HOLD THE BACK PAGE:MUCH AS he admired the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era, and the wider impact of his success, Charlie Sifford has never been too happy being dubbed the 'Jackie Robinson of golf'. He's been quick to point out, as he did again in an interview with Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times during the week, that "Robinson had a team behind him, I had to do it alone".
He did too. Now 89, Sifford earned his place in history when, in 1961, he became the first black member of the PGA after they dropped their 'Caucasian only' membership clause – under pressure from Stanley Mosk, the California attorney general.
Two years before, Sifford had asked Mosk for his help when he learned that the 1962 PGA Championship was due to be played at an all-white country club in Los Angeles. Mosk informed the PGA that that was a 'no go', so they switched the tournament to another all-white club in Philadelphia. The pressure was on, though, the PGA finally relenting in 1961 and removing their 'whites only' rule. Just Let Me Play Sifford later, aptly, named his autobiography.
That had been his most memorable 'triumph' until 2004 when he became the first black man to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. "This makes me feel like I'm a worthwhile professional golfer," he said at the ceremony.
But when he was finally allowed join the PGA he faced hostility from sections of the crowds at tournaments, and more than a little from officials too.
"Once, while pulling a pin, he realised that the cup had been filled with faeces," wrote Plaschke. "Several times spectators kicked his ball through the rough. Other times he would find his ball buried under trash." And there were the midnight phone calls warning him not to turn up to play the next day.
"Nothing bothered me, nothing stopped me," he said.
He played on, winning twice on the PGA Tour – the 1967 Greater Hartford Open Invitational and the 1969 Los Angeles Open – and taking the 1975 Senior PGA Championship.
He had, he said, five ambitions: to become a PGA Tour member, to win a PGA event, to play in the US Open, to play in the Masters and to get inducted into the Hall of Fame.
He managed four, the only goal to elude him a place in a Masters' field. But it wasn't until 1975 that Lee Elder became the first black man to play in the tournament at Augusta National, the club not admitting its first black member until 1990, a whole 26 years after the landmark Civil Rights Act.
So, despite qualifying for eight US Opens, from 1959 to 1974, he never made it to Augusta.
What if the club offered him a ceremonial invite now? "F*** Augusta," he replied, which might, possibly, have diminished any chance of the club extending a belated warm welcome.
"When I was good enough to play there, they never invited me, so why would they invite me now? I've never been to Augusta and I'm never going." As Plaschke put it, "history heals. And then, suddenly, history bleeds".
A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Sifford travelled west during the week for his induction to the Southern California Golf Association Hall of Fame, another post-career honour that he particularly relished.
"Los Angeles was always so good to me," he said. "I could play anywhere here. I will never forget that."
He is mindful, though, that pioneers such as himself and Elder haven't had quite the same long-term impact as Robinson did in baseball, where close to nine per cent of MLB players are black – although, as Plaschke points out, that figure is down from 19 per cent 10 years ago.
There are, today, just two players of "African-American descent" on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods and newcomer Joseph Bramlett. Sifford has had no contact with Bramlett – "Who is he?" – but occasionally speaks with Woods. "He had the world by the tail and messed it up," he said.
Does Sifford ever play any more? "I can still putt," he said, "if only I could get it to the green."
Plaschke asked him if he could use his walking stick to putt.
"I could use it for a lot of things," he replied. "I have been spicy all my life, and I'm not going to stop now."
If only he would be spicy enough to drop in on Augusta, preferably wearing a green jacket. "Hi, I'm Charlie Sifford, you won't remember me."
Broadcast news is good for Fifa
IT’S PROVED to be a bonanza of a spell for Fifa, football’s governing body announcing a number of broadcast deals the past week for the men’s 2018 and 2022 and women’s 2015 and 2019 World Cup finals that are worth in or around €1.3 billion.
