Mark Wagner
Special to ICT
SOUTHAMPTON, New York — Ethan Mangum and Taylor Harvey stood on a practice putting green on the last day of the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.
As two of the four team leaders for the U.S. Golf Association’s Pathways Discover Program, they gathered in June with the 20-some-odd interns in their care. They were all taking a needed break after a long week of work.
For the two Native golfers and the other team leaders, the Pathways program has provided a step forward in finding a professional home in the golf world, offering behind-the-scenes experiences for college students to help shape careers in golf through training, education and networking.
“Golf introduced me to a whole new world that I thought did not exist and propelled my passion to see black and brown faces in the golf industry,” Harvey, Hopi and Apache, told ICT. “Pathways is amazing.”
For Mangum, who is Choctaw, Cherokee and Black, the operational side of golf is in many ways a back-up to playing professionally.
In July, he will receive a master’s degree in global business and sustainable development from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and will then decide on his path. He has the option of playing European tours.
“I am very grateful to the USGA for inviting me back to be an asset,” Mangum told ICT.
The four team leaders this year had all been interns in previous years before being tapped for the leadership positions. In addition to Mangum and Harvey, the other team leaders are Cristina Santiago and Donovan Drummer.
Santiago is a recent graduate of the University of Florida and is beginning a career in multimedia journalism. Drummer is a recent graduate of Arizona State University where he studied sports management.
To uplift Indigenous youth
Harvey has already transitioned to a career in golf after being a standout collegiate golfer and two-time medalist at the Native American Open. She also obtained a fellowship with the Professional Golfers’ Association’s PGA WORKS program.
Golfer Taylor Harvey, Hopi and Apache, is forging a career in the golf world. Here, she is shown at the 2025 Native American Open at Santa Ana Pueblo where she was among the top women golfers to participate. Credit: Mark Wagner/Special to ICT
She’s now director of Junior Golf Operations for the PGA’s southwest region, which includes Arizona and southern Nevada.
“After leaving my internship in 2024 with the USGA, I started my PGA WORKS Fellowship,” she told ICT. “On my birthday this year, I turned in my two weeks’ notice to accept a position with the Southwest PGA as their new director of junior golf operations. … Very blessed to return home and directly impact my local community.”
Harvey’s story in the game started when she was 8 years old. Her father won tickets to attend the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Harvey found her way into the First Tee of Phoenix exhibition, and from that experience she fell in love with the game.
After high school graduation, she received a full-ride scholarship to play four years of Division 1 collegiate golf at Prairie View A&M University, one of the historically black colleges and universities in Texas.
“While attending my amazing HBCU, I understood that diversity is a gift and one we do not find often on the golf course,” she told ICT.
Her mission remains to inspire and uplift Indigenous youth to pursue their passions.
‘Just like life’
Mangum’s history with Pathways began when he interned in the inaugural year of the program in 2021 at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. Five years later, the USGA invited him back to be team leader as the U.S. Open returned to Shinnecock.
Indigenous golfer Ethan Mangum stands at the Columbia Country Club in Maryland with the trophy he won as the 2022 Middle Atlantic Amateur Champion at Woodmont Country Club. The trophy stays permanently at Columbia at the Columbia Golf Club. Credit: Courtesy of Ethan Mangum
He was born in Mississippi and lived there until his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in his high school years.
Mangum’s impressive history in golf puts a professional career as an option on the table. He has one professional victory in 12 starts, with a win at the 2020 Open Golf Atlanta’s Chapel Hills Open, and seven amateur victories in 59 starts.
He brings a mixed heritage to the links. “Í am Nigerian and Native American,” Mangum told ICT. “I identify as a copper-skinned Afro-Asiatic Indigenous American.”
Playing top-level golf has come with challenges. He credits his success to his parents and his mentor, Matt Adams, the owner and instructor behind At Par Golf in Atlanta who is African-American.
