The LPGA Tour and the European PGA Tour concluded their 2014 seasons last weekend. The Champions Tour ended its 2014 calendar year in early November. The PGA Tour concluded its wrap-around 2013-14 campaign in September, has held seven tourneys during its 2014-15 season, and is currently on hiatus until January.
In other words, the past week has been a quiet one in the world of professional golf. Hard to believe, but the feel-good story of the week comes from the highly charged political world of Washington D.C. President Obama hosted the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom awards ceremony on Monday. Eighteen distinguished Americans received the Medal of Freedom, including actresses Meryl Strep and Marlo Thomas, musician supreme Stevie Wonder, and Ethel Kennedy.
Of particular interest to the world of golf was the recognition at Monday”s ceremony of 92-year-old Charlie Sifford. Sifford won just two PGA Tour events, the 1967 Hartford Open and the 1969 Los Angeles Open. Sifford won a senior major, the 1975 Senior PGA Championship, although he just so happened to win it a full five years before the formation of the Senior Tour. Yet with what would appear to be a fairly limited golf resume, it is nonetheless very easy for me to say that Charles L. Sifford of Shaker Heights, Ohio, is a most desiring recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom award.
Sifford was born on June 2, 1922 in Charlotte. He came from a relatively poor, working-class background. At age 13, during the height of the Great Depression, Charlie started working as a caddie at the local golf course. In those days he earned 60 cents for an 18-hole loop. The way Sifford tells the story, he used to return home after a day at the golf course and would give his mother 50 cents for every round he caddied to help his family financially. He kept the other 10 cents for himself to buy cigars, a golfing trademark he maintained throughout his pro career.
Sifford picked up the game, excelled at it from the very start, was playing par golf in his mid-teens, and entered local tournaments organized by black golfers. Upon the outbreak of World War II, Sifford entered the U.S. Army and served in the 24th Infantry. He was released from the Army in 1947 and immediately turned professional and entered golf”s play-for-pay ranks.
However, there was a major hurdle in the way of Sifford and his quest to become a world class golfer. At that time, the PGA of America ran the PGA Tour. The PGA of America, that very same organization that hastily and erratically removed its president, Ted Bishop, for calling Ian Poulter “a little girl,” had a Caucasian-only clause in its bylaws. Charlie, a black man, couldn”t become a member of the PGA or gain exempt status on the PGA Tour. He could qualify his way into a few events in places such as Phoenix and Los Angeles, but the door was shut on Sifford throughout most of the golfing world. One of the game”s top talents of the 1950s couldn”t prove his mettle against the likes of Hogan, Snead and the rest because of the color of his skin.
When he did Monday qualify into a PGA event on occasion, the welcome mat was far from out. At the 1952 Phoenix Open, exactly four black golfers were in the field, including retired boxing great Joe Louis. The four black golfers were paired together for round one. As their group arrived at the first green, they found that the cup had been filled with excrement.
During the 1950s, Sifford won a pair of non-sanctioned PGA Tour events, namely the 1957 Long Beach Open and the 1960 Almaden Open in San Jose. A dominant golfer on the UGA Circuit, Charlie won five consecutive National Negro Open Championships from 1952 through 1956. He also made some good money during those times as the personal professional of well-known big band leader Billy Eckstine.
In 1959, Sifford and Eckstine were joined for a round of golf at Hillcrest Country Club by Stanley Mosk. Mosk was an avid golfer who doubled as the California Attorney General. Sifford posted his usual sub-par round that day and afterward Mosk asked Sifford why he didn”t play on the PGA Tour. Sifford told Mosk about the Caucasian-only clause. Mosk was stunned. Shortly thereafter, Mosk contacted the PGA and was advised that it was a by-law issue. Mosk reacted by threatening to close down tour events in San Diego, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Jose and Monterey if the clause wasn”t revoked. The PGA of America adhered to Mosk”s pressure and removed the discriminatory by-laws clause.
Charlie Sifford was on the PGA Tour full time starting in 1960 as a 38-year-old rookie. He was golf”s Jackie Robinson although he had been a pro for 14 seasons and was 12 years older than Robinson when he broke baseball”s color barrier. Even with his PGA card, it was still a tough journey for Charlie. He won twice in the 1960s at high-level tour events, yet still wasn”t able to play in the Masters, an invitational major with backward thinking leadership. Restaurants and hotels in various sections of the country wouldn”t accommodate him. Yet throughout it all, Sifford was non-confrontational, showed no outward bitterness, and was a true professional.
Sifford was teary eyed as President Obama presented him with his Medal of Freedom. It isn”t his only recognition of note. He is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, is a past recipient of the Old Tom Morris Award, and has a golf course named after him in Ohio. A minority golfer is granted exempt status into the L.A. Open each year. It is called the Charlie Sifford Exemption.
It was a very quiet week in the world of professional golf. Yet it was brightened by the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Sifford, the Jackie Robinson of professional golf. Mr. Sifford is a most deserving recipient, not only because of what he did to break golf”s color barrier, but because of his love of the game and the classy way he always carried himself.
