Reckoning with color

Masters, Augusta National take step to deal with past

The colors have changed at Augusta National Golf Club, from the pink azaleas of spring to the orange oak leaves of autumn, which will make the Masters look entirely different when it tees off on Thursday.

Yet as extreme as those 2020 differences appear, an even more significant color change — from white to black — comes next year.

The Masters announced Monday that Lee Elder will join Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as honorary starters at the 2021 major championship. This is striking because Elder is Black, and for too long the only Blacks allowed on the first tee were caddies. Elder broke the Masters color barrier in 1975 by becoming the first Black golfer to compete in the tournament. He will return in April as the first person of color to christen the tournament.

Inviting Elder to join Nicklaus and Player to hit the ceremonial first shot might seem like little more than symbolism, or of white guilt on display, but for a club that has a history of racial exclusion — as do most older private courses — any movement in the right direction is better than no progress.

The club also instituted the creation of the Lee Elder Scholarships at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. Paine, a historically black college, will offer two scholarships per year to members of the men’s and women’s golf teams, the latter of which does not yet exist but whose creation Augusta National will fund.

Credit where due.

Fall leaves and November shadows highlight the 13th hole Monday as Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson walk to the green during a practice round for the Masters, which gets underway Thursday at Augusta National.

“The opportunity to earn an invitation to the Masters and stand at that first tee was my dream,” Elder said Monday. “And to have it come true in 1975 remains one of the greatest highlights of my life. So to be invited back to the first tee one more time to join Jack and Gary for next year’s Masters means the world to me.”

Elder’s invite also includes a touch of irony. Nicklaus last month on Twitter endorsed President Donald Trump for reelection, a personal push that in some circles was viewed as being culturally insensitive; a Golden Bear clueless at best and callous at worst on issues of social justice. More irony of a kind: Player is from South Africa, a country that for generations practiced apartheid. That is not to suggest Nicklaus and Player are blind to or insensitive toward systemic racism, only that next year’s ceremonial tee shots on Georgia soil, where slavery once thrived, will be rich in historic and political context.

From a purely golf perspective, it will be three players in their 80s — Nicklaus will be 81, Player 85 and Elder 86 — gathering for another swing at the game they love, then retreating to a locker room properly desegregated decades ago. Well after Elder’s appearance in 1975, Tiger Woods became the first minority Masters champion in 1997, then repeated the trick four more times, including last year’s emotional win at age 43.

Can Tiger do it again? Highly unlikely, but don’t count him out, because the

Masters provides his best chance at winning again on the PGA Tour. Augusta National is all about experience, of understanding the strategic nuances on the most recognizable but inaccessible course in America; even more inaccessible this week, as spectators — excuse me, patrons — will not be allowed onto the hallowed grounds because of COVID-19. My pick? Justin Thomas, with a healthy Brooks Koepka on his heels.

It’s going to be bizarre, and not just because the galleries will be missing. Normally contested in April, when azaleas and dogwoods are blooming, a November start means red Holly berries and ruddy fall foliage replacing the typical spring tapestry. It also means no crowd roars escalating 10 stories high, from Rae’s Creek below to the stately clubhouse above. The Masters relies on explosion of sound more than any other major championship. But the changes also heighten the anticipation of what is coming. Of watching players try to maintain swing balance while standing on acorns strewn across already slippery pine straw. Of players like Woods and Rory Mcilroy, who thrive on crowd energy, grinding in relative silence. Of being able to flip channels between the Masters and college football. And, possibly, of seeing CBS broadcaster Nick Faldo run naked across the course.

Wait, what? Faldo promised to strip beyond his skivvies if bomber Bryson Dechambeau drives the green at No. 1, a 455-yard uphill par-4.

It would be something never before seen, thankfully, but fitting for a Masters that in 2020 lacks tradition unlike any other.

roller@dispatch.com; @rollercd

Lee Elder, shown with his wife, Sharon, was the first Black man to play in the Masters in 1975. To honor him, Augusta National will name two scholarships in his name and he will play an honorary tee shot at the Masters in 2021.