After nearly 90 years, the Thunderbirds group remains all men and mostly white

The Thunderbirds were formed nearly 90 years ago to promote Arizona tourism through the Phoenix Open golf tournament, now billed as "The People's Open." To this day, the group has never had a single woman member.

It is seemingly the only all-male organization still hosting one of the more than 40 PGA Tour events in the U.S., more than two decades after the group's leaders said they were considering greater inclusion of women.

The Thunderbirds also remains a mostly white organization, putting the nonprofit out of step with many similar charitable groups, which have tried to reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, and with golf itself, which is trying to shed its all-male, white image by aggressively reaching out to more women and people of color as players and fans.

Just two of the Thunderbirds' 55 active members are Black, and only two have Latino surnames, according to a review of the official 2024 WM Phoenix Open program. About 5% of Arizona residents are Black, and a third of the population is Latino, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The program includes the names of hundreds of "active," "life" and "deceased" members the group otherwise does not make known. "The Thunderbird roster and directory are not published for public viewing," says the Thunderbirds website.

The Thunderbirds and its members would say little about the group's current demographics. Few people affiliated with the group who The Arizona Republic contacted for this story agreed to speak on the record. Most referred questions to the Thunderbirds or did not respond to inquiries.

Likewise, over a dozen Maricopa County movers and shakers whose professional roles intersect with groups like the Thunderbirds declined to discuss the group's demographics. Those who did speak with The Republic offered careful words.

The Thunderbirds are one of the most prominent philanthropic groups in Arizona. They have raised over $208 million for charity, including a record-high $17.5 million from this year's WM Phoenix Open, held in February and marred by heavy rains, drunken fan behavior and a record number of arrests.

The Phoenix Open, meanwhile, is one of the most attended professional golf tournaments in the world. It draws hundreds of thousands of fans each year to TPC Scottsdale and has developed a reputation for its party atmosphere. A study by Arizona State University commissioned by the Thunderbirds found that the 2022 Phoenix Open generated nearly $500 million in economic impact.

In March, the Thunderbirds also became a founding partner of the Ford Championship, a Ladies Professional Golf Association tournament in Gilbert. As part of the partnership, the Thunderbirds contributed $250,000 to the tournament's $2.25 million purse.

'We are looking for minorities': Decades of saying change is coming

The Thunderbirds have made overtures over the past few decades about reforming their membership to be more inclusive.

Peter Calihan, president of the Thunderbirds in 1991, told The Republic that year the group's members would no longer remain all white. He made the comments after the Professional Golfers' Association of America said that, starting in 1995, groups hosting PGA of America events would have to include women and people of color. PGA of America's decision came following pressure to pull the group's 1990 PGA Championship out of the all-white Shoal Creek Country Club near Birmingham, Alabama.

The Phoenix Open is part of the PGA Tour, not PGA of America. Nevertheless, the Thunderbirds leadership said the group would make changes.

"We are actively looking, not just for Blacks," Calihan, who did not respond to The Republic for this story, said back then. "We are looking for minorities."

The Thunderbirds lived up to their word. In 1991, Kenny Harris, then vice president of the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, became the first Black member of the Thunderbirds.

Reached Monday, Harris said the group has made progress with respect to racial and ethnic diversity.

"I've worked very hard, representing African Americans, being the first minority period — before we had any Hispanics, Asians," Harris said. "You know, we got all those folks now, but we didn't then."

He said the Thunderbirds recently directed their members to refer inquiries from journalists to "the Thunderbird office."

"In fact, we just had a meeting Thursday night, and this was on the agenda and talked about," Harris said. "They kind of prepared us all that the story is going to touch on at least one or two things, and it may have a somewhat negative overtone, coupled with the bad, sloppy kind of tournament we had this year with the weather."

In 2003, the Thunderbirds' leader — a role still given the title "Big Chief," despite the objection of some Native American people who consider it cultural appropriation — told The Republic that the group was exploring ways to "enhance and extend the influence that women have in the organization." Scott Henderson made the comment after the all-male Augusta National Golf Club, host of the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, came under fire for excluding women from its ranks.

Henderson told The Republic on Monday that he did not want to comment on the Thunderbirds' diversity. "I've been out of the leadership loop for nearly 20 years, so I have neither the information nor portfolio to offer any helpful insights," he said.

