FRISCO, Texas — A Frisco golf club has dealt with two incidents of racism in the last few days.
This past weekend, Frisco Lakes Golf Club general manager Linroy “LC” Costly got a photo text message of a racial slur written in one of the course’s sand bunkers.
“I was shocked,” he said. “I was in disbelief to be quite honest.”
A Black golfer playing the par 4, 13th hole saw two people running away from the bunker and then discovered the writing.
“It hit home needless to say,” Costly, who’s also Black, said. “It made me feel extremely sad.”
The golfer’s daughter posted about the incident on Instagram saying, "This has happened too many times in this city."
The family told WFAA they agreed to let Costly speak on their behalf.
“No one needs to go through that whether you’re Black, white, green, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
Costly said that on Monday they got a call for a tee time, and, when asked for a name, the caller said the same racial slur four times. They’re currently working on pulling their phone records to share with Frisco police.
Two years ago, an identical sand bunker incident happened just five miles away at Trails of Frisco Golf Club.
“That’s the sad part that as a Black man at 53 years old, as a general manager of a golf club, we’re still dealing with this in 2023,” Costly said.
All of it is happening in the same city the PGA of America is headquartered in.
"The PGA of America condemns all acts of racism and has reached out to the club to see if we can assist them as they investigate,” the company said in a statement.
"I think Frisco is a pretty nice community,” Costly said. “It’s a diverse community. It’s getting better and better.”
Costly and a new ownership group took over the course last March. He said in 20 years he's never personally dealt with an incident of racism in the sport but said it's been an issue for decades.
“The gap is narrowing. I truly believe that," he said. "There’s more African Americans, there’s more Mexican Americans, there’s more Indian Americans.”
Police are now investigating. Costly doesn’t believe the act of hate was committed by a golfer playing that day.
He said the man who discovered it decided to persevere and finish his round.
“Hopefully someone will come forward. The biggest goal for me is to catch the perpetrators,” he said. “I didn’t think that would ever happen, but it did.”