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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 26, 2008

CHRIS REIMER: Want to welcome and thank all of the members of the media for joining us today for this special announcement. We look forward to seeing many of you that are on this call at this year's World Golf Championships- Bridgestone Invitational. We know the Akron community and the entire state of Ohio will put on another first-rate event when the World Golf Championships come to Firestone Country Club the week of July 28.
To start off today's call, I want to introduce the Executive Director of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, Don Padgett.
Don, why don't you get us started.
DON PADGETT III: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us as we announce the 2008 Ambassador of Golf Award recipient. Each year the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational honors an individual who has fostered the ideals of the game of golf, not only on an international level, but his concerns for others extend beyond the golf course.
This year's recipient is a pioneer in the sport. He's a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. His PGA TOUR victories include the 1967 Greater Hartford Open, the 1969 Los Angeles Open, and he was the winner of the 1975 PGA Seniors Championship. Earlier this week, he received a 2008 Golden Tee Award from the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association in New York.
Ladies and gentlemen, the 2008 Ambassador of Golf Award recipient is Charlie Sifford, and we currently have Charlie on the line in his home in northeast Ohio. Good morning.
CHARLIE SIFFORD: Good morning. How you doing?
DON PADGETT III: I'm good. Thank you for joining us today and let me be the first to congratulate you on being named the 2008 Ambassador of Golf Award winner.
We mentioned earlier you received the Metropolitan Golf Writers Award earlier this week, and also with the Ambassador of Golf you'll get at Firestone this summer, I imagine that those awards caused you to recommend in addition about your career in golf. What are some of your proudest moments in your career that you would like to share with us?
CHARLIE SIFFORD: Well, the first one I think is 1967 when I won my first tournament. Took me seven years to win, so that was what I wanted to do, to try to win a golf tournament.
And then introducing me into the World Golf Hall of Fame, that was a real astonisher. And then the last, after that, I was invited to Scotland to receive a doctor's degree in law. There's so many wonderful things that have happened to me in the last three years, and I'm proud of it. I stuck with this old game, and some good days and bad days, but I felt like I won.
CHRIS REIMER: I listened to you at the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association dinner the other night; just talk about what it was like when you got that first call from the PGA TOUR to come play in an event, I think it was in Greensboro, and what it was like when you first were able to play on the PGA TOUR.
CHARLIE SIFFORD: Oh, man, it was scary! (Laughing) One of the greatest guys Reverend Eckhart (ph), a Caucasian, he lived in North Carolina, very good pro and Dr. Simpkins, he was in the NAACP and they called me one afternoon and said, "Charlie, they want you to come down and play in the Greensboro Open."
I said, "Oh, man, somebody was trying to pull my leg." I was born right down the street there from Charlotte and I knew what it was going to be like playing golf with white people in North Carolina.
So told him, he would called me back, and I waited for my wife to come home, God bless her. And Rose came home, she used to work for the city, and she came home and I ran it by her is and I said, "Rose, they want me to come to Greensboro to play in the Greensboro Open, what do you think about it?"
She said, "Go on now. They are not going to bother you." And if she had said no, I wasn't going, but I went. (Chuckling).
The first day, I shoot 68, and led the golf tournament; and you know, that's Sam Snead's country, and I knew he was going to get me then. (Laughing).

Q. You talked about your wife, Rose and the role she played in helping you through some tough times, and obviously she was pretty important in your life.
CHARLIE SIFFORD: Oh, my goodness. Without her, I knew I couldn't have made it. You know, it's such a fact that if you show me a successful man, you're going to look right behind him and there's a wonderful wife. Like Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, all those guys, if they didn't have a good wife and a wonderful life, they wouldn't be where they are today.
So I say to all guys, younger guys coming up, you understand, I hear some of them say, man, I don't need no woman, but that's the biggest mistake he could ever make in his life. Because you have to have somebody and you know, you can go home and explain your troubles to, somebody you can talk to and that believes in you and wants you to do better.
So that's what I had for 51 years, God bless her. She's been dead ten years on the 19th.

Q. You also spoke in New York about confronting obviously the issues that you dealt with, but doing it with kindness and doing it with love in your heart and not with anger or violence, and I think that really speaks to what the Ambassador of Golf Award is about. If you could just talk about how you dealt with all of the things you had to deal with, and you did it with kindness, and just talk about that briefly, if you could.
CHARLIE SIFFORD: A lot of people ask me that, but you have to understand, the desire and perseverance, I just wanted to do something that the average black man hadn't done.
So I wanted to play golf because that's the only thing I knew. I tried to box a little bit when I was younger, but that was too rough for me. I had to go back to the golf course and caddie, and that was in '33 and '34 and all I would get was 60 cents for 18 holes. We used to get 75 cents and the caddie master would take 15 and leave me with 60. I would take the 50 home to mom and I would take the ten cents and go by me some cigars.
It was a tough life but I met some real people and I know I got a lot of friends, white and black. I've glad that all of the pros, you understand, didn't try to confuse me and stop me from what I was trying to do. And I got a lot of friends through that and I lot a lot of white friends and a lot of black friends.
So I always preach, the ones who are living now, when I was playing on the TOUR, you understand, people invite me to stay in their house because there wasn't no hotel. So first week when I went down to Greensboro they put me in A&T College, that school, they ran me out of there, them kids. It was a tough life, but I withstood them. I made it and I'm proud of it, you know.

