In 1952, Gerald Fox met in his living room with a group of friends who loved golf as much as he did. The result of that meeting was the Pittsburgh Duffers, an African-American golf club formed a decade before the PGA had its first African-American member.

African-Americans have always had a love affair with golf, even though they often had to play on horribly maintained public courses. The love was totally unrequited when it came to the PGA, which had a "whites only" clause until 1961.

Tonight at 9 on The Golf Channel, the documentary "Uneven Fairways" chronicles the stories of African-Americans who faced discrimination and all manner of indignities just to play the game of golf. Based on the books "Uneven Lies" by Golf Digest writer Pete McDaniel and "Forbidden Fairways" by Calvin H. Sinnette, it is a fascinating look at the lengths to which black golfers went, including forming their own tour, the United Golf Association.

The documentary was initially to air around the time Mr. McDaniel's book was published in 2000. But then it was put on the back burner until 2005, when it was revived by Moxie Pictures. The Golf Channel came aboard last year as an executive producer.

Hosted by actor and avid golfer Samuel L. Jackson, the film includes Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Lee Elder, the first African-American to play in The Masters, in 1975.

Other notables are Charlie Sifford, the first African-American member of the PGA; Bill Spiller, a top African-American golfer of the 1940s and '50s; Ted Rhodes, who won 150 tournaments on the UGA Tour; Renee Powell, a female golfer whose father opened one of the only African-American-owned golf courses in the United States; and Joe Louis, the heavyweight boxing champ who became the first black golfer to compete in a PGA-sanctioned event at the 1952 San Diego Open. Several will take part in a taped panel discussion set to air after the film.

Producer Keith Allow said "Uneven Fairways" is not a political statement or indictment of anyone.

"These men and women didn't care. They were going to find a way to play the game they loved so much," he said.

In 1925, they formed the UGA, whose members played on "pitted fairways and rock-strewn greens from Cleveland to Charleston," according to the documentary.

Cleveland is where Mr. Fox, a Stanton Heights resident, played golf in the early 1940s while working as head bartender at a country club.

"On Mondays [the club] was closed, and that's when the help would play," he said.

When the Pittsburgh Duffers was formed, the only courses members could use were at North Park and South Park, said Mr. Fox, now 92. Later, they would play a country club if invited by a member, but African-Americans still were excluded from membership.

Oakmont Country Club, which has hosted more U.S. Opens than any club in the country, didn't get its first African-American member until 1991, when attorney Eric Springer joined.

Despite black trailblazers on the PGA tour like Calvin Peete and Jim Thorpe and the meteoric rise of golfing phenomenon Tiger Woods, Duffers president Robert "Rock" Robinson said some people are still surprised to see African-Americans on the fairways.

Golf courses typically have a ranger whose job it is to make sure that groups aren't playing too slowly and holding up the players behind them. Years ago, a ranger would often follow the black golfers, Mr. Robinson said. When they asked why, the ranger explained that someone said their group was playing too slowly. However, the ranger would never approach the group playing ahead of them, Mr. Robinson said.

That's mild compared with what the early African-American golf pioneers suffered. Mr. Sifford said he once discovered that someone had put feces in the holes on a course he was playing. A haunting photo that's used in promotional materials for the documentary shows Mr. Spiller sitting on a tee in protest after he was not allowed to play. He spent decades fighting to desegregate the PGA, even suing the organization in 1949.

In 1961, after every other major sport had opened its doors to African-Americans, the PGA removed its "whites only" clause after then-California Attorney General Stanley Mosk threatened to take legal action if the PGA held segregated tournaments there.

Mr. Robinson, 53, is a member of the National Black Golf Hall of Fame and founder of the Western Pennsylvania Junior Minority Golf Association, which introduces African-American youngsters to golf. He said some country clubs were apprehensive about him bringing his group to play there.

"They associated minority with 'Here are some bad kids so we have to be careful about letting them play on our golf course,' " he said.

But the youngsters won club members over with their care of the course, their etiquette and manners, he added.

"I make the kids in our junior golf program understand that you have to have the appearance that you're taking care of things, that you're playing better and that you're not intimidated by anybody on this golf course."