Calvin Peete

He was nicknamed “Mr. Accuracy”, a worthy title considering Calvin Peete led the PGA in fairways hit for ten years straight (1981-1990). 

However, “Straight” was ironic word for Peete. 

A childhood injury left him permanently unable to fully extend his left arm; which was believed to be a necessity for a right-handed player.  However, this obstacle led him to develop a swing that would prove to be deadly accurate. 

The deadly accurate driver reached his pinnacle in 1984 when he beat out Arnold Palmer to claim the Varden Trophy.

The Varden Trophy was awarded to the player with the lowest scoring average in a season. 

Peete won 12 PGA tour events over the course of 19 years. The most significant being the 1985 Tournament Players Championship, precursor to today’s Players Championship, often called the 5th Major.

Today’s Players Championship boast some of the largest purses of any of the tournaments played including major championships, and Peete’s winners share that day was $162,000.  A significant purse at the time and a large portion of the $384,489 he made in prize money in 1985.  His career winning totaled $2,302,363 on just the PGA Tour.

Calvin Peete was an 8th grade dropout who didn’t pick up golf clubs until age 23 and didn’t join the PGA until age 32 yet still had a significant career on the PGA tour despite early setbacks.

​Like other black golfers arriving late to the game, Peete also made a career on the PGA Tour Champions competing in 158 tournaments, earning $952,011.  

His superior performance on the golf course did not return any commercial success as Peete was unable to secure corporate sponsorship. A lack of sponsorship was an unfortunate trend for many black golfers at the time.

Family, financial, and health challenges plagued Peete later in life, and he died in 2015 from lung cancer at age 72.