A Tribute to pioneer Lee Elder (1934- 2021)

Lee Elder at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego, CA on Friday January 22, 2021.

At the 2021 Augusta Masters opening ceremony, why did Lee Elder get a bigger ovation than Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player ? Unlike the other two, Lee Elder, to most an unfamiliar black man, had never won the Masters; never even finished in the top 10 in fact. When his name was announced, he stood up from his chair and waved to the crowd. Then he sat back down. He did not hit a tee shot. Yet he received the longest ovation of the three. Yes, longer than even the great Nicklaus.

In almost all cases, a sportsperson’s impact can be measured by numbers: Rafael Nadal’s 13 French Open titles; Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 international centuries; Nicklaus’s 18 majors; But not all.

Lee Elder, who died at the age of 87 on November 28, 2021, belongs in the small category where statistics do not, and cannot, tell the impact of the man. He was the first black man to play in the Masters, a tournament whose co-founder Cliff Roberts had famously said “all the golfers will be white, and all the caddies will be black” for as long as he had anything to do with it. Yet in 1974, such was Elder’s status that Roberts called to invite him to play in the 1975 Masters. Elder was 40 years old.

He did not make the cut but when he finished his second round, the staff at Augusta National, most of whom were black, lined the 18th fairway to applaud him. “I couldn’t hold back the tears. Of all the acknowledgments of what I had accomplished by getting there, this one meant the most,” he told Golf Digest in 2019. However, there was a dark cloud to his accomplishment. He had received death threats and had rented two houses during the tournament, never spending more than one night in a row in either of them.

At 44, Elder broke another colour barrier in golf by becoming the first black man to play for the United States in the 1979 Ryder Cup. In doing so, he and other pioneers such as Charlie Sifford, helped pave the way for future black players such as Calvin Peete, who won 12 times on tour, and, most notably, Tiger Woods. Elder was at the 1997 Masters to see Tiger win by a record 12-shots.

“Lee Elder came down, that meant a lot to me,” Woods said after the 1997 Masters. “He was the first. He was the one I looked up to. Charlie Sifford, all of them. Because of them, I was able to play here. I was able to play on the PGA Tour. When I turned pro at 20, I was able to live my dream because of those guys.”

Born in1934, Elder was the youngest of 10 children. He was orphaned at 10, when his father was killed in World War II and his mother died shortly after. He was raised first by an older brother and then by an aunt. At 16, he was on his own, working at a club in Dallas, and played 18 holes for the first time. He later teamed up with a gambler and hustler named Titanic Thompson and made a living hustling. In 1961, after two years in the army, he joined the all-black United Golfers Association. The US PGA Tour lifted its white’s only policy the same year, but Elder couldn’t afford the fee for qualifying school. He would go on to dominate the all-black tour and in 1966 was able to pay the $6,500 fee to enter qualifying school.

He qualified easily and at the age of 34 was a full fledged member of the tour. That year, he went up against Nicklaus in the American Golf Classic at Firestone Country Club. Elder wound up in a three-man playoff with Nicklaus and Frank Beard, who dropped out after the first extra hole when the other two made birdies. Elder continued to match Nicklaus shot for shot before losing on the fifth extra hole. “I played as well as I knew how. I thought, if I run into this every week, I’m going to have a hard time winning out here,” Elder told Golf Digest in 2019.

He would claim his first win seven years later in 1974 at the Monsanto Open, which led to his invitation to the Masters. In all, Elder would win four times on the PGA Tour, while finishing second 10 times. He also won four tournaments outside the United States and eight more times on the Senior Tour. Beyond the course, Elder created a scholarship for young men and women who needed money for college and served as a fundraiser for the United Negro College Fund.

In 2019, the United States Golf Association presented Elder with its highest honour – the Bob Jones Award for outstanding sportsmanship. Elder told Golf Digest that he took the statue with him everywhere. “My wife, Sharon, has wrapped and unwrapped it a hundred times to show people. I’m always carrying on, scolding her not to hurt it. I can’t help it. It’s the nicest recognition I’ve received in my whole life.”

Credits:-
Photo – Golf Digest