PGA Site to Open to Blacks : Golf: Hoping to cool tournament controversy, mayor to announce Shoal Creek will make bylaws non-discriminatory.

In an effort to shield the PGA Championship from scheduled protests and prevent further corporate advertising defections, Mayor Richard Arrington of Birmingham, Ala., will announce today that controversial Shoal Creek Country Club, site of next month’s tournament, has indicated it will accept blacks as members.

In what amounts to a negotiated compromise, officials of the all-white Shoal Creek club have told Arrington that black applicants could be approved shortly after the six-month admission process. According to Arrington’s statement, a copy of which was obtained Wednesday by The Times, the mayor will outline a revised Shoal Creek written membership policy that, in theory, will discourage future discriminatory practices at the club.

“While no one can give an assurance that every black who is submitted for membership will be approved, I am confident, based on these good faith commitments, that Shoal Creek’s membership will include blacks within the next year,” read Arrington’s statement.

The club, writes Arrington, has rewritten earlier bylaws that allowed the exclusion of blacks as members. While there were no specific written rules banning blacks, Shoal Creek policy was “silent on this issue.” The new policy “clearly is non-discriminatory,” said the statement.

In return, Arrington has asked the Rev. Abraham Woods, a prominent Birmingham racial leader, to reconsider threats to organize a protest against Shoal Creek and the PGA Championship. Arrington, who is black, spoke with Woods Wednesday and requested that Woods use his considerable local influence to call off any demonstration plans.

” . . . I believe that black membership at Shoal Creek will become a reality in the near future and that the proposed demonstration at the PGA will not be necessary to achieve this end,” Arrington’s statement said.

Woods could not be reached for comment, but his participation is considered vital if the tournament is to proceed without incident.

Meanwhile, rumors of an agreement between the mayor and Shoal Creek representatives were not enough to dissuade two more major advertisers from canceling their commercials during the Aug. 9-12 tournament. Following the lead of IBM, which withdrew its ads earlier Tuesday, Toyota and Anheuser-Busch informed the network of similar intentions Wednesday.

Spokespersons for IBM and Toyota told the Associated Press that Shoal Creek’s exclusionary policies were unacceptable. An Anheuser-Busch spokesman declined to comment on the specific reasons for the decision to pull the company’s ads. IBM commercials were scheduled for ABC’s weekend broadcasts, and Toyota and Anheuser-Busch ads were planned for ESPN’s first two rounds of coverage.

Pat Rielly, president of the PGA of America, said he didn’t know if the revised Shoal Creek bylaws would be enough to persuade the three advertisers to reconsider their decisions to cancel commercials. Nor could he comment on the possibility of further cancellations by other sponsors.

Still, Rielly said Arrington’s work was welcome news for the PGA of America, which found itself caught in the middle of a racial storm when Hall Thompson, Shoal Creek founder, was quoted in an Alabama newspaper last month as saying blacks weren’t allowed at the club because “that’s just not done in Birmingham.”

The backlash of such comments focused attention on the city’s racial image and with it, the PGA of America’s involvement with the club, which was also site of the 1984 PGA Championship.