Future Black History Month: Sadena Parks' Winning Vision
Fuse is once again celebrating an extended Black History Month by looking at a variety of rising forces who are creating Future Black History before our eyes. The numbers don't lie: Sadena Parks is in a league all her own, but her story goes way beyond her golf game for anyone to find inspiration in the rising sports superstar.
In 2014, Parks made history by becoming only the fifth African American to receive her Ladies Professional Golf Association tour card. And before that, she had earned two of the lowest rounds ever for University of Washington while playing intercollegiate golf. But the 26-year-old's journey started much earlier when at nine-years-old when her single-parent father would bring her to the driving range instead of hiring babysitters to watch her. Interestingly enough, Parks was great at basketball and track, but not good at golf, which she says only "attracted" her to the sport more.
"Golf gave me something to work on," she told ESPN in her spread for their famous Body issue. "I’m a quick learner, but I’m a very slow starter. My dad taught me that nothing comes easy, though. You might not be that player who automatically just starts at the top and things come to them; you are the type of person that has to start from the bottom and work your way up. But gosh, believe me, it’s so frustrating seeing how much effort you put into something and not to see the results right away."
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