Charlie Sifford receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

Charlie Sifford, a former caddie who broke the color barrier in golf, received on Monday the highest honor a civilian can garner, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Sifford became only the third golfer -- along with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus -- ever to earn the award, which President Barack Obama bestowed upon the 92-year-old and 17 other pioneers in their respective fields of arts, politics, and entertainment. The man considered the “Jackie Robinson of golf” was the only sports personage on the star-studded roster of recipients on Monday.

“On tour, Charlie was sometimes banned form clubhouse restaurants. folks threatened him, shouted slurs from the gallery, kicked his ball into the rough,” Obama recounted, breaking away from his prepared remarks when he heard Sifford chuckling.

“Charlie’s laughing about that,” a smiling Obama said to guffaws in the White House East Room. “My ball’s always in the rough.”

Sifford, who the president said “had plenty of guts and grit and that trademark cigar,” became in 1961 the first person of color to compete in a PGA event after he successfully desegregated the organization and rid it of its “Caucasian-only” membership clause.

“I just wanted to play golf,” Sifford said in an interview with Golf Channel’s Scott Walker.

The PGA rallied support for Sifford’s recognition from many quarters, including golf’s national governing bodies, organizations dedicated to diversity, government officials, and sports figures. In addition to the PGA Tour and USGA, Tiger Woods, Bill Russell, Jim Brown, and Alonzo Mourning pitched in to lobby Obama on behalf of Sifford.

Photo via Stuart Franklin/Getty

Other notables receiving the award on Monday were musician Stevie Wonder and actress Meryl Streep. Family members of slain civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner received posthumous medals.

Though his most competitive years were behind him by the time he received playing privileges, Sifford became the first African American to win a PGA event and earn induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, in 2004. He captured the 1967 Greater Hartford Open and 1969 Los Angeles Open titles.

“I started out in this game I wanted to do five things. I wanted to win a golf tournament, I wanted to play in the National Open, I wanted to play in the U.S. Open, I wanted to play in the Masters, and I wanted to get in the Hall of Fame,” Sifford, who was never invited to Augusta, said in an earlier interview. “I got four out of five.”

Sifford also received an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, in 2006, but Monday’s honor topped all the accolades.

“No major compares to this,” he said. “This felt different than anything else. They say what I did helped African Americans, but it went further.”

Sifford told Golf Channel’s Walker that he would enjoy playing golf with Obama, as long as the president gave him strokes. He also offered POTUS a tip: keep your head down, Walker said.