Tiger Woods donated $10,000 to launch a scholarship fund at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore honoring Charlie Sifford, who broke the color barrier on the PGA Tour.
Sifford died last month at the age of 92.
“The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is honored to accept this generous gift from Tiger Woods to support our professional golf management program and to partner with us in acknowledging Dr. Sifford’s role as a sports pioneer,” President Juliette B. Bell of Maryland-Eastern Shore said.
The money will go toward need-based scholarships for minority students with an interest in golf.
Maryland-Eastern Shore is the nation’s only historically black university that offers a degree in professional golf management.
“Without Charlie Sifford, and the other pioneers who fought to play, I may not be playing golf,” Woods, who called Sifford he grandfather he never had, said when the golf pioneer died.
“My Pop may not have picked up the game, and maybe I wouldn’t have either.”
Sifford won twice on the PGA Tour, including the 1969 Los Angeles Open, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004. Last November, President Barack Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