The bulk of that figure – close to €900 million (Australia, Canada and the Caribbean accounts for the rest) – came from deals with Fox and Spanish language television channel Telemundo and radio station Futbol de Primera Radio in the United States, Fox outbidding NBC and current US World Cup rights holder ESPN who will broadcast the 2014 finals.
“We made a disciplined bid, we were aggressive while remaining prudent from a business perspective,” said ESPN, while Fox were busy whooping and cheering having secured the rights to all Fifa events from 2015 to 2022, including the men’s and women’s World Cup finals and all under-20 and under-17 matches.
Fox Sports’ Soccer channel is currently available in 40 million American homes, compared to almost 100 million for ESPN, so the network is banking on a significant increase in subscribers to fund the deal.
Fifa announced earlier in the year that it had sold €1.2 billion worth of 2018-2022 broadcast rights to the Middle East and parts of Asia and Latin America, a 90 per cent increase on what the same regions paid for 2010-2014 rights.
Next to be negotiated are equally lucrative deals across 26 Asian territories, including China and India, and Fifa announced this week that Swiss-based agency Infront Sports and Media triumphed in a tender process to handle those sales.
That news raised an eyebrow or three, not least because of Infront’s connections with now-defunct Fifa marketing firm ISL, implicated in bribery allegations.
It was good news, though, for Infront’s president and chief executive, Philippe Blatter. Yep, Fifa President Sepp’s nephew.
Marathon man’s record is not a cert just yet
DO YOU ever pine for the moment a teenage shop assistant will ask you for proof of age when you attempt to buy a bottle of marginally-drinkable plonk? But instead they take a look at you and their face says: “Tis a long time since you saw 18, love”. Well, with that in mind, Fauja Singh should probably be flattered by the Guinness Book of Records refusing to believe he’s 100 – unless he can produce a birth certificate to prove that is, indeed, his very age.
A fortnight ago, Singh completed the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 8:11:06, making him – unofficially – the world’s oldest marathon-completer. But now the Book of Records people have said they won’t recognise his achievement because he can’t produce a birth certificate from 1911, despite Indian government officials telling them that they didn’t keep birth records that early.
You have to hope this impasse won’t put Singh off running, a sport he took up when he was just 89. “The first 20 miles are not difficult,” he said, “the last six – I run while talking to God.” His plonk-buying age has never been tested though – largely because he doesn’t drink (smoke or eat meat). He was, after all, born to run. In 1911.
All a Twitter over McIlroy and Westwood’s friendship
RORY McILROY and Lee Westwood had been the best of Twitter buddies until McIlroy’s recent decision to change management, joining Dublin-based Horizon and leaving Chubby Chandler’s stable, which includes Westwood.
“Bizarre decision,” the English golfer said in a tweet to McIlroy, the Ulster man promptly ‘unfollowing’ both Westwood and Chandler, which means they’re not Twitter buddies any more.
Inevitably, then, the pair were drawn together in the first round of the Shanghai Masters, neither seeming to be affected by their Twitter de-friending – McIlroy shooting a 64, and Westwood a decent 69.
“Have you fallen out with Lee?” was the gist of the bulk of the questions McIlroy was asked after his round.
“I’ve come here to talk about my 64,” he replied, in, suitably, 140 characters or less.
O’Mahony goes out on a limb for his club
The Final StrawQUOTE of the week? "It's a club final, you're playing with your club and these guys have been training with you all year long. The last thing you want to do is let them down. So I went into full-forward and played on."
So said Aidan O’Mahony of his contribution to Rathmore’s victory over Laune Rangers in the Kerry club championship final . . . after he’d broken his leg when he “made contact with the knee of one of the Rangers players”.
“Trying to run for a ball was very hard and I was very restricted,” he said. (Well, yeah, it would be.)
“The most important thing was that we won the club championship.”
Was he worried he’d done any permanent damage to his leg?
“Na.”
That’s quite possibly what one would call 110 per cent commitment. A hardy man.
