Jim Dent, who was one of the few Black golfers on the PGA Tour — in his day or now — and who became known for his prodigious drives off the tee, died on Friday at his home in Augusta, Ga. He was 85.
His grandson Andre Lacey II said the cause was complications of a recent stroke.
Mr. Dent was part of a small group of significant Black golfers who preceded Tiger Woods (who identifies as partly Black) into professional golf. Charlie Sifford was the first to play on what became known as the PGA Tour after its former parent, the PGA of America, dropped its “Caucasians only” policy in 1961.
In 1964, Pete Brown was the first Black golfer to win an event on the tour. Eleven years later, Lee Elder was the first to play in the Masters tournament. And Calvin Peete, another Black member of the tour, won his first tournament in 1979 and 11 more between 1982 and 1986.
Dent accumulated $564,809 in earnings, but he never won a tournament on the tour, and he did not qualify to play in the Masters. His best finish came in 1972, when he tied for second place, nine strokes behind Jack Nicklaus, at the Walt Disney World Open Invitational in Florida.
But Dent went on to win a dozen tournaments on the tour’s new senior circuit (now called PGA Tour Champions), which he joined in 1989 at age 50. He won two tournaments in 1989 and four more the next year. His last victory came in 1998. In all, he earned more than $9 million on the Champions tour.
Laury Livsey, the PGA Tour’s historian, said that Dent did not regard himself as a racial pioneer; rather, he credited Sifford, Brown and Elder with that distinction.