“When I moved from Mississippi to Georgia,” Mangum said, “I was the only Black man on the top ten list in the state.”
To handle the adjustment, he sought the help of Adams, noting that Adams takes a lighthearted approach to issues of race and inclusion in the world of golf.
“He took me under his wing,” Mangum said. “Worked with me on how to score and how to get the ball in the hole quicker.”
The two became so close that Adams flew to Los Angeles to be with Mangum at the Tiger Woods Junior Invitational at Pebble Beach in 2021. In 2022, as a student at the College of William & Mary, Ethan became the inaugural Pathway Player at the Genesis Invitational, which annually selects a minority collegiate player for Tiger Woods’ Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase.
Mangum also credits his father Vincent, who is Nigerian and Choctaw, and his mother Wendy Campbell, Cherokee, for their support as his journey took him from Mississippi to Georgia to Florida A&M University, where he finished his undergraduate studies.
He began his post-graduate work at William & Mary before making the move to St. Andrews. At every step, his journey was marked by an exceptional ability in the game of golf
“Every time you step on the golf course you want to improve,” Mangum said. “In that way, golf is the closest thing to life, because it’s your walk, your swing, and you are there to improve. To be better. Just like in life. It allows you to determine your legacy in the game as in life.”
Putting on a championship
The confluence of golf and life, Native history and access is not lost on Kamille Ramos and Lexis Withers, the directors of culture, community and inclusion at the USGA.
Both have been with Pathways since its origin in 2021, and each year they work with the club hosting the U.S. Open Championship to train four team leaders to teach the workings of how to put on a national championship event.
This year they launched an additional Pathways program called Pathways Launch. With nine of the USGA partners – including the PGA and LPGA – they have set up a “more traditional” three-month internship program. Both will continue to run both Pathways Discover and Pathways Launch going forward.
“The biggest thing,” Withers said, “is seeing a drastic shift in what golf should look like and who has access to it. Our programs are breaking down the barriers. People want to bring you into the game.”
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The team leaders oversee five to eight interns for the 10 days surrounding the U.S. Open. While the interns are there for 10 days, the team leaders spend four weeks in preparation. This year they were put up at the nearby Stony Brook University.
The Pathways program, designed to include young people who might not think of golf as a career path, has brought nearly 120 young men and women of color through the program in five years.
“They come from all over the world,” Ramos told ICT, noting that there are no race or gender requirements. “It’s just folks we don’t always see, all building a national championship. From all walks of life, all backgrounds. All around the world.”
The U.S. Open’s return to Shinnecock Hills and its long history with the Shinnecock people brought added focus to issues of inclusion and Native history. Ramos said Harvey’s knowledge of history was invaluable, particularly as history relates to Shinnecock.
A Window on History: Native legacy shines at Shinnecock Hills
“Taylor brought empathy and understanding for some of the interns on the significance of where we were and struggles between the club and the Shinnecock Nation,” Ramos said.
Both Ramos and Withers note that the host site was not only welcoming.
“Nick Conlin [the general manager at Shinnecock]) was so excited to make this all work,” Withers said. “He worked to expose our interns to everything from golf operations to merchandise to the care for greens and grass.”
The road ahead
With the U.S. Open now completed, Harvey has returned to her full-time job with the Southwest PGA. She also plans a return to the Native American Open in October at the Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico. She placed second and third in past tournaments.
“I want to win it this year,” she said.
For Mangum, this year’s experience at Shinnecock Hills reinforced his passion to expand access to golf while creating lasting community impact. It’s also a way to educate others about his Native heritage.
“I believe there is a tremendous opportunity to use golf as a platform for education, inclusion, and meaningful community engagement,” he said, “particularly through the stories and contributions of Native American communities.”
Dr. Mark Wagner is a golf historian and regular contributor to ICT. His book,“Native Links, the Surprising History of Our First People in Golf,”was published byBack Nine Pressin 2024. He can be reached at markgwagner@charter.net.
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