Extraordinary rascism in US Golf

This article is about Lee Elder, the first black man to play in the US Masters:

Elder calls for Woods to carry the fight to Augusta National

The best black player before him was Charles Sifford. When Sifford tried to qualify for the Phoenix Open in 1952, he was denied use of the locker-room and, on reaching the 1st green, found human faeces in the hole. It was not until 1961 that the PGA removed from its constitution a rule limiting membership to “Professional Golfers of the Caucasian Race”.

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The victory that qualified him [Elder] for that historic Masters in 1975, at the Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Florida, was typical of the racism that existed. Like Sifford, Elder had to change his shoes outside; like Sifford, he was used to being called “n*****” and “black boy”.

The Masters, though, had been the unattainable. It is well documented how changes in qualifying rules seemed forever to legislate against the leading black players, or how no invitation was presented to a black player, despite heavy lobbying from the United States House of Representatives. One of the most famous quotes from Clifford Roberts, the co-founder of Augusta National, was that, as long as he was alive, “golfers will be white and caddies will be black”.

Elder knows the quote all too well. He also finds it staggering that he was able to play in South Africa, in 1972, before he got near Augusta. “You realise that?” he asked, rhetorically. “So I can go to a country where apartheid is at its height and yet here I am in my own country and I cannot play in the Masters?”