Elder broke colour barrier in signature golf moment

Lee Elder, who became the first African American golfer to play in the Masters tournament, a signature moment in the breaking of racial barriers on the pro golf tour, has died. He was 87.

The death was announced by the PGA Tour. It did not specify when or where he died or give the cause.

When Elder teed off at Augusta National Golf Club in April 1975, he was 40 years old.

Years earlier, in his prime, he had been confined to playing in the United Golfers Association tour, the sport’s version of baseball’s Negro leagues.

The PGA of America, the national association of pro golfers, accepted only “members of the Caucasian race,” as its rules had spelled out, until 1961.

Elder was among the leading players on the UGA tour, which over the years also featured such outstanding golfers as Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford, who was the first Black player on the PGA Tour, and Pete Brown while offering comparatively meagre purses.

Elder first played regularly on the PGA Tour in 1968, and that August he took Jack Nicklaus to a playoff at the American Golf Classic in Akron, Ohio, losing in sudden death.

The Masters, played annually at Augusta National, had no clause barring Black golfers, but unofficially it remained closed to them. With the rise of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, however, it came under pressure to integrate its ranks.

The tournament eased a bit in 1971 by announcing that any player who subsequently won a PGA Tour event would automatically qualify for it. Elder came close, finishing second in the Texas Open and losing a playoff to Lee Trevino in the Greater Hartford tournament in 1972.

Elder broke through after capturing the 1974 Monsanto Open at the Pensacola Country Club in Florida, where six years earlier he and other African American PGA Tour members playing there had been refused entrance to the clubhouse.

That victory finally brought the 1975 Masters invitation. In the runup to the tournament Elder received death threats. He rented two houses near the Augusta National course and moved between them as a security measure.

When he teed off for his first shot, a huge crowd lined the fairway. “I remember thinking, ‘How am I going to tee off without killing somebody,’ ” he told The New York Times in 2000.

His shot off the first tee was down the middle, but he ended up far back in the field in the first two rounds, shooting 74 and 78, and missed the cut to continue to play on the weekend by four strokes.

Elder played in the Masters six times, his top finish a tie for 17th place in 1979. He won four PGA Tour events and finished second 10 times, playing regularly through 1989 and earning $1.02 million (U.S.) in purses. He also played for the U.S. team in the 1979 Ryder Cup. He joined the PGA Senior Tour, now the Champions Tour, in 1984 and won eight times, earning more than $1.6 million. He won four tournaments overseas.