"[Bleep] Augusta."
/Charlie Sifford is going to be inducted into the Southern California Golf Association's Hall of Fame today and as an attendee to the event, I can only hope Sifford shares his thoughts on the folks at Augusta National, whose discriminatory practices should never be forgotten.
Talking to Bill Plaschke in the LA Times:
"[Bleep] Augusta," he says. "When I was good enough to play there, the Masters never invited me, so why would they invite me now?"
He shakes his head and from somewhere deep, the bitterness rises.
"I could have been invited, I should have been invited, but a long time ago they thought all golfers should be white and all caddies should be black," he says. "I've never been to Augusta and I'm never going."
Maybe history doesn't always heal. Maybe if Charlie Sifford ever forgets, the rest of us can never remember.
"I was going to play golf, and the hell with everything else," he says, and maybe that's what we're supposed to hear.