Mark Wagner
Special to ICT
When the president of the PGA of America called with gift tickets to this year’s Ryder Cup, Native golf standouts Taylor Harvey and Shandiin Harper made travel plans straight away.
The invitation from PGA President Don Rea Jr. included not just tickets, but exclusive access to the International Pavilion at the Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, New York.
“It’s a privilege to connect with passionate individuals like Taylor and Shandiin,” Rea told ICT. “When young leaders see the game at its highest level like the Ryder, that’s how we grow the game, by making it accessible and aspirational for everyone.”
The trip east to New York, where the 44th Ryder Cup was held in September, was just another step for Harvey and Harper in their journeys in the game of golf.
At the time of Rea’s call, Harper, Navajo, was a third of the way through her year-long PGA Works internship, while Harvey, Hopi and Apache, had recently been promoted from a PGA intern to player development manager at Sun Country Golf House, PGA.
Marking a banner year for both, the two would go on to finish among the top three women’s golfers in the 2025 Native American Open at Santa Ana Pueblo in October, just behind champion Faylyn Beyale.
Credit: Courtesy of Taylor Harvey
Harvey said her experience at Bethpage contributed to a new view of her life in golf.
“Being at the Ryder was a reminder to me of how far I’ve come,” she told ICT. “When I first started playing, I thought score was the most important outcome after playing a round. But now when I look back, I couldn’t tell you what I shot, but I could tell you how I felt and how I made other people feel, which is what matters to me.”
Commissioner Craig Kessler of the Ladies Professional Golf Association agrees.
“The LPGA has always believed golf is bigger than scorecards,” Kessler said. “We celebrate world-class athletes on the biggest stages, but just as meaningful is the pathway the game creates for careers, education, community and personal growth.”
‘Life is Lifing’
Harvey took time out of her “super busy” schedule to recount some of the details of her journey.
“Life is Lifing,” she told ICT.
“My story starts when I was 8,” she said. “My dad won tickets to the Waste Management Phoenix Open. We found the tent for First Tee of Phoenix, and from there it was history.”
Harvey said golf has been a way for her to access education and now a career. After the First Tee and Junior Golf youth programs, she played in high school, and received a full-ride scholarship to play collegiate golf at Prairie View A&M University, a Division 1 program in Texas. There, Taylor developed the passion to see more black and brown faces in the golf industry, a passion that is supported by Kessler.
During her senior year in 2024, Harvey played her last collegiate tournament at the PGA Works Collegiate Championship, hosted at TPC Sawgrass and televised on the Golf Channel. There, Harvey met Kessler, who was then the Professional Golfers’ Association’s chief operating officer. He helped her land a PGA internship, and soon after he was named commissioner of the LPGA.
“No demographic in golf has more momentum than girls under 18, including girls of color,” Kessler told ICT. He notes that in addition to this growth in the present, the LPGA also celebrates women of color who were early pioneers in the game, including Renee Powell and Althea Gibson, Lumbee, a renowned tennis player who moved over to golf.
“Our job is to carry their legacy forward,” Kessler said, “with the same conviction they showed, to keep expanding the opportunities they created for girls and women around the world.”
Competitive drive
Harper admits to being competitive, and her journey in golf, like Harvey’s, also involves family and education.
“It began when I was playing softball,” she said.
It was her personality, however — and her father, Melton Harper — that led her to golf.
“Softball is all about team,” Harper told ICT. “But in golf everything falls on you. Every shot keeps you coming back to you, to try again. In a team sport you can blame others. In golf, it’s all on you. I just love that feeling. To be able to say to yourself, ‘I did that.’”
Those skills and personality have led her through the NB3 Junior Golf, a successful college career at Western New Mexico University, and now to a year-long internship in the PGA Works program.
There, she teamed up with Harvey, and that’s where they caught the eye of Rea, who called with free tickets to what many people consider the premier event in golf — a three-day match between the best male players from the United States and Europe.
This year was the 44th Ryder Cup, which began in 1927 and takes place every other year. Team Europe defeated Team USA 15-13. The female equivalent, which began in 1990, is called the Solheim Cup, which will be held in the Netherlands in 2026.
Sense of community
Community is what allows many Native athletes to overcome challenges and stereotypes. For Harper, following her father to the golf course led to her meeting another mentor — Faylyn Beyale, a teacher in the First Tee Program in Four Corners.
That led to an introduction to Kent Beatty, the golf coach at Western New Mexico University.
“When Faylyn saw me play, she talked to her college golf coach,” Harper said.
Beyale had a sterling career at UNM and Harper followed. Just before beginning her internship with the PGA, Harper graduated in 2025 cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a minor in mathematics. Over 99 rounds at Western, her four-year scoring average was 78.42, which stands as the 4th best in school history. Harper is now eyeing continuing in competitive golf in the Cactus Tour in Arizona next summer.
Harvey, meanwhile, has her hands full at Sun Country PGA Section developing young talent, many of whom are young female golfers.
According to the National Golf Foundation, there are 7.9 million women participating in golf, making up 28 percent of on-course play, which is a record high. In 2024 77,000 players participated in the PGA Jr. League, with 26 percent being girls.
More to the story
Kessler sees the LPGA as much more than a game.
“The bright lights of major championship golf are inspiring,” he said, “but the real impact is when someone discovers that golf can be a way of life, a source of purpose and a means to a better future.”
Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie, for example, did not lead to more black and brown and Native players. Programs like the PGA’s First Tee, Nike’s N7 Fund, NB3 and PGA Works, however, have created the infrastructure and support for young athletes facing challenges, be they financial or cultural.
Kessler agrees that community support — and investments — are the way to grow a more inclusive game.
“In 2023, Girls Golf reached its one-millionth participant since inception,” Kessler recounted. “To mark this milestone, the LPGA Foundation launched the #OneMillionMORE girls campaign to show its commitment to impacting the next one million girls by 2030.”
This engagement campaign will raise funds to reduce financial barriers for junior golf participation, funds that will develop the curriculum, refresh golf supplies, and provide resources to girls with financial needs.
Rea told ICT there is a similar mission at the PGA.
“Our youth programs have evolved to focus not just on golf skills, but on life skills,” Rea said. “We want every young person, especially young women, to see golf as a place where they belong and can thrive.”
While Life is Lifing for Harvey, and while Harper eyes a go at a professional tour, family, golf, education and community are common denominators for these Native women’s success.
The happy memory of being at this year’s Ryder Cup — with support from golf leaders Rea and Kessler — is just another marker in their journeys in what is considered “the least violent, most difficult game of human history.”
Mark Wagner is a golf historian and the founding director of the Binienda Center for Civic Engagement at Worcester State University in Massachusetts. His book, “Native Links, the Surprising History of Our First People in Golf,” was published in 2024 and is available from Back Nine Press and Amazon. He can be reached at markgwagner@charter.net.