Q. Northeastern Ohio has kind of become your home the last couple of years. Real special that this award is going to take place at Firestone?
CHARLIE SIFFORD: Well, yeah, I've been here ten years next month, so Cleveland has been my home for ten years, but when that snow starts blowing, I go south like the bird. (Laughing).
I've got a lot of friends there. I was inducted in the Hall of Fame -- in Cleveland, Ohio and a lot of good friends, one of my best friends died last week, they buried him, Paul Turpack (ph). And when I first came to Cleveland, I didn't know nothing about no golf course so they brought me here to take over a golf course, and I didn't know nothing about it because I just quit the TOUR in '75.
Paul, God bless him, he came over and showed me about everything, the carts and how to order. I mean, what a wonderful guy. God bless him, he's in a better place now, the poor man laid in a bed for 21 months. Oh, man, he was my friend, man. I mean, my friend. He was a great guy, his wife and his family, you know, and first guy I met, first pro I met when I first came to Cleveland.

Q. Who was your best friend on the TOUR?
CHARLIE SIFFORD: Well, I've got a lot of friends out there. I've got Jack Nicklaus, I've been a friend of Jack Nicklaus's, maybe 50 years and Gary Player 45 years, Arnold Palmer 45, 50 years, Lee Trevino, all those guys been real nice to me. I'm proud to say they are my friends and I know they are my friends and I'm proud to say that they are my friends.

Q. Speaking of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods has been in the news lately, do you think Tiger is going to break jock's record?
CHARLIE SIFFORD: I don't think Tiger wants to break Jack's record, I think Tiger Woods just wants to play golf, that's him, and the records are there. Jack understands that records are made to be broken, and if anybody breaks it, I know Jack would be happy that Tiger Woods did it.
I've been a friend of Jack Nicklaus from the first professional tournament he played in 1963 or '64 at Firestone Greater City Open, and I was there with my little 'ole half set of golf clubs and in California and trying to make me three or four hundred dollars, so I could move on. Then they made this pairing up, I understand, and I had been watching this guy in these amateur tournaments, little fat chumpy guy with big hips and wear that white hat, and I was paired with Jack Nicklaus. Lord have mercy, how I'm going to get out of town here (chuckling).
From the first tee, I shoot 64 and beat Jack. But man, did I get in trouble. You know, Charlie, he had the store, he used to bring me those L-conductor cigars and the next day, Friday, he came out on the practice tee and he gave me these cigars. He said, Charlie, he said, "Be careful today because you mad him last."
I said, "Man, I wasn't trying to beat Jack. I was just trying to get around the golf course." He handed me a little old 63. We've been friends ever since. Jack Nicklaus as a wonderful wife, Barbara, and my wife, we've been trading Christmas cards for 38 years. Last year I didn't send in because I just, you know, not too good of a writer, and I really didn't have time.
Those guys are my friends and I know they are my friends.

Q. What does golf need? Does golf need anything, anybody to come and challenge Tiger?
CHARLIE SIFFORD: I would like to see some black guy come up behind Tiger, but they got enough young Caucasians out there that can really play golf. I mean, you've got a field of people -- you've got some guys out there, you've got 50 guys out there every week that can win a golf tournament.
But sooner or later, you understand, somebody is going to defeat Tiger. I mean, how long can he go, from 1997, you know. I mean, you know, he's 32 years old now and having problems with those legs, so sooner or later, he might just walk away from the game, you know.

Q. You think?
CHARLIE SIFFORD: Yeah, I think so. If that leg don't come back, I was out there at the Open and I seen something, and I'm so glad that Lexus flew me out there, I did a little promotion for Lexus. And I mean, man, every time he would hit the ball he would just really go to his knees and I just don't really understand. And nine holes, I walked around and I watched him and I couldn't take anymore so I went on back in the tent, you know, and looked at it on TV. But this poor kid was in pain, and I don't think nobody in the world would have finished that golf tournament but Tiger Woods.

Q. You think that was the greatest victory in the history of the Open?
CHARLIE SIFFORD: That's the greatest U.S. Open that's ever been played and ever been won I think; I don't think, I know it.
CHRIS REIMER: If you just want to talk about, you've opened some doors in golf and what you've seen out of a player like Tiger Woods and out of The First Tee and what they are doing to open golf to help inner city kids; if you could just talk about some of the changes you've seen since you were playing.
CHARLIE SIFFORD: Well, I've seen, The First Tee is a wonderful thing. You've got kids out there, you know, learning early. Some of them are going to be professional golfers and some of them won't, but it's a good thing to keep them off the street and out of trouble. It's something I wish I'd have went through, because we didn't have anything like that, someone to train us and showing us a lot of things that we should do when we grow up, you know, and I think it's going to help. I really think it's going to help. It's going to help the game, too.
CHRIS REIMER: Well, I've had the honor of hearing you speak twice in one week and congratulations on the Ambassador of Golf Award. It's a testament to everything you went through as a golfer and you're still carrying yourself with great pride now.
DON PADGETT III: I want to congratulate you again. We always look forward to having you down here at Firestone each year for the tournament. You've been a friend of mine and my family for years and years, and couldn't be happier that you're our award recipient this year. So thanks very much.

End of FastScripts

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