By Barbara W. Sessions
Curator
Turner’s Lodge Pro Golf Museum Falconhead Resort
Burneyville, OK
(Burneyville, OK, February 13, 2024) — Black History Month in 2024 calls to mind Pete Brown’s victory 60
years ago in the 1964 Waco Turner Open on the PGA Tour, in Burneyville, OK. With a clutch one-putt
par on the 72nd hole, Brown became the first African American Tour member to win a sanctioned PGA
event. He was 29 years old.
Black golfers had been barred from PGA membership prior to 1962. Brown joined the Tour in 1963. He
overcame racism and a year-long bout of polio at age 19 to persist in his goal of playing professional
golf. “Pete had a strong will. He was the most determined person I ever knew,” said Margaret Brown, his
wife. The Waco Turner Open was played from April 30-May 3, 1964. Brown also won the 1970 Andy
Williams San Diego Open.
Brown’s breakthrough at Burneyville paved the way for future Black golfers, from Lee Elder, Calvin
Peete, and Jim Dent, up to Tiger Woods, to experience success at the highest level of men’s golf.
A national celebration, “The Pete Brown Jubilee,” is set for noon Wednesday, May 1, 2024, to mark the
60th anniversary of Brown’s milestone win. The site will be the 18th green of Falconhead Resort and
Country Club (formerly Turner’s Lodge) in Burneyville, OK.
Falconhead Resort is at Exit 15, Marietta, on Interstate 35, then 12 miles west on State Highway 32.
Brown, who died in Augusta, GA in 2015, will be represented by his wife and other family members. “I
would give anything in the world to stand on that 18th green,” Margaret Brown, 84, said about the
Jubilee. She was at home caring for the couple’s young children in 1964.
“Pete called and told me he won the tournament. I didn’t believe him at first. ‘Stop kidding around,’ I
said. He said, ‘No, I mean it. I won and I did it for you because you always told me I was good enough to
win on the PGA Tour.’”
The May 1 program will include presenters from the world of golf and African American golf history. A
special exhibit, “Life and Times of Pete Brown,” will open that day in the Turner’s Lodge Pro Golf
Museum in the Falconhead Pro Shop.
Afterward will be the Pete Brown-Waco Turner Tribute 72nd Hole Scoring Contest. Open to all, the goal
is to make a par 3 on the uphill, 232-yard #18, like Pete Brown did to win the Waco Turner Open
outright and avoid a playoff with Dan Sikes. To add authenticity, players will hit with the late Waco
Turner’s personal set of 1950s Wilson golf clubs.
Turner’s Lodge was the name of the Falconhead course from 1958-1968. Burneyville oil millionaires
Waco and Opie Turner built the course and between them sponsored an amazing six men’s and
women’s Tour stops in the smallest community ever to host professional golf.
The LPGA Tour formally opened the Turner’s Lodge Course with the 1958 Opie Turner Open won by
Mickey Wright, and returned in 1959 (Betsy Rawls the winner). The PGA Tour played four Waco Turner
Opens from 1961-1964. The champions were Butch Baird, Johnny Pott, Gay Brewer, and Brown.
Falconhead Resort is open to public play. It is the rare opportunity for any golfer to play a pro tour
course on which both the LPGA and PGA held official events.
In the final threesome with Brown was his friend and traveling companion Charlie Sifford, the PGA
Tour’s first Black member. The two Black golfers had been tied for second after three rounds. Sifford
finished in a tie for sixth place.
A large field of 150 golfers came to Burneyville the first week of May each year, while the Tournament of
Champions was going on at the Desert Inn Country Club in Las Vegas for the 25 or 30 pros who had won
Tour events the prior year. Sifford also played in the 1962 Waco Turner Open, finishing in a tie for 21st. It was the first integrated PGA Tour stop in Oklahoma.
Brown grew up caddying on a golf course in Jackson, Mississippi. Though a “public” course, Black players
were not allowed. Late in the day, Brown would sneak onto the course to play a few holes with a left-handed 3-wood and a right-handed 5-iron he had fished from a lake. Prior to admission to the PGA Tour, accomplished Black golfers formed their own tour and played on courses that permitted them. On the United Golfers Tour, Brown won two National Negro Opens in a row, 1960 and 1961.
Pete and his wife operated the Madden Golf Course in Dayton, Ohio from 1981 until 2004. In 1986, Brown was inducted into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame in Decatur, GA. In 2019 the Jackson, Mississippi course was renamed Pete Brown Golf Facility. In 2020, Brown was inducted posthumously into the Mississippi Golf Hall of Fame. Brown died on May 1, 2015.
- For more information on The Pete Brown Jubilee, contact Barbara W. Sessions, Curator, 580-276-2333 (landline) or 580-276-7587 (cell) or email sessions@arbuckleonline.com.
- For dining or room reservations at Falconhead Resort and Country Club contact Room Reservations: 580-276-3341 or Steve Kerr, general manager, at skerr@falconhead.club
- For Tee Times contact: Falconhead Pro Shop, 580-276-9284.
- Visit Falconhead and Museum Website: www.falconheadok.com
