Remembering a Legend: Calvin Peete
By First Tee Staff
Calvin Peete earned the title as the best golfer in the world on March 31, 1985 when he won THE PLAYERS Championship.
Born in Detroit, Michigan on July 18, 1943, Peete was one of his father’s 19 children between two marriages. Oddly enough, he was viewed as ‘Most Likely to Not Succeed’ by many of his teachers. He grew up living in various places from Detroit to Hayti, Missouri, in addition to a farm in Pahokee, Florida.
At the age of 12, Peete fell from a cherry tree near his grandmother’s house in Hayti and broke his left elbow in three places. Surgeons repaired the fractures, but the elbow joint remained permanently fused, leaving him unable to ever fully straighten his arm.
At the age of 15, while living in Florida, Peete dropped out of school. For several years, he supported himself by selling clothes, watches, jewelry, stereos and other wares to migrant farm workers up and down the east coast. It was in Rochester, New York in 1966, at the age of 23, where Peete was introduced to the game of golf and “tricked” into playing.
A couple of colleagues played golf and would often invite Peete to play, to no avail. Peete had no interest in playing golf which he considered to be a sport “for old white men.” Peete once said he “didn’t want to chase a little white ball around in the hot sun.”
On a day when Peete’s colleagues invited him to a “barbeque,” they ended up at a golf course. His colleagues gave him two options: sit in a hot car or let them show him how to play golf. Peete chose the latter. His colleagues, now turned golf instructors, showed him the grip, stance and posture. When Peete recalled the story, he said when he first put his hands on the club, he heard a voice in his head saying, “Calvin, this is what we want you to do.” That first day, he fumbled his way through the round, getting the ball airborne a few times. By the end of the day, he went to the nearest pawn shop and bought his first set of clubs.
Moving back to Florida, golf became Peete’s obsession. He looked for driving ranges with floodlights so he could practice at night. He also took a night job managing apartments in Fort Lauderdale so he would have more time for golf. He would go out to a small public park every day just to hit golf balls on repeat.
Peete was strictly self-taught. He had never even watched a tournament. He read some books on the game, set up a camera to take photos of his swing, and even invented his own grip and swing. As time progressed, Peete studied the swings of golf greats like Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus. He compared the videos of himself with others.
Within five years, Peete was breaking 80. During a rain delay while playing with his group of golf buddies, they sat in the clubhouse and watched Lee Elder and Jack Nicklaus playing in the American Golf Classic. Peete was in awe that a black man was playing with the best golfer in the world, and it sparked a thought that if he worked a little harder, he could be out there with Elder and Nicklaus.
So that’s what he did. He worked a little harder. By 1975, after three attempts at getting his PGA TOUR card, Peete completed the PGA TOUR Qualifying School and joined the TOUR in 1976, going on to win his first tournament – the Greater Milwaukee Open – in 1979.
While playing professional golf and raising a family in 1982, Peete earned his high school equivalency (GED), making him eligible for a U.S. Ryder Cup Team position. He went on to become a member of the U.S. Team in 1983 and 1985. He won the Vardon Trophy and the Byron Nelson Award in 1984. For 10 years in a row between 1981 – 1990, Peete was the most accurate driver, being nicknamed “Mr. Accuracy” by his fellow golfers.
In all, Peete won 12 times on the PGA TOUR, two international events and two Ryder Cup teams all within 10 years. Among his wins, THE PLAYERS Championship was his most coveted and earned him the position of being the most successful African American golfer at that time. He won with a score of 14-under 274, a record at that time that was matched years later by none other than Tiger Woods.
Peete once said that he never experienced any racism from his fellow players and or the fans. He always said that the greats before him like Ted Rhodes, Pete Brown, Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder carried the weight for him. He was forever grateful to them for paving the way.
Calvin and Pepper met in 1987 at the Bill Dickey East West Golf Classic fundraiser and had their first dance to “Caribbean Queen” by Billy Ocean. They married in 1992 and had two girls who were First Tee participants and went on to earn college golf scholarships. Between Calvin’s two marriages, he had seven children – three boys and four girls. Calvin’s favorite movies were
Godfather I and
Godfather II, and an old war movie called
Midway. His favorite musical artists were Sam Cooke, The Temptations, The O’Jays and Marvin Gaye.
Calvin is the late husband of First Tee headquarters’ Manager of Chapter Services, Pepper Peete.
