ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES OPEN
This professional golf tournament is a part of the PGA Tour in Southern California. It was first played in 1926 and is now named at the Genesis Open, previous names include Northern Trust Open and the Nissan Open. The tournament is and annual event and is played each February at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. Most often, the tournament is the final event of the PGA Tour’s “West Coast Swing,” taking place early in the calendar year, before the tour moves east to Florida.
Sifford in 1961
In 2009, the tournament created a player exemption, called the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption, for a player who represents the advancement of diversity in golf. The exemption is in honor of pioneering black golfer and 1969 tournament winner Charlie Sifford. While most of the exemption recipients have been of African American descent, the 2015 exemption went to PGA Tour rookie Carlos Sainz, Jr., of Filipino and Bolivian descent; and the 2016 recipient, J. J. Spaun, is also of Filipino descent. Thus, these players met the exemption criteria for “advancing diversity in golf.
| Year | Player | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Vincent Johnson | Cut |
| 2010 | Joshua Wooding | Cut |
| 2011 | Joseph Bramlett | Cut |
| 2012 | Andy Walker | Cut |
| 2013 | Jeremiah Wooding | T42 |
| 2014 | Harold Varner III | T70 |
| 2015 | Carlos Sainz, Jr. | Cut |
| 2016 | J. J. Spaun | Cut |
| 2017 | Kevin Hall | Cut |
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ABOUT CHARLIE SIFFORD
Charles Luther Sifford (June 2, 1922 – February 3, 2015) was a professional golfer who was the first African American to play on the PGA Tour. He won the Greater Hartford Open in 1967 and the Los Angeles Open in 1969. He also won the United Golf Association’s National Negro Open six times, and the PGA Seniors’ Championship in 1975.
For his contributions to golf, Sifford was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004. He was awarded the Old Tom Morris Award in 2007, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, and an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews. Lee Trevino referred to Sifford as the “Jackie Robinson” of golf, and Tiger Woods acknowledged that Sifford paved the way for his career.