In 2012, the Thunderbirds' leader, "Big Chief" Alex Clark, said the group was not opposed to adding women. His comments came after Augusta National announced the first two female members had been admitted. There are now at least seven female members of Augusta National, according to Golf Monthly. Clark did not respond to The Republic for this story.

Ryan Woodcock, the Thunderbirds' director of communications, provided a written statement in response to a request for an interview and questions submitted by The Republic, including a request to verify that the Thunderbirds have never had women members.

"The nearly four thousand members, board members, staff and volunteers affiliated with the Thunderbirds and Thunderbird Charities is a cross-section of genders, nationalities, races, cultures, ethnicities and religions," the statement said. "There is one thread that binds us — a commitment to raising millions of dollars for charities each year that positively impacts our Arizona communities."

Joel Schuchmann, a PGA Tour spokesperson, also provided a written statement in response to questions, including whether the PGA Tour had concerns that the Thunderbirds remain all male.

"The PGA TOUR works closely with all of our tournaments on important items and initiatives that will benefit the communities in which we play and the game of golf," the statement said.

Who are the members of the Thunderbirds and its associated groups?

The Thunderbirds is an invitation-only group with 55 core active members. The official 2024 WM Phoenix Open program does not show any women in the group.

The Thunderbirds' top three leaders — "Big Chief" Pat Williams, George Thimsen, the 2024 tournament chairman, and Matt Mooney, the assistant tournament chairman — are all men. Thimsen referred inquiries from The Republic for this story to the organization's spokesperson. Williams and Mooney did not respond to The Republic.

The six members of the Thunderbirds Advisory Board are also all men, as are the 19 members of the Thunderbirds Leadership Cabinet, according to the program.

In fact, a review of the 573 Thunderbirds listed in the program, including 55 "active" members, 267 "life" members and 251 "deceased" members, shows that there have been no women members of the Thunderbirds since the organization was founded in 1937. Active members can serve until they turn 45 and then transition to "life" members.

Not only are there no women Thunderbirds, but there are few people of color, according to a Republic review of the 55 active members.

The two Black members are Robbie Petty, senior vice president of SRS Real Estate Partners, and attorney Jason Pritchett. The two members with Latino surnames are former Major League Baseball catcher Miguel Montero and Chris Camacho, the CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. None of them replied to inquiries from The Republic for this story. Thimsen, this year's tournament chairman, appears to be the only Asian American. It's unclear whether any of the Thunderbirds are Native American.

The Thunderbirds are "out of line with trying to promote diversity of gender and diversity of race," said Warren Stewart Sr., a Black civil rights leader and pastor of First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix.

The Thunderbirds' exclusion of women members and people of color is a problem, he said, because you only have a "white male perspective on how to do business, on how to do charity, on how to do sports, and that is a very limited, self-centered" perspective.

A few women do have roles in groups associated with the Thunderbirds.

Two women — former Phoenix police Chief Jeri Williams and attorney Kelly Mooney — serve on the 13-member Thunderbird Council, according to the program.

The WM Phoenix Open website says the Thunderbird Council has a supervisory role: "All Thunderbird activities and events are the prime responsibility of these Active Thunderbirds and are under the watchful eye of the Big Chief and Thunderbird Council." The Thunderbirds told The Republic the council functions as the board of directors and "oversees all business matters for the organization." The latest federal tax filing for the organization shows both Williams and Mooney as directors of the Thunderbirds.

Williams and Mooney, who did not respond to The Republic, are also among three women on the 15-member board of the Thunderbirds Charities. The Thunderbirds turn over most of the money raised from the Phoenix Open to the Thunderbirds Charities, which administers grant applications and awards grants to nonprofit groups. The third female board member is Jessica Pacheco, a lobbyist and member of the Arizona Board of Regents, the body that oversees the state's three public universities. The grant manager of the Thunderbirds Charities, Cheryl Ruggiero, is also a woman. Neither Pachecho nor Ruggiero responded to The Republic.

Two women, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and former Phoenix Mayor Margaret Hance, are among 41 "Honorary Thunderbirds" listed in the program. Hance died in 1990. O'Connor died last year.

