Amari Avery calls it 'shocking' no black player has ever won on LPGA

Five years ago, a 17-year-old Avery teed it up at Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell, New Jersey, when she played on a sponsor exemption at the LPGA Founders Cup. Back then, Avery assumed she'd be on the LPGA the following year; she certainly didn't expect to go to college. Now, she's grateful for the route she's taken, the one that gave her a piece of history.

"I think I always knew it was going to happen in due time," she said of that maiden win not far from her California home.

Avery first burst onto the national scene in 2013 when she starred in the 2013 Netflix documentary, “The Short Game.”

Her dad nicknamed her “Tigress,” and her personal website listed all the ways she’s like her hero, Tiger Woods. Both were born on Dec. 30 in Orange County, California. Both are African-American and Asian (Avery’s mother is Filipino). Both recorded their first ace at Heart Well Golf Course and notched their first big title at the Junior World Championship. (Avery was 6; Tiger was 8.)

After a successful two and a half years at USC, where Avery won five times, she turned professional and joined the Epson Tour in the summer of 2024. She recorded a pair of top 10s in eight starts and then embarked on her first full season as a pro in 2025, coming up two spots shy of an LPGA card after finishing fourth four times.

Former Washington player Sadena Parks won twice on what's now the Epson Tour in 2014.

Two weeks ago, Avery became the third black player to win on the Epson Tour. LaRee Sugg was the first to do it in 1998 at the Aurora Health Care Futures Classic. Then former Washington player Sadena Parks won twice in 2014 before joining the LPGA as a rookie in 2015, the same season that Cheyenne Woods, Tiger's niece, joined the tour.

There are currently no black players competing full-time on the LPGA. Only eight black athletes have earned membership in the tour's 75-year history, beginning with Althea Gibson in 1963.

So far, Avery's LPGA history is relatively sparse. She made her U.S. Women's Open debut in 2021 at The Olympic Club, where she played a practice round with Cheyenne Woods.

“She’s only 17 years old and she’s got it,” Woods said at the time. “She’s killing it.”

LaRee Sugg was a pioneer on the Futures Tour, becoming the first black player to win on the developmental circuit.

Avery has since played in two more U.S. Women's Opens and a Chevron Championship, making the cut in all three majors. She made headlines last year at Erin Hills after someone tried to break into the Milwaukee Airbnb where she was staying along with her boyfriend and parents on Friday morning. In the chaos, Avery's boyfriend accidentally took her golf clubs back with him to Arizona. Avery wound up borrowing Gabi Ruffels' clubs after she finished her second round and made the cut with ease.

In total, Avery has competed in six LPGA events, making the cut in three. The Mizuho marks her first non-major LPGA start since the Kroger Queen City Championship in 2024, and at first, she wasn't even sure if she should come. Though she leads the points list, Avery wants to make sure she focuses enough on the Epson Tour to secure her card for 2027.

After a strong start last week in Arizona, she decided to accept the offer.

"I think it's great so early in the season that I get to play out here on the LPGA and just kind of get a taste of it," she said.

Emily Odwin as seen on the 18th hole during the second round of the 2025 U.S. Women's Open Presented by Ally at Erin Hills Golf Course in Hartford, Wis. on Friday, May 30, 2025.

Many of the black players who were on tour when Avery was coming up have stopped competing full-time. It's been several years since a black player held full status on the LPGA.

Last fall, Emily Odwin of Barbados advanced to the final stage of LPGA Q-School but opted not to turn professional, choosing instead to finish out her senior year of college at SMU and make her debut in the Augusta National Women's Amateur.

Odwin was inspired watching Mariah Stackhouse help lead Stanford to its first national title back in 2015 and hopes to have a similar impact someday.

Last year at the U.S. Women's Open, Avery's father gave Odwin a warm embrace at Erin Hills. It marked Odwin's first time playing a major.

"When there's not a lot of us, when you when you see each other, like, even if you don't know each other very well, you will, at the very least, go out of your way to say hi and wish good luck," said Odwin. "Because if they do well, everybody does well, right? It's a good thing."

Avery has dreamed of winning a major since age 3 and has no doubt that one day, the drought for black athletes will end.

"I think with my win last week and just with everything that's been going on in black golf, women's golf, we're on the right path," said Avery, adding, "Hopefully it's me, but, of course, I'm always rooting for my counterparts as well."

They've long understood what it would mean.

Beth Ann Nichols is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the LPGA. She is a former president of the Golf Writers Association of America.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Amari Avery, one of golf's hottest player, returns to LPGA at Mizuho Americas Open