Calvin Peete And Pete Brown Pass Away

Last week, the golf world said goodbye to two more influential players, as Calvin Peete and Pete Brown both passed away.

Calvin Peete took an unusual path to the PGA Tour. While other players were excelling at the game as kids and playing among their peers as amateurs, Peete didn't start playing golf until his 20's. Peete grew up incredibly poor, and made money peddling goods to migrant workers in the Rochester area. As a kid, he suffered a severely broken arm that was never properly set. This didn't hurt Peete's chances at success, however, as he joined the PGA Tour in 1975 and immediately became one of the most accurate drivers of the golf ball. Peete lead the Tour in driving accuracy for ten straight years in the 80's. 

Peete won twelve times, all between 1979 and 1986, when he was picking apart golf courses with his brilliant accuracy. His greatest victory came at TPC Sawgrass when he won the Players Championship in 1985. Peete played on two Ryder Cup teams, and while he never won a major, he made a run at the PGA Championship in 1982 and 1984, finishing T3 and 4, respectfully. Peete won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average in 1984. Peete was the most successful African American to play on the PGA Tour prior to Tiger Woods, and is considered a borderline Hall of Famer by many.

Pete Brown grew up in Mississippi in the 40's and 50's during a time of racial tension in that state. He worked as a caddie as a child until taking up the game competitively. His career was halted in the late-50's when he suffered from polio, but recovered and came back stronger than ever. In 1963, Brown was the second African American to receive his PGA Tour card after Charlie Sifford, and in 1964, he became the first African American to win on the PGA Tour. He would win again in 1970 for his last of two PGA Tour victories over a 17 year career. He also served as the head golf pro at Madden Golf Course in Dayton, Ohio for over 20 years.

Coupled with the loss of Sifford earlier this year, the African American community has lost three of their most influential members within the sport of golf. They left behind a legacy of tearing down barriers and opening the game of golf to everyone, something the sport still tries to do but struggles with from time to time. The game of golf is better because we had these men competing in the game, and they will be missed.

2015 has not been kind to us.