Among the Thunderbirds are real estate professionals, sports figures

The Thunderbirds are stacked with members who work in the real estate industry, The Republic found by comparing names in the program with information online. Nearly half of the 55 active Thunderbirds work for real estate firms or as development lawyers or property investors, The Republic found.

Other members include executives of Axon, the Scottsdale-based maker of Tasers and body cameras: Jason Goldman, whose LinkedIn page says he works in sales, former President Luke Larson and current President Josh Isner.

The Thunderbirds list also includes the names of three professional sports players in addition to MLB catcher Montero: former NHL left wing Darcy Hordichuk, professional golfer Drew Stoltz and former MLB pitcher Joe Saunders.

The list of active Thunderbirds also includes brothers Dodge, Bull and Derby Earnhardt, owners of 18 Earnhardt Auto Centers.

None of the men identified here agreed to speak with The Republic about the Thunderbirds' membership or did not respond to inquiries.

Growth in the number of women and people of color interested in golf

The Thunderbirds' continued exclusion of women and its lack of racial and ethnic diversity put the group out of step with a major push in recent years by golf advocates to attract more women and people of color to the sport, which has traditionally been overwhelming male and white, in order to reverse a decline in golf's popularity.

Embracing diversity to ensure the vibrancy of golf has become a major goal of the U.S. Golf Association, the PGA of America, the PGA Tour and the LPGA, which promote programs such as First Tee and Make Golf Your Thing to increase participation among young people from groups that have been underrepresented. The Thunderbirds provide support to First Tee Phoenix, which did not respond to The Republic for this story.

There are 26.6 million people who play golf in the U.S., according to the National Golf Foundation's 2023 report. Of those, 26% are women, a 25% increase since 2019, the report said. In addition, 23% are Asian, Black and Latino, the highest level on record, according to the foundation.

"The game is blossoming like never before," said Mike Whan, CEO of the U.S. Golf Association and former commissioner of the LPGA, on June 12 at the start of the U.S. Open golf tournament. More than 12 million people have taken up golf in the past five years, "made up of people of color, juniors, youth," Whan said. "We're more female than we've ever been before."

Are the Thunderbirds built for 'ever-changing' demographics?

There are over 1.7 million nonprofit groups in the U.S., and some still have homogenous memberships, which remains an "acceptable practice" depending on the organization's purpose, said Robert Ashcraft, a professor at Arizona State University who teaches courses on nonprofit management and philanthropy and runs the university's Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation.

Ashcraft said groups with homogenous memberships and leadership tend to have missions with a narrow demographic focus, like Italian American clubs.

On the other hand, most public-facing charitable groups that started as all-male, white organizations have since evolved to include women and people of color so they reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, Ashcraft said. Otherwise, they risk losing their relevance.

"It's a race for relevance. Because if you don't solve for that, what is the future of the PGA and the Waste Management Open?" Ashcraft said. "And we've seen legacy nonprofits over the years, those that have not been able to pivot, typically shrink in membership."

Ashcraft said his advice to the Thunderbirds would be to follow the direction of leadership guru Frances Hesselbein, who headed the Girl Scouts of the USA. Hesselbein said the most successful organizations are led by people who are "mission-focused, values-based and demographics driven."

"If I were brought in to (advise), I would just be probing a lot of questions to say, 'How is (the Thunderbirds) built to last in an ever-changing demographic environment?" Ashcraft said.

The Thunderbirds, after all, are in the business of organizing a major golf tournament to raise money for charity. So it makes sense, Ashcraft said, to include women and people of color in the group's membership at a time when there are concerns in golf about the pipeline of young players.

Inclusion relates to who makes up the fan base, who buys tickets and who cares about the Phoenix Open, Ashcraft said. "The question would be, 'Are they evolving to assure impact and relevance for the years and decades to come?'" Ashcraft said.

In addition, if a charitable organization wants to maintain integrity in the equitable granting of money to community groups that serve diverse populations, diversity within the group itself matters, he said. For any charitable organization that wants to make a social impact through grants to community groups, "it only makes sense to be inclusive around the design of how decisions are made, (and) people with lived experience," Ashcraft said.

This year's WM Phoenix Open program, which had pages of photos of people, largely white people, having fun at the tournament, most noticeably featured pictures of people of color as beneficiaries of the nonprofits that the Thunderbirds' charity supports, including groups that offer shelter, food and respite from domestic violence.

