SHOAL CREEK (AP) — Shoal Creek.

For many outside the imposing gates of this picturesque and secluded golf and country club, the name still conjures memories of the racial tempest that swirled around the 1990 PGA Championship. For others, the exclusive club has faded from golf's national consciousness altogether.

Shoal Creek believes those perceptions will begin to change now that it has finally lured another national tournament, the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship that begins Monday and runs through next Saturday.

"We've been trying to get golf back since 1990," said Mike Thompson, the event's general chairman and son of Shoal Creek founder Hall Thompson.

What took so long? That's easy.

Hall Thompson's comments that his club would not be pressured into accepting black members — and the fact that it had none at the time — stirred controversy just before Shoal Creek's hosting of the PGA Championship. The rancor prompted major golf organizations to adopt membership policies for tournament sites.

Several major sponsors — including Anheuser-Busch, Toyota and IBM — yanked TV ads and black organizations threatened to picket outside. Hall Thompson, now 85, later apologized.

Eighteen years later, the United States Golf Association is once again bringing a significant event to a course that hosted two PGA Championships and the 1986 U.S. Amateur Championship.

Shoal Creek is hoping it's the start of a public renewal.

"Time has melted away and we are now being taken seriously," Mike Thompson said. "We've got such a great venue. We've got a dedicated membership that works their fingers to the bone. This is kind of our reorientation to golf.

"We're just hoping to launch Shoal Creek back into the game of golf."

Shoal Creek now has 600 members, and four of them are black, he said, adding that 10 blacks have been contacted about joining since 1990 and two have indicated they intend to apply in the future.

Economics limit the invitation-only applicants, whatever their skin color: The initiation fee is $65,000 in addition to monthly dues of about $500 for the club nestled between the lush Oak and Double Oak mountains, according to Thompson.

The USGA, like the PGA and LPGA, scrutinizes membership before awarding an event to a site in a policy put in place after the Shoal Creek episode in 1990. USGA officials interviewed members, including black members, to make sure a club not only has an open membership policy but practices it, executive director David Fay said.

"We looked at the Shoal Creek membership makeup and we were satisfied that there were no problems," Fay said. "We were extra diligent in the vetting process."