AUGUSTA (US), Nov 10: In a year marked by racial injustice, Augusta National announced it would honour Lee Elder with two scholarships in his name at Paine College and an honorary tee shot next year for the first Black player in the Masters. �It�s mind-boggling every time I think about it,� said Elder, who made his barrier-breaking debut in 1975. �It was about time, according to Masters Chairman Fred Ridley, who said racial injustice and equality have been at the forefront of the nation this year.
�Our question was not so much what we can say but what we can do,� Ridley said. The Masters for some two decades has provided scholarship money for Paine College, a private, historically Black college in Augusta. The Lee Elder Scholarship will be endowed for one man and one woman on the golf team. The fact Paine doesn�t have a women�s golf program was not a problem. Ridley said Augusta National would pay to start one.
Elder already was looking ahead to next April when he returns to the first tee, this time with a shot that doesn�t count toward a score but is more meaningful to him than when he first played the tournament.
�That is one thing that�s going to be significant to me, because 1975 was just an ordinary shot playing a golf tournament, even though it was the Masters,� Elder said. �It�s not as significant as this shot will be come April 8, 2021. Because my heart and soul will be into this shot.� � AP