The first African American to compete regularly on the PGA Tour, Charlie Sifford was born June 2nd, 1922 in in Charlotte, North Carolina. He got into golf through the only avenue available to a young, Black kid – caddying. But he wanted to play the game and growing up in the age of segregation, opportunities for him to gain experience on courses weren’t easy to come by. Sifford started caddying when he was 10 years old. He proved to be a quick study and was always in demand by the more accomplished players. The country club where he caddied was closed on Mondays, so the caddies were allowed to use the golf course that day. Sifford took advantage of the situation. He found that he loved the game, and better, that he had a gift for it. Sometimes he and a few friends would sneak inside the grounds before the club opened and practice some more. By the age of thirteen, he occasionally broke par on the course.
The Carolina Club owner, Sutton Alexander, and future PGA pro Clayton Heafner, saw Sifford play and helped to teach him the game. In 1939, Alexander took the 17-year-old Sifford aside and told him it might be best if he left the caddie service and stayed away from the club. Sifford was hurt, but the worst blow came when he found out the reason for his exile. He had become to good and the members didn't like it. His family moved to Philadelphia, PA when he was 17 years old, where he played against local Black golfers and perfected his game. Sifford entered segregated golf tournaments and made friends among the black golfers of his day. Like many other African American athletes, Sifford could only dream about competing for the big money prizes alongside White athletes.
Charlie got the only 8-to-5 job of his life in the shipping department at the local Nabisco plant. After a stint in the Army during World War II, Sifford began to make a name for himself. He met Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson in 1947, very soon after Jackie had integrated Major League Baseball. When he related to Robinson his dream of playing at the highest level of golf, Jackie cautioned him not to be a quitter. "Jackie Robinson told me not to do it until I was ready.” He warned him of the hostility he would face, intruding on the sacred grounds of a White man’s sport. “Above all,” Robinson warned him, “you can’t be going after these people who call you names with a golf club. If you do that, you’ll ruin it for all of the Black players to come.”
He began golfing professionally in 1948. However, his advancement was limited because of race discrimination in the Jim Crow era. Even though Sifford made significant strides in his career, he continued to be a target of harassment and death threats prior to and following the abolishment of the "Caucasian-only" clause. When he tried to play with the White golfers, be he was told no. He competed in the golf tournaments that Black golfers organized for themselves as they were excluded from the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA). Sifford honed his game in the United Golf Association, a tournament circuit established in the mid-1920s by Black golfers, and allowed golfers of all races to compete. The early 1940s found him on the United Golf Association tour, and he won the United Golf Association’s National Negro Open six times, securing consecutive victories from 1952 through 1956.
Sifford was subjected to threats and racial abuse there and at other tournaments. Sifford later worked as a valet and golf instructor to the singer Billy Eckstine, who also financially supported his career when he was unable to find sponsorship. Eckstine was in great demand as an entertainer during the 1950s, and Sifford had the chance to meet some of the nation's top jazz musicians, including Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan. From the singer Sifford also acquired his nickname, "Little Horse," a memory he preserves today by wearing a golden horse charm on a chain around his neck. He first attempted to qualify for a PGA Tour event at the 1952 Phoenix Open, using an invitation obtained by former World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis.
Unable to display his ability with all the best players, Sifford took his talents elsewhere – to great success. In 1957, Sifford won the Long Beach Open, which was co-sponsored by the PGA and had some well-known White players in the field. Surprising everybody, Sifford won the tournament by one stroke in a playoff and received a winner’s check for $11,500.00. Sifford, thus demonstrated that he could not only compete at the highest level, but also that he could win. Still, he wasn’t allowed to compete in the Tour event the following week. Even so, the stodgy PGA tried to thwart him when he sued for membership, moving tournaments from one state to another while clinging tightly to the “Caucasian only” clause. Two years later, Sifford had come to meet Stanley Mosk, the state attorney general for the state of California. Mosk demanded the PGA to explain why Sifford, a resident of the state was being barred from competing in tournaments within in the state or from becoming a PGA member. A California lawsuit caused the PGA to strike its “Caucasian only” clause in 1961.
This put pressure on the PGA, eliminating the facade that Blacks were not on par with White players and forced the PGA to admit that their Caucasian rule was purely racist in nature. Charlie Sifford competed in the U.S. Open in 1959 for the first time, and tied for 32nd place. Although he was late into his 30s when he made it onto the PGA Tour, Sifford was still able to show he could compete against the best golfers – despite the hostility he encountered, both on and off the golf course. He finished in 32nd place out of 147 competitors. Due to Mosk’s pressure at the end of the 1960 season, Charlie was given an “approved player” card by the PGA for a one-year trial. Renewal depended upon his ability to win among the ranks of Whites. He became the first African American to win the designation. A few months from turning 38, Sifford was officially a rookie on the PGA Tour. He didn’t have many good years left as a player.
