Augusta Wears a Jacket of Another Color

Byline: Leonard Shapiro

Charlie Sifford was invited to come to Augusta two weeks ago, not by the green-jacketed lords of the Masters, but by the Golf Writers Association of America which holds its annual awards dinner the night before the start of the first major championship of the season.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I happen to be the outgoing president of the GWAA and thought it would be a wonderful idea to honor Sifford, who had been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla., last fall. He became the first African American to be selected for the Hall, and his emotional acceptance speech that magical evening evoked off-the-charts readings on goose bump meters all around, and a few tears as well.

When I called Charlie to let him know we also planned to honor him at our dinner, he was greatly appreciative. When I began to give him some of the details, particularly the site of the dinner in Augusta, he immediately stopped me.

"I'm not going to Augusta," he said. "I just can't go there."

I had been told by some of his friends and some of my colleagues that likely would be the case, but I pressed on, hoping to convince him. But it soon became apparent he would not set foot in the city, for reasons that should be painfully obvious to anyone who knows anything about the history of The Masters, particularly when Sifford was establishing himself as one of the finest players of his era, black or white, in the 1950s and '60s.

Despite his prowess, despite winning two PGA Tour events, despite impassioned newspaper articles written at the time, Sifford never was invited to play in The Masters. This was a tournament that always called itself the Masters Invitational, but under its rules at the time--some of which Sifford and others have always believed were altered as necessary to keep him out--Sifford never played in the tournament.

At the time Clifford Roberts and his friend, Bobby Jones, ran the club and essentially made all the rules. In his remarkable new biography of Jones, "The Immortal Bobby" by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Ron Rappaport, the author recounts an exchange of letters between Jones and late Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray, one of Sifford's most impassioned champions.

Before the Los Angeles Open in January, 1969, Murray had described the PGA's Caucasian only policy enforced until 1961 as making the organization the "recreational arm of the Ku Klux Klan." He also quoted Sifford about his not being invited to The Masters.

"I get this letter from Bobby Jones telling me to stop threatening him," Sifford told Murray. "I don't threaten any man. I get threatened."

Jones wrote Murray privately insisting he had never threatened Sifford, and sent him the letter he had sent Sifford. According to Rappaport, the letter contained no threats, but was "patronizing from start to finish." He also noted that Jones letter to Murray was addressed to "Dear Mr. Murray, which was his custom when writing to people he did not know well. The one to Sifford began "Dear Charlie."

Sifford would go on to win the Los Angeles Open that year and Murray, writing in the L.A. Times, said "the proposition before the house now is how does Charlie go about crashing the last barricade to membership in golf's front-of-the-bus--play in the Masters."

Murray again wrote Jones privately and asked him to invite Sifford, but to no avail, and Sifford never had the opportunity to win a green jacket many of his peers have since said he might have done long before Tiger Woods became the first person of color to win The Masters in 1997.

Sifford would have loved to have been there to see Woods accomplish that feat. After all, he had befriended Woods and his father when Tiger was a mere pussycat, and Woods has often referred to him his surrogate grandfather.

But he couldn't bring himself to go to Augusta, just as he couldn't bring himself to accept our award two weeks ago. Instead, I brought the award to Sifford this past Tuesday night in Savannah, Ga., where he was making an appearance at the Legends of Golf senior tour event.

Charlie Sifford is a proud man, and I could certainly understand his reluctance to set foot anywhere near the front gates at Augusta National. But it didn't have to be that way.

The lords of the Masters can cite the qualification rules of the time until their green jackets turn blue. The bottom line is that they had no qualms inviting obscure players from Formosa or Taiwan or even Japan, but they couldn't bring themselves to invite Charlie Sifford, an American golfer who belonged on the property, and might even have won their precious tournament.

Sadly, we'll never know.

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at Badgerlen@hotmail.com

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