After stepping away from her corporate role, Clemmie Perry wondered what’s next? An accomplished executive with over 25 years of experience within three Fortune 500 companies, including Lockheed Martin Corporation, Florida Power & Light Company, and Sodexo. The direction that path would take, however, was an unexpected one. 

Clemmie received a call from her younger brother one afternoon who’d recommended she take up golf and mentioned he’d found a set of used golf clubs, which sparked her curiosity. It was where he discovered the clubs however,  n top of a pile left out as trash on the corner of PGA Boulevard and Prosperity Road, that felt more like a sign from above. With a package of golf lessons gifted to her from her older brother a few months later, the deal was sealed and after just a few swings, Clemmie fell in love with the game. 

While she loved golf for its health benefits and its ability to help her meet interesting new people, she discovered there were not many women who looked like her on the course. She did some research and discovered that less than 1% of the nearly 67 million people who played golf were women of color–she knew she had to do something to change the statistics. Clemmie immediately got engaged in the golf industry and with the help of executives, insiders and Dr. Renee Powell, golf’s most decorated black female golfer and the second black woman to play on the LPGA Tour, she got to work. 

In 2014, Clemmie Perry established Women of Color Golf and Girls on the Green Tee to create a spark of interest and inspiration from an underrepresented group in the game and to provide them with a welcoming onramp to the sport.

These initiatives quickly began receiving international recognition including acknowledgment from President Barack Obama as a U.S. White House Champion of Change for After School Programs, designation as the Aramco Team Series' Charity of the Year award for three consecutive years (2021, 2022, 2023) and being named the 2020 PGA TOUR Charity of the Year and the Tampa Bay Lightning Community Hero (2018).

The organization also garnered widespread media attention, including features in publications like Forbes, Ebony, and Black Enterprise, and on the Golf Channel. 

Since their inception, Women of Color Golf and Girls on the Green Tee have welcomed over 2,500 minority women and girls to golf imparting essential golf education through corporate partnerships and community outreach programs.

Clemmie Perry's remarkable journey and impactful contributions have made her a trailblazer, inspiring and empowering women and girls in sports and beyond.