"Nearly all black professional golfers began the game as caddies. Very few had paid lessons from competent instructors, The courses they were invariably forced to play on could best be described as hardscrabble. The balls they used had as many cuts and dimples...But the most pervasive obstacle they faced was racism."
   -from the forward by Arthur Ashe
Just Let Me Play
The story of Charlie Sifford,
the first black PGA Golfer

Charlie Sifford takes us behind the scenes of bigtime golf with never-before-told stories of some of the greats including Nicklaus, Player, Trevino and Palmer.

Addicted to golf and cigars when he came to Philadelphia from rural North Carolina in the 1940's, Charlie learned that black golfers didn't have a chance. As jazz great Billy Eckstine's golf pro, Sifford racked up Negro Tournament wins but found that only white players were able to join the PGA and play on the pro tour.

In 1960, as a result of threats from California's Attorney General's office, the PGA was forced to issue Sifford a players card. But a players card didn't get a black into country clubs where most of the tournaments were played, and even when Charlie was allowed in he often could not change his clothes or eat in the clubhouse with the other players.

Death threats and taunting on the course met Sifford when he broke into the all white Greensborough, North Carolina Open; a $100,000 prize and a new car awarded for a hole in one disappeared off a course banner just minutes before Charlie teed off and sunk the shot starting a lawsuit that Sifford would eventually win.

Charlie Sifford, at age sixty nine, still blasts his way through the PGA racial barriers and has opened up the world of golf to a new generation of blacks such as Pete Brown and Lee Elder. This quiet man finally speaks out about the game of golf today and the bigotry that lurks in the shadows of every tournament.

    Charlie Sifford lives with his wife Rose in Kingwood, Texas.

    Jim Gullo is a freelance writer and contributor to magazines such as Premier, Sports Illustrated and Diversion. He lives with his son Michael in Seattle, Wahington.

    Text for this page was taken directly from the inside jacket cover of " Just Let Me Play"

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