PHOTO | AP

Charlie Sifford, a Charlotte native and the first Black golfer to play on the PGA Tour, is namesake to a Black college golf showcase at Quail Hollow Club.

Charles Sifford Jr. returned to the city where his father overcame racial barriers to launch a hall of fame golf career.

Sifford’s father was born in Charlotte in 1922 when Black people were forbidden to share spaces with whites whether by custom or law. Yet, Charlie Sifford learned enough as a caddy working in the city’s whites-only golf clubs to inspire him to pursue a playing career. The PGA Tour is recognizing Sifford’s legacy with the Charlie Sifford Centennial Cup, a showcase of six Black college programs including Johnson C. Smith and Livingstone. The showcase tees off Monday at Quail Hollow Club.

“It means quite a bit to us,” the younger Sifford said. “Dad left Charlotte at an early age (17), and it was a while before he went back. It’s a recognition of what he was able to accomplish during his career and show the respect that the golfing community is giving him now … and the family feel that he deserved for going through some of the hardships he had to deal with trying to play this crazy game of golf.”

Sifford Jr., who is 74 and lives in Cleveland, said his dad would be pleased by the showcase and the opportunity to inspire golfers of color – especially Black youth – to pursue careers in the sport.

Sifford Sr., who joined the tour in 1961 and became the first Black player to win a PGA tournament in 1967, endured abuse from whites who tried to bar him from the PGA as well as organizers and some fans once he broke the color line. Everyone wasn’t against him, though.

“It was just certain pockets of people that just didn’t want nonwhites on the golf course,” Sifford Jr. said. “And they the ones that had the power at the time, they pretty much controlled who played and who didn’t play.”

Times have changed since then, and so has golf’s embrace of players of color. The sport’s biggest attraction for two decades has been Tiger Woods, the son of a Black American father and Thai mother. One of the sport’s better veteran players is Gastonia native Harold Varner III and the LPGA Tour is dominated by women of Asian background.

Sifford Jr. said his father, who died in 2015, and peers from the all-Black United Golf Association like Ted Rhodes, the first African American to play in a major at the 1948 U.S. Open, and Bill Spiller opened doors for others. Rhodes and Spiller successfully sued the PGA to remove its whites-only clause, but the association changed its tournaments to invitation-only events that maintained the lockout until Sifford gained entry.

“There’s a younger generation coming along, and they have different ideas on how things should be run,” Sifford Jr. said. “They have a different outlook on things and did their studying and realize what he had to go through should deserve recognition for it. He went through things that’s hard to imagine just chase a little white ball around the golf course and try to make a living something that he really loved to do.”

Although the PGA hasn’t committed to making the exhibition a permanent fixture, the younger Sifford would like it to grow beyond a one-off event.

“It’s something I definitely would like to see continue, maybe move it around to different cities to get exposure,” he said. “Hopefully they will continue with it … so the recognition will grow in all 50 states.”

PGA executive director Adam Sperling was non-committal as to whether there’d be a Sifford-related event in the future, noting that the Centennial Cup is related to Charlotte as host of next month’s Presidents Cup. Future host cities usually have specific initiatives, but 2022 doesn’t necessarily mean the end of what starts at Quail Hollow.

“This is unique to Charlotte, and who knows?” he said. “Great ideas, if executed really well, oftentimes get copied and pasted and improved upon. That’s not to say that Montreal in ‘24, Chicago in ‘26 may not have their own community initiatives specific to those markets. But we’re excited about this [showcase] for these kids and these schools, these programs right now.”

Sifford Jr., who says he has a single-digit handicap and can shoot his age, will be in Charlotte for the Centennial Cup exhibition and surrounding events, which includes a thought leadership summit with executives from the corporate and HBCU executives. He plans to play perhaps a round or two of golf, but mostly, he’s grateful of the appreciation shown his father’s contributions.

“They’re recognizing Dad, but they still shouldn’t overlook some of the other players as well that made a footprint in the game,” he said. “It’s a start and I hope they continue to grow with it.”

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