It is too cold here to play golf, so I am writing about it.
In my last blog post I inadvertently omitted Lee Elder from my listing of some of the African American golfers on the PGA Tour. Since he is one of the most well-known of these golfers, I have to correct that oversight, which gives me a chance to mention some other historical aspects of African Americans in golf.
Lee Elder was the second African American golfer, after Charlie Sifford, to have a major impact on the PGA Tour. He entered the PGA Tour as a 33-year-old rookie, after dominating the professional tournaments sponsored by the black United Golf Association (UGA) and winning four UGA national championships between 1963 and 1967.
Elder made a big splash on the PGA Tour in 1968, his first year, in a great five-hole “sudden death” playoff with Jack Nicklaus, which he lost but gained substantial notoriety. Elder went on to do very well on tour and to eventually win four events in the 1970s. By winning the PGA Monsanto Open in 1974, Elder qualified for and played in the 1975 Masters, being the first African American to do so.
A movie about Lee Elder is in the works as he has had a very interesting and colorful life. For example, as a teenager in the era of segregation he travelled the country as the partner of the legendary Titanic Thompson, probably the world’s greatest hustler. Thompson won fortunes playing high stakes poker, billiards, and golf against the best and richest in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950’s. Sometimes Elder posed as Thompson’s caddie or a member of a golf course’s grounds crew. Thompson would get them matches by saying he was so good he could beat a team of white opponents with a black kid as his partner. He’d pick Elder and — more often than not — they would win.
Elder’s participation in the Masters, however, was more a result of a change in the rules than his accomplishment as an individual. The Masters tournament, held by the extremely elite Augusta National Golf Course in Augusta, Georgia, obtained its prestigious status by promotion and by being an invitation-only event. It is not sponsored by any of golf’s organized associations; it is run by the Augusta National Golf Club. From the beginning of the tournament in the 1930s all PGA tournament winners from the previous year were invited to play in the Masters tournament. Also, a Masters winner could ask an otherwise ineligible player.
Inviting tournament winners worked very well for Augusta National– which prohibited black players — until 1967 when Charlie Sifford won the Hartford Open. To exclude Sifford, the Masters changed its standing practice of inviting the previous year’s PGA tournament winners and used other criteria, a dodge they repeated in 1968 when Pete Brown won the San Diego Open and again in 1969 when Charlie Sifford won the Los Angeles Open.
After these episodes and significant pressure from the sports world, the PGA Tour forced the Masters to set up and maintain a constant set of criteria for entry into the tournament, after that Augusta National had to stick to the rule of inviting the previous year’s PGA winners. The next tournament victory by an African American was by Elder in 1974, which automatically qualified him to play in the 1975 Masters. It is interesting that in the seven years that Elder was a top player but did not have the criterion victory, there were times that he, or Sifford or Brown, could have been invited to participate in the Masters by a previous winner (e.g., by Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, etc.). But they were never invited!
Beginning in 1977 and continuing through 1988 either Elder, Calvin Peete, or Jim Thorpe played in the Masters. In most years two of them played. Thus, another racial barrier was crossed.
After accepting black players, Augusta National faced substantial criticism about its membership rules, which excluded African Americans. Finally, in 1990 the club relented and admitted its first African-American member, and since then has accepted at least one other African American male member. After enduring a few years of protests against its stated policy against having women members, Augusta National extended membership in 2012 to Condoleeza Rice, African American and former U.S. Secretary of State, and Darla Moore, the billionaire financier.