Charlie Sifford
As we prepare for the 2012 AIM-IRS Scholarship Golf Tournament and in celebration of Black History month, let us share some history of the African American Golfer, featuring the black pioneer of golf, Charlie Sifford. Enjoy the reading and get ready for April 14, 2012 at high noon at Country Place Golf Course.
By LELAND STEIN III
Sports Editor Black Voice News
VALENCIA, Ca, March 1 - How bad do you want it? Can you put your pride aside to accomplish something that has the opportunity to be special and legendary? Do you have the vision to see the big picture in life? Are you the architect of your own destiny? In the case of Jackie Robinson, he became the architect of his own destiny by the way he conducted himself and his unbending focus on the task at hand. He swallowed his enormous pride and fighter’s spirit for a bigger cause. Robinson knew that if he entered baseball and fought every person that called him a demeaning name, he would be a failure. Why? Because if he failed in the grand integration experiment, it would have taken years for another integration opportunity to be extended by Major League Baseball.
Well, Charles Sifford, who was born in 1922 in North Carolina, found himself in a similar situation, breaking barriers in golf, only with a lot less fanfare, but no less the pain and resistance than his friend Robinson endured. Maybe, because of less visibility and press coverage afforded to Sifford’s quest to integrate the Professional Golf Association Tour, he endured and withstood even more degradation and contempt than Robinson. But Sifford had the vision and the will to make it against all odds. Surely the White dominated sport of golf and the infra-structures that supported it (the Country Clubs) were rock solid in their clubhouse ways and determination to keep the sport all White. Weathering the sting of exclusion and missed opportunity (he never played in the Masters), Sifford, now 76, endured long enough to become the first African -American to win a PGA Tour event; he won the Hartford Open in 1967, where he shot a scorching 64 to out last the charging field. Sifford won the Nissan Open - played as the the L.A. Open - in 1969 held at Rancho Park Golf Course. He overcame Harold Henning in a sudden death playoff. During his career he won six Negro National Titles, before joining the PGA Tour in 1960 at the age of 39, long past his prime playing years. Besides the Hartford and L.A. Open titles, he won the PGA Seniors’ Championship in 1975 and the Suntree Classic held in Melbourne Australia in 1980 Sifford won $1,265,490 during his PGA career. The majority of the prize money came on the Seniors’ Tour ($924,145). Conducted at the Valencia Country Club, the following is a question and answer interview with pioneer Sifford, whose autobiography, “Just Let Me Play”, says volumes about Sifford’s quest to integrate the golf world.
