Clifford Roberts, a successful Wall Street stock broker and avid golfer, founded the Augusta National Golf Club with golf pro Bobby Jones in 1932. Two years later, the pair established the Masters Tournament, played annually at Augusta.
As president and founder of the club, Clifford vowed “as long as I’m alive, all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black.” The club did not allow blacks or women, but had a long-standing policy of hiring only black caddies, including at the Masters tournament. Masters participants were not permitted to use their own caddies. This policy was rescinded several years after Clifford’s death in 1977.
The Masters Tournament excluded black players for four decades. Clifford maintained “to admit a black only because he was black would be practicing discrimination in reverse.” However, in 1975, golfer Lee Elder qualified for the Masters and became the first black person to play a round of golf at Augusta National. In 1997, Tiger Woods became the first person of color to win the tournament. It wasn’t until 1990 that Augusta National admitted its first black member. It took until 2012 to welcome a woman. (That was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.)
When Clifford died, he left the bulk of his estate to Planned Parenthood. Clifford made no secret about his dislike for children. He reportedly denied membership to Augusta National to a father of five children, stating “anyone stupid enough to have that many offspring isn’t smart enough to belong to Augusta National.”
Clifford was 83.