Update and corrected by Barbara W. Sessions, Curator
Turner’s Lodge Pro Golf Museum
at Falconhead Resort, Marietta, OK
The Pete Brown Diamond Jubilee took place at Falconhead Resort in Burneyville, OK on May 1. This event commemorated the 60th anniversary of the 1964 Waco Turner Open, where Brown made history. He became the first African American golfer to win a PGA Tour event.
Brown’s victory was made more significant by the fact that Black golfers were barred from the PGA by a “Caucasian-only” clause in its by-laws until 1961.
Here are the highlights:
A ribbon cutting took place at noon on the “Life and Times of Pete Brown” exhibit in the Turner’s Lodge Pro Golf Museum in the Pro Shop. The museum sponsored the Jubilee.
Kirk H. Russell, Ardmore, who plays at Falconhead Resort, won the one-hole tournament, the Pete Brown-Waco Turner Tribute 72nd Hole Scoring Challenge. Contestants used Waco Turner’s 1950s Wilson golf clubs and attempted to make par 3 on the 232-yard, Hole 18, as Brown had to do to win the Waco Turner Open in 1964.
Russell was awarded a $500 cash prize by the sponsoring American Nation Bank. Russell is an officer in the Ardmore chapter of the Black Golfers Association. Pro golfer cAugusta’s own Jim Dent never gained a Masters berth, but continues to inspire the world as the next World Caddie HQ-PCA Ambassador, 84, came in second.
In a program on the 18th green, a slate of noted speakers from across the country commented on Pete Brown’s 17-year PGA Tour career (he also won the 1970 Andy Williams/San Diego Open) and character and explored the state of golf that preceded and followed his historic win in Oklahoma.
PGA spokeswoman Sandy Cross, Chief People Officer, accepted corporate responsibility for the PGA’s prolonged failure to accept African Americans as members. “I think it is utterly terrible,” Cross said. I just felt it important for me to recognize that today and to own that on behalf of the PGA of America, own that invective.”
Cross compared her “twenty-eight blessed years with the PGA of America” to the “twenty-seven years Mr. Brown and other men of color were denied to join the PGA.”
Her voice cracking with emotion, she added, “The dichotomy of that is really great and really smarts. I would do anything that I could to undo that,” Cross said. The “Caucasian-only” clause in the bylaws of the PGA’s constitution was in effect from 1934 to 1961.
Once the ban was lifted Charlie Sifford (1961) and Pete Brown (1963) became active on the PGA Tour. A dozen more African American pros were admitted into the 1970s, paving the way for Tiger Woods, widely considered the greatest male golfer of all time.
Sifford and Brown were pictured on a screen background behind the speakers. In the photo, Sifford holds the flagstick while Brown lines up the short putt on the final hole of the 1964 Waco Turner Open that would secure his one-shot victory and open a new chapter in golf history. Brown died in 2015, at age 70.
Brown’s widow, Margaret Brown, age 84, daughter Tracie Brown and friend Rodney Benson, grandson Gregory Brown, and Gregory’s wife, Virginia, holding infant daughter Hattie, 12 weeks old, sat greenside. Numerous family friends also attended and about 75 other guests and Falconhead residents.
“I pay homage to hallowed ground here,” James E. Ridley began his remarks. Ridley, of Tampa, Fl., is coordinator for the Dayton Foundation Pete Brown Scholarship. He told of taking golf lessons from Brown as a young investment advisor in Ohio in 1990. Golf event sponsor, American Nation Bank, presented a $500 check to Ridley for the Pete Brown scholarship.
The audience enjoyed remarks from PGA Tour/Senior Tour multi-winner Jim Dent, 84, who was mentored by Brown in Dent’s rookie year on Tour, 1970. Dent went on to earn more than $9 million playing professional golf. “I appreciate him and Charlie Sifford. They gave me confidence to come out and do what I did,” Dent said. He also mentioned good ideas learned from watching Miller Barber, Butch Baird, Dan Sikes, Don January, and Jack Nicklaus.
Jay Upchurch, Norman, OK, had the last interview with Brown by an Oklahoma sportswriter. “It was a pretty amazing 2-iron Pete hit to a 232-yard hole location,” Upchurch said. “Pete told me he felt the pressure of a lot of people’s hopes on his shoulders as he lined up his putt. It was 2-1/2 feet but it must have looked like 10 feet. You have to credit Waco and Opie Turner for opening their arms to Charlie Sifford and Pete Brown. Because of that, something really special happened here.”
Dr. Michael Cooper, Tampa, FL, senior regional golf engagement advisor for the USGA, told an amazing story about caddying as a teenager for Pete Brown and other players in the 1950s when the Black tour, the United Golf Association, stopped at Pipe of Peace Course in Cooper’s hometown of Chicago.
Clif Brown and Pete Brown told the 20-year-old he would never be a good golfer by wintering in Chicago. He needed to play year round. “Then out of the blue, Pete invited me to come live in California for a while with him and his family. When I got there, Mrs. Brown, who had six daughters, told me I would be treated like their first son.”
“I was never big enough, strong enough or talented enough to hit a ball like Pete Brown, but I did find out from him how to be kind, and I think he would be proud of that,” Cooper said.
Ramona Harriet, author of “A Missing Link in History: the Journey of African Americans in Golf,” is the premier historian on the topic, tracing the accomplishments of Black men and women in golf from the 1800s to 2015. During her years of research and leadership in the Epochs of History traveling exhibit, Harriet developed a personal friendship with Dent, Sifford, Brown, and other of the early Tour players and their families.
Brown, she said, “was like a big brother to me.” She called Margaret Brown to the stage to tell stories with her of Pete’s stamina and wit when confined to hospitals first in Detroit, where he battled polio in his 20’s, and then near Augusta, where he fought back repeatedly from strokes, a total of 14 in his later life.
Peter May, a career sportswriter for the Boston Globe, NY Times, and ESPN TV, spoke as the author of the 2024 book ,“Changing the Course: How Charlie Sifford & Stanley Mosk Integrated the PGA.” The book is mostly about Charlie Sifford and his battle through his 20s to join the PGA.
“The PGA had this Caucasian-only by-law, but baseball did not have that bylaw, football did not have it, tennis did not have it. As recently as 1960, the PGA membership voted by a margin of 4-1 to keep the clause,” May said.
Stanley Mosk was the Attorney General of California. Assisted by Franklin Williams, a attorney for the NCAA, Mosk filed suit on Sifford’s behalf against the PGA for discrimination. The PGA dropped the offending clause in November 1961. “It’s an interesting story because it involves not just golf, but social policy, civil rights, and integration,” May said.
The program began and ended with special music. Love County vocalist Melodie Schaffer sang the National Anthem. She and her grandson Zane Schaffer, age 9, sang a choreographed version of the State Song, “Oklahoma!”
Falconhead Resort provided courtesy lodging for speakers and refreshments for the reception. Individuals volunteers included Nancy Pate, Max Western, Rosann Kelley, Rosemary Kushaney, Connie Hiser, Joann Altom, Janet Andrews, Patti Rainey, Stacy Goode, Lisa Hamilton, Don Sessions, David Wheat, John Kushaney, Danny Willis, and Phil Hiser. Wheat and Rick Hamilton ran the one-hole tournament. Special thanks went to Nic McMillin, Summer Bryant, Del Lemon, and Falconhead’s Steve Kerr and Kristy Dobson.
