Clifford Roberts was an American investment dealer and golf administrator.
Early years
Born in Morning Sun, Iowa, Roberts had a financially troubled family life as a boy. He and older brother, John Darious Roberts, left school before graduation after beating up the school's principal. He worked as a successful, traveling clothing salesman, then as a promoter of speculative oil and gas leases and production. A large commission in the oil and gas industry, made in 1921, provided the financial means to become a Wall Streetstock broker. He became a partner at Reynolds & Company in the late 1920s, a position he held for the remainder of his life.
In 1932, Roberts and Bobby Jones co-founded the Augusta NationalGolf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Roberts served as Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club from 1931 through 1976. Two years later, in 1934, Roberts and Jones started the Masters Tournament, personally extending invitations to the tournament. Roberts served as Chairman of the Masters Tournament from 1934 through 1976. Roberts was named "Chairman in Memoriam" after his death. Roberts' friendship with President Dwight Eisenhower led to the Eisenhowers making Augusta National their retreat during the 1950s.
Accolades
Roberts received many awards and honors during his lifetime, including: service on the PGA Advisory Committee from its inception in 1943 until his death, appointment by the United States Golf Association to serve on the Bob Jones Award Selection Committee, and election to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1978. Roberts was the subject of a book titled The Making of the Masters, Clifford Roberts, Augusta National, and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament by David Owen, published in 1999.
Controversies
Roberts was sometimes described as a 'benevolent dictator'. At the end of the Monday playoff in 1966, CBS commentator Jack Whitaker referred to the energetic crowd on the 18th fairway following the three players as a "mob" and he was banned by Roberts until 1972. According to The New York Times, another comment attributed to Roberts is: "As long as I'm alive, all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black." The club long required all caddies to be black. Black golfers were banned from the Masters Tournament, with Roberts quoted as saying "to make an exception would be practicing discrimination in reverse." Lee Elder became the first black participant in 1975. In 1997, Tiger Woods became the first person of color to win the tournament. It was not until 1990, thirteen years after Roberts stepped down as chairman that Augusta National admitted an African American member. The first woman was admitted in 2012.
Death
At age 83, Roberts had been in ill health for several months with cancer, and had a debilitating stroke. On September 29, 1977, a year after stepping down, Roberts killed himself via a self-inflicted gunshot, on the banks of Ike's Pond at Augusta. His mother, Rebecca Scott Key Roberts, a niece to national anthem author, Francis Scott Key, also took her own life, by gunshot wound, in 1913. Several weeks later, a bronze plaque in his honor was unveiled at the clubhouse entrance.
