Below are eight research question options for your Week 6 symposium presentation. Each question is followed by a brief investigation guide — suggested angles of inquiry, key figures or events to research, and a framing question to help you develop an argument rather than just a summary.

Read all eight carefully before choosing. Your choice should be based on genuine interest.

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Research Question Option 1

“The PGA’s Caucasian-only clause was removed in 1961, but exclusion in golf did not end in 1961. How did exclusion continue after the formal barrier was removed, and what does this tell us about how discrimination persists in institutions?”

Investigation angles: Augusta National’s invitation practices after 1961; the experiences of Lee Elder, Jim Thorpe, and other Black players on tour in the 1960s and 1970s; the first Black members admitted to private golf clubs; the USGA’s response to discrimination at clubs hosting national championships.

Key figures to research: Lee Elder, Charlie Sifford, Jim Thorpe, Calvin Peete, Augusta National’s admissions history.

Framing question: If formal rules change but informal practices continue producing the same exclusionary outcomes, has meaningful change occurred? What would meaningful change actually require?

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Research Question Option 2

“Arnold Palmer and Nancy Lopez both transformed professional golf tours through charisma and commercial appeal. What do their careers tell us about the role of personality — as distinct from skill — in the commercial development of professional sport?”

Investigation angles: Palmer’s television persona and endorsement deals compared with other top players of his era; Lopez’s first season and its documented commercial impact on the LPGA; the careers of equally skilled but less commercially significant players (Jack Nicklaus’s relative lack of Palmer’s mass appeal despite superior results; Mickey Wright’s extraordinary record and limited celebrity).

Key figures to research: Arnold Palmer, Nancy Lopez, Jack Nicklaus, Mickey Wright, Mark McCormack.

Framing question: If skill were the only determinant of commercial value, how would the careers of Palmer and Wright — or Lopez and Wright — look different? What does the actual outcome tell us about what professional sport is selling?

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Research Question Option 3

“Augusta National has modified Alister MacKenzie’s original course design significantly over nearly a century. Has the stewardship of Augusta National honored or compromised MacKenzie’s original vision?”

Investigation angles: Original MacKenzie design documentation; specific modifications made in different eras; the stated justifications for each modification; architectural critics’ assessments of the changes; the tension between preserving a historical design and maintaining a commercially viable and competitively relevant championship course.

Key figures to research: Alister MacKenzie, Bobby Jones, Augusta National’s committee leadership across different eras, golf architects who have written about the changes (Tom Doak, Geoff Shackelford).

Framing question: What standard should govern the stewardship of a significant work of design? Who has the authority to decide, and on what basis?

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Research Question Option 4

“Seve Ballesteros is credited with transforming European golf and the Ryder Cup. How much of this transformation was caused by Ballesteros specifically, and how much would have happened anyway as European golf infrastructure developed?”

Investigation angles: European Tour development timeline relative to Ballesteros’s career; Ryder Cup results before and after his first appearance; European players who preceded Ballesteros on the world stage; the development of golf infrastructure in Spain, Sweden, Germany, and Britain during the same period.

Key figures to research: Seve Ballesteros, Tony Jacklin (European Ryder Cup captain), Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, the development of the European Tour.

Framing question: How do historians distinguish between individual causation and structural causation? When a significant change coincides with a remarkable individual, how do we determine how much the individual caused the change versus how much they accelerated or crystallized it?

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Research Question Option 5

“Se Ri Pak’s 1998 US Women’s Open victory triggered what is now called the ‘Se Ri Pak effect’ — a surge in South Korean women’s golf participation that produced a generation of LPGA dominance. What made her victory so culturally significant in South Korea specifically?”

Investigation angles: South Korean cultural context in the late 1990s — economic crisis, national identity, women’s roles in society; the specific circumstances of Pak’s 1998 US Women’s Open victory; documented evidence of the participation surge; the generation of South Korean players who followed her; comparisons with similar catalyst-player effects in other countries.

Key figures to research: Se Ri Pak, the generation of South Korean LPGA players she inspired, South Korean golf development organizations.

Framing question: What conditions need to be present in a society for a single athletic achievement to trigger cultural change? Why did Pak’s victory have the effect it did in South Korea when similar victories by other international players did not produce comparable effects in their home countries?

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Research Question Option 6

“The prize money gap between men’s and women’s professional golf has persisted throughout the LPGA’s history. Is this gap primarily the result of market forces, structural discrimination, or both?”

Investigation angles: Historical prize money data for both tours across decades; television ratings comparisons; sponsorship structures; the chicken-and-egg argument about coverage and audiences; international comparisons (does the gap look the same in all countries?); recent developments in equal prize money at major championships.

Key figures and sources to research: LPGA historical financial records, academic research on gender pay gaps in professional sport, statements from LPGA commissioners and PGA Tour leadership across different eras.

Framing question: When two competing explanations both have some empirical support, what standard of evidence should we use to evaluate which is more persuasive? Is it possible to disentangle market forces from structural discrimination, or are they too interconnected to separate?

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Research Question Option 7

“Pete Dye’s design philosophy — severe challenge, psychological confrontation, extreme penalty for error — has been both celebrated and condemned. Was Dye’s approach to golf course architecture good for the game?”

Investigation angles: Specific Dye courses and their reception by players and critics; the relationship between Dye’s designs and participation rates; architectural critics’ assessments; the revival of classical architecture as a reaction to Dye’s influence; the experience of average golfers on Dye courses versus elite players.

Key figures to research: Pete Dye, Alice Dye (his wife and frequent collaborator), Tom Doak (who worked for Dye early in his career and later articulated a contrasting philosophy), the players who competed at TPC Sawgrass and PGA West.

Framing question: What is a golf course actually for? Does the answer to that question change depending on who you ask — a tour professional, a weekend golfer, a course designer, a television producer? How should competing answers to that question influence how we evaluate a design?

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Research Question Option 8

“This curriculum has covered golf history primarily through the lens of Western countries — Britain, America, Europe, Japan. What does golf history look like from the perspective of a country or region not covered in this curriculum?”

Investigation angles: Choose one country or region not covered in Weeks 1-5 — possibilities include India, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, or sub-Saharan Africa. Research when golf arrived there, how it developed, what role it played in the society’s history, and what unique contributions or perspectives it offers.

Key figures and sources to research: This will depend entirely on your chosen country. The challenge of this question is finding credible sources — not just in English, if your language skills allow, and not just from the country’s most famous golfers, but from historians and journalists who have written about golf in its local context.

Framing question: Does the history of golf look different when viewed from outside the Anglo-American perspective that has dominated most golf historiography? What stories have been left out of the standard golf history narrative, and why?