AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) – The applause started when Lee Elder’s golf cart moved toward the first tee. It only got louder when he arrived and slowly returned to his seat. And moments later, Masters Chairman Fred Ridley said words 46 years in the making.
“Lee, it is my privilege to say you have the honors,” Ridley said.
That prompted the first roar of the 2021 Masters Tournament.
Elder – the first Black man to play the Masters – rose from his chair, hoisted his driver skyward for a moment, then nodded, smiled, and waved in appreciation of the hundreds of people who crowded around the first tee to see history happen. He joined Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as an honorary starters for the Masters on Thursday morning, the first time he had been part of the ceremony.
“For my family and me, I think it was one of the most emotional experiences that I have ever witnessed or been involved in,” Elder said. Player and Nicklaus each took a swing, as is tradition, knocking drives onto the first fairway. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Player’s first Master’s win, the first by an international player, and the 35th anniversary of Nicklaus’ sixth and final victory. Elder did not tee off, though, just as in 1975; his presence was the bigger story. He became the 10th past Player to be part of the honorary starter ceremony and, fittingly, the first Black man to join that list.
“I think that having Lee there was the right thing to do, a nice thing to do,” Nicklaus said.last year that it would honor Elder with two scholarships in his name at Paine College, a historically Black institution. The scholarships will go to men’s and women’s players. Augusta NNational’smove led to creation of a wwomen’sgolf team at the school, with the club footing the bill for those startup costs.
The Player has long been familiar with EElder’sstory and, at times, his struggles. He invited Elder to play in South Africa, PPlayer’shomeland, in 1969. “It’squite sad to think that in those days, with the segregation policy that South Africa had, I had to go to my President and get permission for Lee Elder to come and play in our PGA,” Player said. “”Uite sad.”They made it happen, and EElder’sstory kept evolving from there. He became the first Black man to play for the U.S. in the Ryder Cup in 1979, and doors slowly – very slowly – kept opening within the game. Augusta National made Ron Townsend its first Black member in 1990, seven years before a skinny kid named Tiger Woods won the first of his five Masters titles.
Elder grew up in Dallas and got into the game as a caddie, not a player, since that was the only avenue. He was back at Augusta National for Woods’ first win in 1997. Black people had into the game at that time — blazed the trail. The first Black man to play the Masters was not to miss seeing the first Black man winning the tournament.
“”t alway amazed me that presidents of the United States would be giving these different awards to athletes for their athletic prowess, and here was a man that changed the lives and changed and put a spoke in the wheel of segregation in South Africa and was never given the awards that he duly deserved,””Player aid. This year the
