DALLAS — A piece of Dallas history is back open, and more is on the way.
Cedar Crest Golf Course reopened Friday morning after a three-month closure to replace damaged greens with new Bermuda grass. Radio One's annual celebrity golf scramble was held Friday, and play will be open to the public starting Monday.
Cedar Crest shut down before this summer to undergo renovations.
And the new greens aren't the only upgrade at Cedar Crest, a city course that hosted the 1927 PGA Championship.
The course has also secured funding for two statues: One for Walter Hagen, the golf Hall of Famer who won the 1927 tournament, and Charles Sifford, the first Black golfer on the PGA Tour who won a tournament at Cedar Crest in the 1950s.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and councilwoman Carolyn King Arnold, who represents Cedar Crest's District 4, were among the Dallas city leaders at the ribbon-cutting event Friday.
Johnson called Cedar Crest "one of Dallas' crown jewel attractions, period."
"But certainly the crown jewel of our municipal golf courses," Johnson said. "I'm so happy that we're reopened, we got our greens repaired and we're ready for some great golf."
The Hagen and Sifford statues will honor two key figures in Cedar Crest's rich history.
Hagen, an 11-time major winner, won the 1927 PGA Championship at Cedar Crest, the first major golf tournament held in Texas. Sifford won the United Golf Association's Negro National Open at Cedar Crest in 1954. Sifford, known as the "Jackie Robinson of golf," later became the first Black golfer on the PGA Tour, breaking the color barrier in 1961.
"Everyone needs to know what Cedar Crest has meant to golf for decades, and really over 100 years," Malayo said. "The No. 1 thing that we want to do is share our history and be a better partner with the community."
The Hagen statue will show "the championship pedigree of what the golf course really is," Malayo said.
And the Sifford statue might be even more important.
"To be in this neighborhood in southern Dallas and be apart of what this neighborhood and what this golf course means to the southern Dallas community, it's imperative that we celebrate Charlie Sifford and his win," Malayo said, "and what he did for golf and what he did for African-Americans in our country."
