Before Tiger Woods, there was Calvin Peete, the most successful African American to play on the professional golfer’s tour.
Born in Detroit, Mich., July 18, 1943, Pete did not begin playing golf until his 20s. But despite this late start in a sport where most pros begin learning as children, he was inspired by another Black golfer, Lee Elder, who in 1975 became the first Black man to play in the Masters.
The high school drop out learned the game while peddling goods to migrant workers in Rochester, N.Y., and playing on the public course at Genesee Valley Park.
A self-taught player who never hit especially long, Peete was one of golf’s most accurate drivers and fairway players and even earned the nickname “Mr. Accuracy.” Peete did this even though he could not extend his left elbow fully thanks to a childhood accident, where his broken limb was not set properly due to his extreme poverty.
Within six months of taking up golf at 23, he was breaking 80. A year later, he was breaking par. He never took a lesson, but read instructional books by Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Bob Toski. At the age of 32, he earned his PGA Tour membership.
The former agricultural worker, who was one of 19 kids from his father’s two marriages, and started his working life in the fields “from sunup to sundown,” won his first Professional Golfers Association tour event, the Greater Milwaukee Open, in 1979, and from 1982 through 1986 was among the tour’s most prolific champions, winning 11 tournaments, including four in 1982. He was the leader in driving accuracy on the PGA Tour for 10 straight years, 1981–90.
In fact, in 1984 he won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average on the tour, at 70.56.
Peete died on April 29 in Atlanta, Ga., after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 71.
Peete is survived by his wife, Pepper, and seven children—Charlotte, Calvin, Rickie, Dennis, Kalvanetta, Aisha and Aleya.
