On the eve of the annual Masters golf event, I sat and watched the induction of Tiger Woods into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Introducing her famous father, Tiger’s daughter, 14-year-old Sam Woods, spoke with the confidence of a seasoned orator and shared numerous stories of growing up in the shadow of her famous father.
One story in particular stood out. Tiger’s daughter spoke about Tiger’s missed putt that would have forced a play-off for the 2007 US Open.
After missing the putt Tiger flew to Orlando to be present at his daughter’s birth.
Sam chided Tiger reminding him that even though he may have lost the golf tournament that day he had in fact won the greatest gift of all, her birth.
Tiger is one of those once in a century wonders, a sporting star, that bring change and transformation, but not without sacrifice and adversity.
Tiger Woods sits comfortably among the pantheon of global sporting stars whose members include Muhamad Ali, Michael Jordan, Don Bradman, Tom Brady, Billie Jean King, Wayne Gretzky, Serena Williams, Patton Manning and others, and each in their own way and in their own field, gave us so much joy, entertainment and hope.
Tiger is a golfing protégé whose mother and father sacrificed much to provide him with the opportunity to realise his great promise, against all odds. In America, and elsewhere around the globe, racism and prejudice kept black golfers out of golf for decades.
Tiger was not allowed to play on many golf courses in America; some courses he would later dominate.
Charles Sifford is credited with breaking through the US PGA colour bar when he competed in the 1959 US Open and in 1961, he became the first black member of the American PGA Tour.
It is ironic that Tiger’s win in the 1997 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club is the tournament that foretold what Tiger would do to change the face of golf.
Augusta National had a strict rule that prevented black golfers from playing in the tournament until 1975 when Lee Elder became the first black American to be invited to play in the Masters.
The club wouldn’t allow black members to join the club until 1990, and only did so under threat of losing the Masters if their racist policy of exclusion was not abandoned.
Born of mixed heritage, Tiger’s father Earl, is reported as being of African-American, Chinese and Native American descent.
Tiger’s mother, Kultida, is reported as being of Thai, Chinese and Dutch descent.
Charles Sifford
Tiger and his family know the dehumanising pain of racism and segregation, as did Charles Sifford.
Honouring Sifford, Tiger named his son after him.
Speaking about the role that Sifford played in breaking down the barriers that kept Black Americans out of professional golf, Tiger once said that without Sifford he probably wouldn’t have made it.
Tiger added, ‘My dad would have never have picked up the game. Who knows if the clause would still exist or not? But he, [Sifford] broke it down.’
Tiger’s golfing achievements are legendary and he is recognised as the golfer most responsible for setting the standards that young golfers today aspire to.
Tiger has acknowledged, publicly, the role that his parents have played in his rise to the pinnacle of golfing greatness and it was his father’s prescient vision and fierce determination that helped propel Tiger to golfing immortality.
But it was Tiger’s mother who provided the discipline and focus that cemented Tiger’s golfing destiny.
Racism and segregation have also been, and continues, to be an Australian evil and I have felt its humiliating and dehumanising impact many times.
But it wasn’t only Aboriginal people who have felt the pain of racism through being barred from golf clubs and courses in Australia.
A much respected professor of mine, the late Professor Colin Tatz, once invited me to join him for a game of golf at Monash Country Club, which is located in the northern beaches area of metropolitan Sydney.
The good professor shared that Jewish people could not join golf clubs in Sydney and consequently they were forced to build their own, the Monash Country Club where the good professor told me people could play irrespective of colour, creed, gender, race or religion.
Perhaps the cancers of racism and discrimination, in all their forms, will remain a disease for generations to come, but I remain captive to the hope that one day, in the words of Martin Luther King Jnr, that we will all be ‘judged by the content of our character rather than the colour of our skin.’
Hope is a fragile thread, but I hold firmly to it.
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