DETROIT (AP) — As a fan, Shaun Horne is all about Detroit's professional sports teams. But when it comes to playing, the high school junior has his eyes on one game.
“I only play golf,” Horne said after taking his turn on a simulator inside a gym on Detroit's westside.
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Jacento White, 16, a junior at Renaissance High School works on his swing with golf coach Jess Hawkins in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Jacento White, 16, a junior golfer at Renaissance High School practices putting in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Shaun Horne, 16, a junior at Renaissance High School practices his golf swing in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Shaun Horne, 16, a junior at Renaissance High School works on putting with golf coach Jess Hawkins in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Shaun Horne, 16, a junior at Renaissance High School works on his swing with golf coach Jess Hawkins in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Embracing golf makes the 16-year-old a rarity among his Detroit peers — particularly Black high schoolers.
Coaches and community groups in the city are taking ambitious steps to spread the game's popularity among students — noting that only about 50 of more than 14,000 high school students in Detroit's school district play golf on school teams.
In Detroit, the biggest challenge is exposing Black youth to the game, said Jesse Hawkins, who is Black and coaches Horne’s team at Renaissance High School. Backing from local corporations and nonprofits, providing access to equipment and even college scholarships is helping.
“When you go into high schools and you go into elementary schools often times we’ll hear narratives around basketball players, football games, those things,” Hawkins said. "And golf is really not as propagated as much for our community.”
In Detroit, advocates of increasing play among Black young people have partnered with some of the city's largest businesses and community organizations. At least two nonprofits offer programs that teach kids how to play golf.
The Rocket Classic has steered nearly $10 million from the annual PGA event held in Detroit to local charitable organizations. Of that, $800,000 has been given to programs that teach kids how to play the game. One program provides access to college scholarships to high school seniors, while upward of 700 children and teens take part each year in programs put on by First Tee of Greater Detroit.
“Golf is the why we get them there, but while we have them there we’re teaching them life skills,” said Carl Bentley, chief executive of First Tee of Greater Detroit, which has donated a golf simulator to the school district. “Learning how to say ‘yes sir, yes ma’am’ — shake a hand properly, how to start a conversation. We’re teaching them life skills and then we get to putting and swinging and things like that."
Among the 28.1 million Americans who played golf on a course in 2024, about 25% were Black, Asian or Hispanic, according to the National Golf Foundation. Interest is wider when considering those who played or followed professional golf coverage on TV, in writing or via podcasts.
But Hawkins said his experience as a coach suggests Black high schoolers aren't among that audience.
“You don’t hear kids talking about the latest golf shoes or the cool golf apparel,” Hawkins said. “You’re not necessarily going to get a badge of honor walking into your high school and you’ve got the newest golf shirt.”
Golf and equipment can be pricey, sometimes too pricey for families struggling just to make ends meet.
Detroit, which is just under 80% Black, had a median income of about $39,500 in 2023 compared to $69,100 statewide, according to the census. The city’s poverty level was about 32%. Statewide, that figure was about 13.5%.
A set of good golf clubs can cost a few hundred dollars or more. It's $28 for juniors to play 18 holes and use a cart weekdays at the two public golf courses in Detroit.
The PGA brought its first event to Detroit in 2019, and city native Dan Gilbert's Rocket Companies has been its sponsor. The company works with partners to bring the game to Detroit’s youth and cover some of the costs, said Trina Scott, vice president of Civic and Community Affairs at Detroit-based Rock, which is Gilbert’s family office.
“How do we attract Black and brown youth into seeing (golf) as a possibility?” said Scott. “One way of doing that is by making it accessible (and) also eliminating the barriers — being able to have the right clothing to go on a golf course, being able to have the clubs that you need, being able to have the skillset to be confident on the course.”
Mike Schuchard has about a dozen players on his Detroit Cass Tech golf team. That's about double the number from last season, but only two are considered “varsity level."
That’s not enough to compete against some suburban schools with strong golf programs.
The first-year golf coach says he's trying to recruit students who are already interested in others sports.
“These schools are loaded with great athletes, but they just haven’t been introduced to this game, yet," Schuchard said.
Ahmari Flowers, the senior captain on Cass Tech's golf team, agrees. He started playing the sport after his freshman year.
“I’m an athletic guy and golf like came easy to me," said Flowers, 17. "For an athletic person, it’s still a sport, a lot of body movement and all you got to do is control that athleticism and use it to your advantage.”
Jacento White, 16, a junior at Renaissance High School works on his swing with golf coach Jess Hawkins in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Jacento White, 16, a junior golfer at Renaissance High School practices putting in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Shaun Horne, 16, a junior at Renaissance High School practices his golf swing in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Shaun Horne, 16, a junior at Renaissance High School works on putting with golf coach Jess Hawkins in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Shaun Horne, 16, a junior at Renaissance High School works on his swing with golf coach Jess Hawkins in Detroit, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.
In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.
Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.
Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.
But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.
More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.
“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”
Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.
People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.
More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .
“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.
The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.
Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.
While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.
Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.
Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”
The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.
Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.
A woman gets into an altercation with a federal immigration officer as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A federal immigration officer deploys pepper spray as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Bystanders are treated after being pepper sprayed as federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Federal agents look on after detaining a person during a patrol in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
