The Masters: Remembering Lee Elder

In 1975, the year Tiger Woods was born, Lee Elder teed it up at The Masters. Elder got his Masters ticket punched when he won the 1974 Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Florida. This wouldn’t be a particularly noteworthy moment in Masters Tournament history except that Lee Elder was a black man and with that Pensacola victory he became the first black golfer to earn an invitation to the pinnacle of invitational competition played on a golf course where black men caddied rather than golfed

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Lee Elder learned to play golf at the Tennison Park Golf Club in Dallas, a whites-only club where he worked as a caddie and was mentored by the club pro, playing the back six of the course after hours to develop and then hone his skills. It was a modest beginning to a remarkable athletic career.

In 1959 — four years after the US Supreme Court ruled in Brown v Topeka, KS Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was illegal — 24-year old Lee Elder joined the United Golfers Association, then the professional home for black golfers. He won four National Negro Open Championships and in 1966, 9 years before he first played The Masters, Lee Elder won 18 of the 22 pro events he entered.

In 1967 Lee Elder easily qualified for the PGA Tour which, while open to black golfers, did not necessarily welcome them. In contrast to the LPGA, whose players stood together in demanding equality of access to facilities for early black members like Renee Powell, the PGA turned a blind eye to local racial restrictions. Not allowed in the clubhouses of white-only clubs that hosted PGA tournaments, Elder and other black golfers put on their golf shoes and ate in the parking lot, although Elder recalled for CNN that “those things had pretty much subsided by the time I got to the Masters.”

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Lee Elder played his way through seven years of professional golf before he notched the win that took him to Augusta National, and like many Masters rookies Elder missed the cut at his first Masters in 1975. However, most Masters rookies aren’t dealing with death threats while they’re trying to make the cut. Elder was receiving a police escort to drive between his lodging and the golf course because of the death threats he’d received.

Elder went on from that Masters debut to play four more Masters Tournaments and represent the US in its 1979 17-11 Ryder Cup victory. Nick Faldo, who was a rookie that year on the European team, defeated Elder 1-up in their singles match.

When Elder retired in 2005 he had four PGA Tour victories and eight Champions Tour wins on his resume, a singular accomplishment from that modest beginning on the back six of a whites-only golf club in Dallas.

Lee Elder doesn’t miss a Masters. He’s watched Tiger Woods make his Masters debut in 1995 and he’s watched Woods dominate the event. CNN reports that he’s chatted with Condoleezza Rice and they’ve agreed to play a round some time soon.

What about this year? Does Lee Elder, who’s seen a lot of Masters Tournaments and watched a lot of golfers come and go from Augusta National, have a prediction. Yes he does. He told CNN:

"“I think young Rory McIlroy. . . Everybody thinks the pressure is on to win the Grand Slam but I don’t think he’ll be thinking about that. He’ll just be thinking about taking care of business and winning the Masters.”"

Next: Can Bubba Watson Win Again?

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