IBM Pulls Ads From PGA Championship

IBM will not advertise on PGA Championship telecasts because the host club, Shoal Creek in Alabama, has no black members.

“When we learned that this tournament was being played at a club that was exclusionary, we decided it was not an appropriate vehicle for our advertising,” Gina Chew-Holman, a spokeswoman for IBM, said Tuesday.

“Supporting even indirectly activities which are exclusionary is against IBM’s practices and policies.”

Hall Thompson, founder of Shoal Creek, where the tournament is to be played Aug. 9-12, has said the club will not be pressured into accepting blacks, although he later apologized and said he was quoted out of context.

Shoal Creek officials said the club does not have any policy against blacks and that some have been guests. The club is about 15 miles south of Birmingham.