Statues depicting golf legends Walter Hagen and Charlie Sifford were added at the Dallas, Texas club. Both Hagen and Sifford played and won at the historic golf course. “I’m so honored to be a part of something like this, and we are not done,” says General Manager and Director of Golf Ira Molayo. “We are going to do so much more. This is just the beginning.”
A pair of statues depicting golf legends Walter Hagen and Charlie Sifford have been added to Legends Plaza at Cedar Crest Golf Course in Dallas, Texas, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Walter Hagen, “the father of professional golf,” helped bring prestige and awareness to the sport in a way that would forever alter the public perception, The Morning News reported. Charlie Sifford, “the Jackie Robinson of golf,” was the first African American to play on the PGA Tour. His perseverance and passion for the game broke down racial barriers and changed the face of golf forever.
Both Hagen and Sifford played and won at the southern Dallas golf course, The Morning News reported. Hagen won the 1927 PGA Championship, and Sifford was the champion of the 1954 UGA Negro National Open.
On May 8, the Cedar Crest and I AM a Golfer Foundation teams hosted a press conference, The Morning News reported. They awarded scholarships to students, unveiled the two statues and held a golf outing where Charles Sifford Jr., who gave a heartfelt ode to his father at the press conference, played on the same course where his father was crowned a champion nearly 70 years before.
For Ira Molayo, General Manager and Director of Golf at Cedar Crest Golf Course, the event was personal, The Morning News reported.
“This is such a rewarding feeling. Growing up just two miles from here and playing my first rounds of golf here with my mom, to be able to come full circle and immortalize these great men at this great golf course … it’s something I never dreamed was possible,” Molayo said. “I’m so honored to be a part of something like this, and we are not done. We are going to do so much more. This is just the beginning.”
History is being preserved at Cedar Crest Golf Course through the display of the Hagen and Sifford statues. But history is also being created, The Morning News reported. Molayo and the teams at Cedar Crest and the I AM a Golfer Foundation are pouring into the community and raising up the next generation of scholars and golfers.
John Wiley Price is the Dallas County commissioner for District 3. He wrote this for The Dallas Morning News.
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