Kristen Wilson, the CEO at AZ Impact For Good, echoed Ashcraft's comments. Her organization advocates for nonprofit and grantmaking organizations to "actively engage, champion, and reflect the diverse communities they serve."

"We believe that one of the most powerful ways to demonstrate this commitment is by fostering an environment where all voices are welcomed, included and valued," Wilson said in an email. "Organizations can uphold this commitment by implementing policies that attract, retain, and engage a diverse array of board members, volunteers, staff and organizational members."

Valley golf leader: 'Our world is changing, and the game is changing'

Opinions differ on whether the Thunderbirds should move on from its all-male history, but few Valley business leaders seem willing to talk about the gender and racial makeup of the group.

Betsey Bayless, the former Arizona secretary of state, said many of the organizations she's been affiliated with "have greatly benefited" from Thunderbirds contributions, including Fresh Start Women's Foundation, St. Vincent de Paul Phoenix, and Valleywise Health Medical Center. Bayless is the former president and CEO of Valleywise, a taxpayer-funded network of medical centers for underserved populations that was previously the Maricopa County hospital.

In 2003, Thunderbirds Charities awarded Valleywise a $500,000 grant to build a pediatric burn unit at the center's new hospital on Roosevelt Street in Phoenix.

Bayless said it does not bother her that the Thunderbirds have no women members.

"Granted, the Thunderbirds have always been an all-male organization. I don't have a problem with that," Bayless said. "If they want to include women, I'm fine with that. If they don't, that's fine also."

She likened the Thunderbirds' all-male membership to the Junior League of Phoenix, an all-female charitable organization to which she belongs.

"It's OK that they are all male, just like I think it's OK that the Junior League is all female," Bayless said. "In the Junior League, we enjoy the camaraderie we have with other women, and I'm sure the Thunderbirds would tell you the same thing, that they enjoy the male camaraderie."

If either organization decided to include both men and women, Bayless said, "I'm sure that would work well, and they would continue to go forward and do good things, but it would be different."

Bayless said she was unaware the Thunderbirds remain mostly white, with only two Black members and two Latinos. "If that's all they have, they probably should be more inclusive of minority participants," she said.

Girls Golf of Phoenix has received grants from the Thunderbirds Charities in the past. The nonprofit group is sponsored by the LPGA and the U.S. Golf Association to empower girls through the game of golf.

"I literally pushed send on a grant application a few hours before you called me," said Cori Matheson one recent afternoon after submitting a request for funding from Phoenix Open proceeds. She is a professional golfer and the director of Girls Golf of Phoenix.

Matheson said she is grateful for the funding the Thunderbirds Charities provides to groups such as Girls Golf of Phoenix in an effort to introduce more girls and young people of color to golf. She did not want to say anything critical of the Thunderbirds' lack of women and racial diversity and chose her words cautiously.

"Do I judge them or look down on them for that? No, because that's the tradition that they're continuing. But it always makes me happy when we can see more inclusion," Matheson said.

However, Matheson said she believes adding women to the Thunderbirds would send a positive message to women and girls who play golf or are interested in the sport.

"Our world is changing, and the game is changing, and it would be positive to see some evolution, but I'm not sure we will see that with the current processes," Matheson said. "In general, the game of golf has been geared toward the male audience, and we're still doing everything that we can to bring diversity to the game."

Matheson was one of the few people willing to discuss the Thunderbirds' lack of women and racial diversity with The Republic. More than a dozen people contacted for this story who are not directly affiliated with the Thunderbirds but are involved in philanthropy, business, golf or tourism in the Valley declined to speak on record or did not return messages.

Others declined to be interviewed, including Lisa Urias, a prominent Latina who ran her own public relations and marketing firm before Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed her to lead the Arizona Office of Tourism.

Todd Sanders, CEO of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, also declined an interview.

The Thunderbirds were created in 1937 as a committee of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce to promote tourism to the area during the Great Depression. The group is no longer a part of the chamber.

Reporter Christina Avery contributed to this article.

Reach the reporters at daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com and sam.kmack@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Group that runs Phoenix Open remains all male after nearly 90 years