The nation’s highest civilian honor is often lavished upon icons of the sporting world and golf certainly has been represented in the past. Then President Barrack Obama bestowed the medal to Charlie Sifford, the first African-American to join the PGA Tour, in 2014. “I am incredibly humbled and grateful to be recognized in this way,” said Player once the cat was out of the bag. “I am enormously grateful to the president for this honor and all it represents to me, my family, to the LPGA and the ANNIKA Foundation. Sports figures have made up the lion’s share of the Presidential Medal of Freedom awards dole out during Trump’s first term in office.

Source: Forbes March 10, 2020 22:52 UTC