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 Sifford, who was well beyond his prime when, at the age of
38, he was accepted into the PGA in 1961, died on Tuesday in
Cleveland at the age of 92.
Obama, who awarded Sifford the Presidential Medal of Freedom
last year, termed Sifford a "golf legend" and exalted him for
"altering the course of the sport and the country he loved."
"Charlie was the first African-American to earn a PGA tour card
– often facing indignity and injustice even as he faced the
competition," Obama said in a statement.
"Though his best golf was already behind him, he proved that he
belonged... blazing a trail for future generations of athletes
in America."
Sifford had two PGA wins, in 1967 and 1969, though he enjoyed
many other victories on the small-money black players' tour
prior to the PGA dropping its Caucasians-only policy.
Woods, the best player of his generation, said learning of
Sifford's death had been "tough. Very tough."
"He's like my grandpa that I never had," Woods told reporters at
Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, after he played in the
Farmers Insurance Open pro-am competition. "And it's been a long
night and it's going to be a long few days.
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Woods lauded Sifford, often called the Jackie Robinson of golf, for
the "courage it took for him to stick with it and be out here and
play."
"I probably wouldn't be here, my dad would never have picked up the
game," said Woods. "Who knows if the clause would still exist or
not? But he broke it down."
In 2004, Sifford became the first African American to be inducted
into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
"It's a real loss because he was a pioneer," PGA Tour Commissioner
Tim Finchem said. "He suffered all kinds of difficulty playing as an
African American. It's just a sad day.
"We all ought to take a minute and remember the impact that he had
on the game."
Sifford told Golf Digest in 2006, "I don't smile much and I never
laugh."
"It's just something that's in me," he said. "If you'd been through
what I've been through, you wouldn't be smiling, either."
(Additional reporting by Ben Everill in La Jolla, California;
Editing by Eric Walsh)
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