Lee Elder, barrier-breaking golfer, dies at 87
Source: Washington Post
Lee Elder, who shattered one of golf’s last racial barriers when in 1975 he became the first African American to compete in the tradition-bound Masters tournament in Augusta, Ga., has died at 87. The PGA Tour announced the death but provided no further details. Mr. Elder’s much-heralded triumphs on the green followed a turbulent start in life. He was orphaned at 9, dropped out of high school in Los Angeles in 10th grade and supported himself as a caddie and a golf hustler, often in cahoots with the noted gambler and golfer Alvin Thomas, better known under the pseudonym Titanic Thompson.
He sometimes posed as a caddie for Thompson, who was White, or as his liveried chauffeur. Thompson would take wagers that he and his chauffeur could defeat the two best players on the course. At the end of the day, they often walked away with a handsome profit.“I knew it was dishonest, but there are times when you have to forget about dishonesty when you want to survive,” Mr. Elder once told The Washington Post. It took years of struggling against the discriminatory barriers of professional golf before he was allowed to compete against White golfers and to take his place at Augusta and in other prestigious tournaments.
As a hustler, Mr. Elder had played courses on his knees, on one leg or wearing a raincoat on a brutally hot day (albeit with ice-cold towels concealed within) — all manner of outrageous handicaps to rake in a living wage. He made hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars at a clip.But it was his raw talent, on display during an exhibition match in Cleveland with former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, that brought Mr. Elder to the attention of his first mentor, Ted Rhodes. Rhodes, Louis’s personal golf instructor, had competed in the U.S. Open in 1948 and was one of the first Black professional golfers.
Rhodes persuaded Mr. Elder to switch from an unorthodox cross-handed grip to a conventional grip, dramatically improving his game. He moved into the Rhodes home in St. Louis for three years and accompanied him on trips to Havana and Kingston, Jamaica — “where the big action was,” he later told The Post. After fulfilling Army service in 1961, Mr. Elder joined the United Golfers Association (UGA), the sport’s equivalent of baseball’s Negro Leagues. It was sometimes called “The Peanut Tour” because of its small winners’ purses, usually $500.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/lee-elder-barrier-breaking-golfer-dies-at-87/2021/11/29/7faed800-1164-11e6-93ae-50921721165d_story.html
Wow. I used to hear his name mentioned quite a bit - particularly when Tiger Woods hit the scene but hadn't heard much from him lately.
R.I.P.
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