The first official tournament that he played in with the card was in Greensboro, North Carolina. On the first day of the tournament Sifford led with a 68. He won second place in that tournament and pocketed $700. On other occasions he was heckled ruthlessly by fans, who called him “nigger” and “boy” and suggested he return to caddying. Several times he was turned away from the gates of private clubs despite his official PGA status. Often he had to change clothes in his car or eat lunch in the locker room because the dining facilities were segregated. Sifford competed at the 1959 U.S. Open for the first time and tied for 32nd place. In October 1960 he competed in the Orange County Open in Costa Mesa, California and finished in second place behind veteran Billy Casper. He became a member of the Tour in 1961, thus becoming the first Black golfer to join the PGA Tour. Three years later, in 1964, Sifford was awarded full PGA membership.
You would think things would have changed for Charlie Sifford. He was now 42 years old and a full member of the PGA. But, threats, slights and insults continued, such as being prohibited from eating in dining rooms at many clubhouses. Friends such as fellow professionals Bob Rosburg, Jackie Burke Jr., Don January and Bob Goalby would go through the buffet in a clubhouse dining room, then bring their food into the locker room to eat with Charlie. Having finally been admitted as a member of the PGA tour, Sifford would now face the top players in the sport, including Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus. In 1963 Sifford led the field at the Puerto Rican Open, shooting 277 over four rounds and beating newcomer Chi Chi Rodriguez for the $10,00.00 prize. His growing success as a golfer helped open the door to other Black golfers including Pete Brown who won the 1964 Waco Turner tournament in Oklahoma, thus becoming the first African American man to win an official PGA Tour event. Sifford held his temper in check, but golf was rough going.
After finishing fourth at Tucson, Sifford returned to California as the Tour headed South. He was finally issued an invitation to the 1964 Greater Greensboro Open in North Carolina, his native state. He hadn’t been home for many years, but the thought that he might now be risking his life gnawed at him. Not allowed to stay in a hotel, Sifford roomed at the dormitory of North Carolina A&T, in a room secured for him by a friend. Barred from restaurants, he usually ate at the homes of Black friends. The college dorm was so noisy that Sifford accepted the offer of a Black family to stay at their house. Sifford opened the tournament with a round of 68. Late that night, he received a phone call at the private home. The owner handed Sifford the phone and a man on the other end unleashed a torrent of curses and racial epithets, warning him not to come to the course the next day. Sifford was shaken. He considered withdrawing, but he continued.
At the course the following morning, Sifford was nervous about the threats. After he teed off, a familiar voice yelled from the crowd of spectators, “Nice shot, Smokey!” Sifford recognized the voice as the one on the telephone. The taunting continued from the man and a gang of accomplices. They threatened, shouted and did everything they could to disrupt Sifford’s game. PGA official George Wash arrived at the third hole, and stayed beside Sifford. He urged the White trouble-makers to leave, but they stayed, shouting and cursing. Someone picked up his ball and threw it far from the fairway. Finally, police arrived on the 14th hole and took them away. Not a man to back down, Sifford shot a 72 that day, and later called it one of the greatest rounds of his life.
Charlie Sifford went on to win two official money events, the 1967 Greater Hartford Open the first by a Black player at a formal PGA Tour event and the 1969 Los Angeles Open. He repeatedly applied for the prestigious Masters Tournament. His application was always denied, even during the years of his tour victories. One year he led the Canadian Open after the first round. Traditionally, the winner of that tournament received an automatic invitation to the Masters. That year, however, the PGA cabled the Canadian Open that it would not necessarily invite the winner to the Masters Tournament—right in the middle of the Canadian Open. Stung yet again by the blatant racism, Sifford did not win the tournament. Another time, a promise of a $100,000 bonus and a new car for anyone who hit a hole-in-one was mysteriously rescinded when Sifford managed to do just that. He sued and won his cash and car.
On November 28, 1971 Sifford won the satellite Sea Pines Open Tournament in Hilton Head, South Carolina, finishing 10 under par. He competed in the 1972 US Open and finished in 21st place, his best finish in a major tournament. No Black athlete played in the Masters Tournament until 1975. By that time Sifford had retired from the PGA tour and was working as a teaching pro at a country club near Cleveland, Ohio. Sifford never cared much for teaching, however. After retiring from the PGA, Charlie Sifford went on to play on the Seniors tour. He liked the challenge of the tournament. Later, he won the 1975 Senior PGA Championship a tournament for players over the age of fifty. Five years later as an original member of the Senior Tour he won at the 1980 SunTree Classic. He toured with the Seniors for more than a decade and later moved to the Super Seniors Tour for those over 60 years old. Even as a member of the Seniors Tour Sifford often teed off against men much younger than himself, but he managed to stay among the top 50 earners from 1981 until 1989.
Despite being denied entry into tournaments over the years, especially during his prime, Sifford finished his first nine years on the tour in the top 60 in overall earnings. In 2004, he became the first Black golfer to be enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Charlie Sifford was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, it is the highest award presented to a civilian. Sifford wasn’t the only Black golfer of his era who wanted to play. There were others like Ted Rhodes, Bill Spiller and Pete Brown, to name a few. But Sifford experienced the most success and became the public face of the struggle that eventually paved the way for players like Lee Elder, the first African American to play in the Masters, and Calvin Peete. When considering Sifford’s achievements, it is often important to consider that he began competing on the PGA at the age of 38, well past his prime. Despite his obstacles he amassed over $1.2 million over his career. Charlie was hospitalized for a stroke one month before, he died on February 3, 2015, at the age of 92.