point with pride to the impact of The First Tee, which has reached 2.9 million youngsters through 206 chapters in 49 states and four other countries. Even so, the most recent figures from 2008 show that the majority of kids were Caucasian (54.2 percent). African-Americans were next at 20 percent.

“I absolutely despise our First Tee program,” said Art Gelow, the golf coach at historically black Savannah State University in Georgia. “You go over there on a Saturday morning and it’s nothing but kids from affluent neighborhoods. It’s a baby-sitting service more than anything else.”

Payton, the Jackson State coach, called for a total overhaul in the way promising young black players are groomed for the Tour. He said the top prospects need to be singled out and given the chance to attend golf academies set up exclusively for African Americans.

“We’ve failed miserably at the developmental level,” he said. “I don’t want to point fingers, but the facts speak for themselves. In 12 years, we’ve gone backward. The methodology is not working.”

He points to the dearth of black golfers available to black colleges and universities. The men’s team at Savannah State is made up entirely of white golfers. Payton’s male team includes two whites — one from Minnesota, the other from Australia — while the women’s squad has a Canadian alongside four African-Americans.

“We make a concerted effort to try to identify the best African-American players each year,” Payton said. “Unfortunately, there’s only about two or three that can really play at this level, and they get siphoned off pretty quickly.”

Renee Powell, one of only three blacks ever to play on the LPGA Tour, related a similar story. Her name adorns a trophy that goes to the winner of an annual minority women’s tournament. One year, she went to Atlanta to present it.

“Bethune-Cookman won,” she recalled, “and all the girls were from Sweden.”

Barrow asks for patience. The First Tee is starting a program to identify the best prospects to give them more specialized instruction. And he says more blacks are starting to play on high school and college teams.

“What should occur is occurring,” Barrow said. “There are more people in the pipeline. Over time, they will excel.”

Many African-Americans believe it’s time to stop counting on white-run organizations for assistance. That’s where someone such as Sheila Johnson comes in. America’s first female black billionaire recently bought Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club near Tampa, Fla. — host of a PGA Tour event — and hired a black director of golf, Rodney Green.

“He will be helping young African-Americans climb the ladder,” Johnson said. “I want to identify young African-Americans and bring them to Innisbrook. I want this to become their home, where they can grow and learn and learn how to compete.”

The black church, a rallying point during the civil rights movement, is also pitching in. Congregations have started golf teams and junior programs. One megachurch, the 6,000-member Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, even bought its own golf course in 2007 — a historic, Donald Ross-designed layout.

“For years, it was not uncommon for churches to have softball teams and bowling teams,” said Bishop Charles Ellis, pastor at Greater Grace and an avid golfer himself. “Now you see them joining golf leagues and having golf outings. You can get people out in a fun atmosphere to take a swipe at this thing called golf.”

This year, the Northern Trust Open handed out a “Charlie Sifford Exemption,” giving a spot at Riviera to a player who represents the advancement of diversity in golf. It went to Vincent Johnson, a two-time college winner who graduated from Oregon State in three years.

“I want to thank Northern Trust for giving this man a chance,” Sifford said. “I hope someday we have some more. It’s been a long time. But it’s never too late. We just have to keep truckin’.”