From Ghana to Torrey Pines: Danny List to make PGA Tour debut thanks to idol Tiger Woods

LA JOLLA, Calif. – Danny List was on the driving range at The Grand Golf Club in nearby Del Mar when an unknown number popped up on his phone. He never answers such calls – “it’s just not something I do,” he said – but this time he made an exception and, boy, is he glad he did.

“For some reason something told me to just pick it up,” he recalled on Wednesday ahead of the Genesis Invitational.

On the other end of the call was Mike Antolini, the tournament director, who informed List that he was this year’s recipient of the Charlie Sifford exemption.

“As he’s kind of telling me, I knew what was going on and I was getting a few goosebumps,” List said. “It was a pretty special moment for me. I was just over the moon.”

So was List’s mom, who got the first phone call after he hung up with Antolini. List, 26, is scheduled to make his PGA Tour debut at the tournament hosted by Tiger Woods, who was List’s golf hero when he was growing up as a kid in Ghana.

“I think I’ve spent probably 1,000 hours watching Tiger Woods hit a golf ball back,” List said. “We were about eight hours ahead most of the time of the U.S. so it was a good time in the mornings when the PGA Tour was on, I was done with school and I was able to turn it on.”

List was born in Macon, Georgia, to an Australian father and Ghanian mother and raised in Accra, the capital of Ghana in West Africa. List took up the game at the tender age of 2 or 3 thanks to his uncle who caddied at one of the eight courses in Ghana and gifted List plastic clubs that he’d hit around the house. By age nine, List began dreaming of playing on the Tour someday. But he faced an uphill battle playing on hardscrabble courses.

“Anytime I would play any junior event internationally I would come over and I would just get waxed by everyone else, come in almost dead last thinking maybe it was partly me,” he said.

But at age 13, he was awarded a scholarship to play at a boarding school in England and improved enough to be recruited to play at the University of Washington (2016-17). List played a season on PGA Tour Americas, and made a couple of starts on the Korn Ferry Tour before earning his DP World Tour card this season at its Q-School.

“Danny has shown resiliency and determination on the course,” Woods said in a release announcing the exemption, which is awarded each year by Woods to a person who represents the advancement of the diversity in the game of golf. “He’s earned this opportunity, and I look forward to seeing Danny teeing it up at Torrey.”

List’s recent success is all the more impressive given that he suffered a L4-L5 stress fracture in his lower back in 2023.

“I was just putting a ton of stress on my body the way I was swinging it, getting a little bit of reverse spine angle and eventually just gave out,” he said. “Wasn’t doing the right stuff in the gym or eating the right stuff. With the stress of the professional golf life and the schedule, it kind of caught up to me a bit.”

He called it a long and arduous journey back, one in which he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to compete again. He only started hitting golf balls less than a year ago.

“If you told me that I’d have my DP World Tour card in that time, I’d think you were joking,” he said.

But here he is with a spot in the 72-man field at a $20 million signature event alongside the likes of Rory McIlroy, who he spoke to this week at Torrey Pines.

“I might have stuttered once or twice, but it was pretty cool,” List said. “Next to Tiger, he’s probably the guy I’ve looked up to the most in the world of golf.”

Typically, Tiger makes a point to spend time with the Charlie Sifford Exemption winner but this year is different given the passing of his mother last week and his decision on Monday not to compete this week. But Tiger did say he hopes to be on site this weekend and if he does he likely will be around on Sunday to hand out the trophy.

“I’m hoping,” List said. “Obviously some things are out of our control.”