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Clifford Roberts (March 6, 1894 – September 29, 1977) was an American investment dealer and
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
administrator.


Early years

Born in
Morning Sun, Iowa Morning Sun is a city in Morning Sun Township, Louisa County, Iowa, United States. The population was 752 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Muscatine Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Morning Sun was laid out in 1851 by ...
, Roberts had a financially troubled family life as a boy. He and older brother, John Darious Roberts, left school before graduation after beating up the school's principal. He worked as a successful, traveling clothing salesman, then as a promoter of speculative oil and gas leases and production. A large commission in the oil and gas industry, made in 1921, provided the financial means to become a Wall Street
stock broker A stockbroker is a regulated broker, broker-dealer, or registered investment adviser (in the United States) who may provide financial advisory and investment management services and execute transactions such as the purchase or sale of stocks an ...
. He became a partner at Reynolds & Company in the late 1920s, a position he held for the remainder of his life.


Augusta National Golf Club

In 1932, Roberts and Bobby Jones co-founded the
Augusta National Golf Club Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does n ...
in
Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georgi ...
. Roberts served as Chairman of the club from 1931 through 1976. Two years after its foundation, in 1934, Roberts and Jones started the Masters Tournament (played annually at Augusta National), personally extending invitations to the tournament. Roberts served as Chairman of the Masters Tournament from
1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...
through
1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...
. Roberts was named "Chairman in Memoriam" after his death. Roberts' friendship with
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Dwight Eisenhower led to the Eisenhowers making Augusta National their retreat during the 1950s. Roberts was sometimes described as a "benevolent dictator" and during his tenure he did not hesitate to take swift, stern action against anyone whose words or deeds he believed could tarnish the club's image, no matter how slight. An example of this occurred at the end of the Monday playoff in 1966 when
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
commentator
Jack Whitaker John Francis Whitaker (May 18, 1924 – August 18, 2019) was an American sportscaster who worked for both CBS and ABC. Whitaker was a decorated army veteran of World War II. He fought in the Normandy Campaign and was wounded by an artillery st ...
referred to the energetic crowd on the 18th fairway following the three players as a "mob" – Whitaker was subsequently banned by Roberts until
1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
. According to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', another comment attributed to Roberts is: "As long as I'm alive, all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black." The club had long-standing policies of hiring only black
caddies In golf, a caddie (or caddy) is the person who carries a player's bag and clubs, and gives the player advice and moral support. Description A good caddie is aware of the challenges and obstacles of the golf course being played, along with the ...
and requiring their exclusive use at all times, including at the Masters tournament. Masters participants were not permitted to use their own caddies on Augusta National grounds until several years after Roberts' death. The Masters Tournament, an invitational event, excluded black players for four decades, with Roberts once quoted as saying "to make an exception would be practicing discrimination in reverse." Roberts was finally forced to relax this stance late in his career, and
Lee Elder Robert Lee Elder (July 14, 1934 – November 28, 2021) was an American professional golfer. In 1975, he became the first African-American to play in the Masters Tournament, where he missed the cut. Elder was invited to the tournament after he w ...
became the first black participant in
1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
. In
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
,
Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...
became the first person of color to win the tournament. It was not until 1990, thirteen years after Roberts stepped down as chairman that Augusta National admitted an
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
member, Ron Townsend. The first woman, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was admitted in 2012.


Accolades

Roberts received many awards and honors during his lifetime, including: service on the PGA Advisory Committee from its inception in 1943 until his death, appointment by the
United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...
to serve on the Bob Jones Award Selection Committee, and election to the
World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 go ...
in 1978. Roberts was the subject of a book titled ''The Making of the Masters, Clifford Roberts, Augusta National, and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament'' by David Owen, published in 1999.


Death

At age 83, Roberts had been in ill health for several months with
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
, and had a debilitating stroke. On September 29, 1977, a year after stepping down, Roberts killed himself via a self-inflicted gunshot on the banks of Ike's Pond at Augusta. His mother, Rebecca Scott Key Roberts, a niece of the author of the US National anthem, Francis Scott Key, had taken her own life by gunshot wound in 1913. Several weeks later, a bronze plaque in his honor was unveiled at the clubhouse entrance.


References


External links


Official site of The Masters
*
You Tube
– Clifford Roberts interview {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Clifford Golf administrators World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Suicides by firearm in Georgia (U.S. state) People from Louisa County, Iowa People from Augusta, Georgia 1894 births 1977 suicides