The PGA of America and GoodSport Media has launched the ONYX Video Series – Standouts: Black Women in Golf, five videos that will air now through April on PGA.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
The inspirational five-part series brought to you by AIG Life and Retirement begins by documenting Midnight Golf Founder/President Renee Fluker of Detroit, whose groundbreaking inner-city program is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Midnight Golf, with year-round participation of Michigan PGA Section Professionals, has earned national recognition for matriculating more than 3,500 at-risk students with 90 percent enrolling in college.
Reneé Fluker, Founder and President of the Midnight Golf Program, oversees daily program operations and manages all phases of donor relations. Her evenings are spent mentoring 250 metro-Detroit high school seniors each week. Since 2001, more than 2,500 students have matriculated through the program, with 90 percent enrolling in college. The Midnight Golf Program started with 17 students meeting at Franklin-Wright Settlements, a small community center in Detroit, to learn golf skills. Today, the program has expanded to a 30-week curriculum for two cohorts that have helped hundreds of metro Detroit’s at-risk high school students enter college and various professional careers.
Students are educated on topics including financial literacy, college readiness and community activism — while being exposed to the game of golf. A graduate of Wayne State University, Fluker uses her social work background to support students’ progression through the program. After 35 years of service, she retired from the Michigan Department of Human Services. She is a lifetime member of the NAACP and was inducted into the African American Golfers Hall of Fame. Fluker is a member of the Michigan Chronicle Women of Excellence class of 2015, a 2016 member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity; Incorporated Women of Distinction Honoree, and received the 2017 Community Impact Award from the Wolverine Bar Association.
Also in 2017, she was named one of the Gary Burnstein Clinic’s Esteemed Women of Michigan and received the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Detroit: Irvin F. Swider Eternal Flame Award. Fluker was named one of Crain’s 2018 Notable Women in Nonprofits, and was selected for the McGregor Fund’s 2019 Miller Fellowship. She serves on the advisory board for African American Golfer’s Digest and The Gasper Financial Group Board of Advisors. Fluker has a son, Jason, and a daughter-in-law, Christianne.