5 1 CHAPTER Long before Tiger Woods made history there Bobby Jones walked the ground in Augusta Georgia and had a vision He looked out over the old nursery site and saw what would become the most beautiful golf course in the world It seemed that this land had been lying here for years just waiting for someone to lay a golf course upon it he later wrote Jones was the greatest golfer of his era He had been looking for a course to host a tournament for the world’s best players Jones and his partner Clifford Roberts bought the land in Augusta in 1931 Three years later the first Masters Tournament was held at the Augusta National Golf Club Breaking Barriers Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia is one of the most famous golf courses in the world
6 Augusta National and the Masters would soon become legendary in the golf community The course was known for its high quality The greens were always fast and the course was always beautiful and challenging Meanwhile the Masters became a spring tradition Each year golf’s first major championship helped welcome the season The world’s greatest golfers arrived for the tournament each April Some of the sport’s most famous moments Black caddies look at white golfer Gene Sarazen’s golf club at the 1935 Masters
7 occurred there But the course and the tournament also had a darker history Georgia and other parts of the United States were racially segregated when Augusta National opened Blacks were barred from many facilities For decades Augusta National had no black members The Masters never invited a black player either Public support for segregation began to change during the 1940s One major milestone occurred in 1947 when Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers He became the first black player since the 1800s to play in Major League Baseball Yet the Professional Golfers Association PGA Tour didn’t drop its News IN THE Black golfer Charlie Sifford couldn’t join the PGA Tour until 1961 and never received a Masters invitation One newspaper columnist wrote often about that injustice Charlie Sifford is a golfer an American a gentleman He is not however a Caucasian Until 1961 this seriously interfered with his life liberty and pursuit of happiness to say nothing of his occupation because golf was a members only club till then Source Jim Murray Integration Misses Cut at Masters St Petersburg Florida Times via Los Angeles Times April 7 1969 Print C3
