‘Incredibly humbled’: Renee Powell receives inaugural Charlie Sifford Award

In 2004, Renee Powell sat in the audience when Charlie Sifford became the first Black member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

On Wednesday night, Powell was the first recipient of an award in Sifford’s honor.

A former LPGA player from North Canton, Ohio, Powell accepted the Charlie Sifford Award for her spirit in advancing diversity in golf during the ceremony at PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Tiger Woods headlined the 2022 Hall of Fame class that also included Susie Maxwell Berning, Tim Finchem and the late Marion Hollins, while Peter Ueberroth and the late Dick Ferris received lifetime achievement awards.

Powell said she was honored and “incredibly humbled” by the award, especially since the Sifford and Powell families have become very good friends over the years. Sifford, the first African American to play on the PGA Tour, died on Feb. 3, 2015, at age 92.

In 1946, Powell’s late father, William, established Clearview Golf Club, the first U.S. golf course designed, built, owned and operated by an African American. The non-profit Clearview Legacy Foundation focuses on education, preservation, and research while serving youth, minorities, veterans, seniors and other underrepresented groups.

“It was as a child of 12 that I first saw Charlie when we were competitors in the old UGA National Tournament, he in the pro division and me in the girls’ junior division,” Powell said in a transcript provided by the PGA Tour. “I was sitting in the audience 17 years ago, along with my dad, and listening and crying as Charlie made his acceptance speech, and it was simply from the heart.

“Charlie was on a walker and not in the best of health when he and Charles Jr. arrived and walked up the steps of the church at my dad’s funeral on a very cold winter day in 2010. Five years later I spoke at his funeral in Cleveland.”

William Powell died on Dec. 31, 2009, at age 93. Renee Powell told the story of how her father built Clearview on an overgrown 78-acre dairy farm after he returned from World War II and how she and her brother, Larry, the course superintendent, are still working to keep it afloat. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, the club celebrated its 75th anniversary last year and is currently raising funds for an irrigation system and an education/museum building.

“Lessons learned from my parents and brothers have taught me how to overcome unfair barriers which one finds in life and which is the main reason that I am here this evening,” Powell said. “And if Charlie would not have made the sacrifice to break barriers in joining the PGA, there would not be this Charlie Sifford Award.

“Charlie Sifford and Bill Powell loved this game so very much that they were willing to make incredible sacrifices to create opportunities for all to play our sport. So our sport really can only remain healthy when we are indeed diverse and inclusive of all people.”

Among those attending to support Powell were Hollis Burks, the first member of the Clearview HOPE program for female veterans, Clearview Legacy Foundation board members Andy Moock and Lisa Furlong and Dana Harris, wife of Franco Harris, the Hall of Fame running back with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Powell has received numerous awards, including an honorary membership into the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in 2015. William and Renee Powell were the first father-daughter to be inducted into the PGA of America Hall of Fame, with Renee the first African American woman selected.