On MLK Day & Inauguration weekend, Northern Trust Open introduces fitting Charlie Sifford sponsor's exemption

I learned about this golf news event that’s gone a little under the radar thanks to all the Presidential Inauguration hubbub from writer Tom Bedell (formerly of BadGolfer.com) at the Brattlebro Reformer:

The Northern Trust Open (Feb. 16-22 at Riviera C.C. in Los Angeles) announced this week a fitting sponsor’s exemption for these breakthrough times with the new Charlie Sifford exemption, offering a spot in the field to a player who “represents the advancement of diversity in golf and wouldn’t otherwise be eligible to compete.”

Announcing this on the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the inauguration of the United States’ first black President Barack Obama is unquestionably fitting. And I’m also pleased to see that rather than offering the obligatory sponsor’s exemption to a sideshow like John Daly (who is now suspended from the Tour) or to a Michelle Wie or anyone else for the sake of drawing a good gate or some press, they’re using their power of exemptions for good. I’d like to see more exemptions given in creative and fitting ways like this one by the Northern Trust. While golf has certainly become a global game, it’s still a seriously conservative, white game in most parts, even more than a decade of Tiger Woods.

For those of you youngin’s not familiar with Charlie Sifford, he became the first African American member of the PGA Tour in 1961 after winning five consecutive Negro Opens. He would win on tour twice, including the 1969 L.A. Open (now the Northern Trust) and was the first black inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

So perhaps Obama’s influence on our game has already begun…

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