The record books of the Professional Golfers'
Association will never show it, but the 1969 Los Angeles Open last
month was a milestone. Short, stubby Charlie Sifford, jumping off to a
first-round lead with five birdies and an eagle in one six-hole spree,
won the season's opening tournament on the first hole of a sudden-death
play-off against, ironically, South Africa's Harold Henning. Thus
Sifford, long the victim of the apartheid in pro golf, picked up
$20,000 and became, however briefly, the first Negro to lead the money
winners on the pro tour. The P.G.A. has good reason to ignore this aspect of Sifford's victory.
Golf, owing in large part to the hidebound P.G.A., was for years one of
the most segregated major sports in the U.S. The P.G.A. waited until
1961, a full ten years after most other pro sports were fully
integrated, before it removed the Caucasian-only clause from its
membership requirements. Even now, the majority of blacks seen on the
pro circuit are still the caddies. Of the 300 pros on last year's tour,
only six were Negro. This season there are eleven, and though such
experienced competitors as Sifford and Lee Elder, 33, who finished
seventh in the recent Bing Crosby National, are capable of winning any
tournament, they agree that it will probably be five years or more
before any Negro golfer can hope to join the ranks of the top ten
moneymakers over a full season. Moonlighting Players. It is not that they lack the talent to play golf,
just the opportunity. As Sifford says: “White people have been playing
golf for a hundred goddam years, man. Negroes have had a tough enough
time just getting into school, let alone playing golf.” “In Mississippi,” explains Pete Brown, 34, who earned $8,356 on the tour
last season, “we weren't allowed to play golf, but me and some of the
other Negro caddies used to scrape up a few clubs and sneak onto the
course at dawn or even late at night.” If nothing else, adds George
Thorpe, 26, a second-year pro from Roxboro, N.C., “playing by moonlight
sure teaches you how to keep the ball on the fairway.” Another problem is sponsorship. “You need about $15,000 a year for
expenses to play the tour,” says Lee Elder, who finished 54th in the
rankings last year with earnings of $31,690, “and it is rare for a
Negro to have a sponsor.” As a result, says Ray Botts, 32, who won only
$3,431 last season, many young black golfers cannot afford to sharpen
their game with consistent tournament play and “they get disillusioned
very quickly.” Some are reduced to hustling duffers, while others who
stick it out often do so at the expense of their prime playing years.
Howard Brown, for example, after six years of hacking around the pocket-money
tournaments organized by Negro businessmen, finally found a sponsor and
joined the P.G.A. circuit for the first time this season. He is 32, or
about ten years older than the white rookies on the tour.
