Sifford, Charlie
1922-2015 · Contribution: 1961-1967
Golfer
First Black member of the PGA Tour; first Black golfer to win a PGA Tour event
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1922, Charlotte, North Carolina
- Active since
- 1948
- Category
- Sports & Athletics
- Best known for
- First Black member of the PGA Tour
Impact on the world
Often called 'the Jackie Robinson of golf,' Sifford forced open the PGA Tour to Black players, enduring harassment to compete and win at the sport's highest level.
Sources
- World Golf Hall of Fame
1 more sources and references are available to members.
Related visionaries
Rhodes, Ted
1913-1969
Pioneering African American professional golfer; dominant on the all-Black United Golfers Association (UGA) tour and an early challenger of the PGA's whites-only membership clause
Elder, Lee
1934-2021
Professional golfer; the first Black golfer to compete in the Masters Tournament (1975)
Shippen, John
1879-1968
Early American golf professional; the first American-born and first African American golf professional to play in a U.S. Open (1896), and long-time professional at the Black-owned Shady Rest club
Powell, Renee
1946-present
Pioneering professional golfer and golf-club operator; the second African American woman to play on the LPGA Tour (1967), and since the mid-1990s the head professional and operator of Clearview Golf Club, the course her father built