(L-R) Pro golfer Lee Elder with Talk Show Host Tom Joyner
Elder Honored, But Not By Augusta National.
By Leonard Shapiro (Global Golf Post), April 13, 2015:
The headline on the lead story of Page 1 of The Augusta Chronicle newspaper Friday read “Trailblazer honored by city, friends,” it did not mention Augusta National Golf Club.
The 79th Masters marked the 40th Anniversary of one of the seminal moments in golf, the participation of Lee Elder in the 1975 tournament and the first African American golfer to play in the event. It was golf’s Selma, a turning point in the history of a game that for far too many years was shamefully noninclusive.
And yet, Augusta National made no mention of Elder, now 80, and that 1975 tournament in its official 2015 program, or the current free spectator guide that lists significant dates in Masters history going back to 1931. The only entry in the spectator guide for 1975 reads “Jack Nicklaus becomes the first five-time winner.”
Related story: Lee Elder Superbly Celebrated On His 40th Year Master’s Win Anniversary By Gary Player
Related story: A History of the Masters: Read Before You Go….
A club that reveres history and tradition far more than most did nothing at all to formally mark a significant anniversary of Elder’s initial participation, the first of his six starts in the tournament. It could have been so easily done. Perhaps a slot in the Par-3 Contest paired with his old friend and frequent foe, Gary Player. Even a simple news conference in the Masters media center.
The interview room was used this week to temporarily house another piece of club history. On Wednesday, a display was unveiled of a cross-section slice taken out of Eisenhower’s Tree, the famous 17th hole loblolly pine felled by an ice storm in the winter of 2014. It will become a museum piece that soon will be shipped to the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kan.
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