Calvin Peete, winner of 12 PGA Tour events, dies
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/gol...of-12-pga-tour-events-dies/ar-BBiSfL9?ocid=sf
Calvin Peete, who taught himself how to play golf at 24 and became the most successful black player on the PGA Tour before the arrival of Tiger Woods, died Wednesday morning, the PGA Tour said. He was 71.
The tour did not have a cause of death. Murray Brothers Funeral Home confirmed it was handling the arrangements but did not release additional information.
Peete won 12 times on the PGA Tour, mainly on the strength of his uncanny accuracy off the tee. Peete led the PGA Tour in driving accuracy for 10 straight years starting in 1981, and he captured the Vardon Trophy over Jack Nicklaus in 1984. He also played on two Ryder Cup teams.
More impressive than his record, however, was the journey to compete -- and beat -- the best in golf.
Born July 18, 1943, in Detroit, Peete used to pick beans and corn in the fields in Florida to make money for his family. He eventually financed a station wagon from which he sold vegetables and other goods to migrants. He wasn't interested in golf, even at the prodding of friends. Peete had spent enough time in the hot sun.
According to a 1983 profile in The New York Times, Peete became interested when he saw how much money golfers were making. He first took up the game in Rochester, New York, when he was 24. Within six months he was breaking 80, and a year later he was breaking par.
Even more remarkable is that Peete had a left arm he couldn't fully extend. He had fallen from a tree and broken his elbow as a kid, and it was never properly set. That didn't keep him from developing a repeatable swing that always seemed to find the fairway.
"Some of the players still drive farther than I do," Peete told The Times in the 1983 profile. "But I'm always in the fairway, and they're sometimes in the trees."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/gol...of-12-pga-tour-events-dies/ar-BBiSfL9?ocid=sf
Calvin Peete, who taught himself how to play golf at 24 and became the most successful black player on the PGA Tour before the arrival of Tiger Woods, died Wednesday morning, the PGA Tour said. He was 71.
The tour did not have a cause of death. Murray Brothers Funeral Home confirmed it was handling the arrangements but did not release additional information.
Peete won 12 times on the PGA Tour, mainly on the strength of his uncanny accuracy off the tee. Peete led the PGA Tour in driving accuracy for 10 straight years starting in 1981, and he captured the Vardon Trophy over Jack Nicklaus in 1984. He also played on two Ryder Cup teams.
More impressive than his record, however, was the journey to compete -- and beat -- the best in golf.
Born July 18, 1943, in Detroit, Peete used to pick beans and corn in the fields in Florida to make money for his family. He eventually financed a station wagon from which he sold vegetables and other goods to migrants. He wasn't interested in golf, even at the prodding of friends. Peete had spent enough time in the hot sun.
According to a 1983 profile in The New York Times, Peete became interested when he saw how much money golfers were making. He first took up the game in Rochester, New York, when he was 24. Within six months he was breaking 80, and a year later he was breaking par.
Even more remarkable is that Peete had a left arm he couldn't fully extend. He had fallen from a tree and broken his elbow as a kid, and it was never properly set. That didn't keep him from developing a repeatable swing that always seemed to find the fairway.
"Some of the players still drive farther than I do," Peete told The Times in the 1983 profile. "But I'm always in the fairway, and they're sometimes in the trees."
