NY Times · May 6, 2015
Pete Brown, 80, Black Golfer Whose Victory Broke Ground
Photo Pete Brown, with his wife, Margaret, after a PGA Tour win in 1970. Credit United Press International Pete Brown, who survived polio to become the first black golfer to win a PGA Tour event, died on Friday in Augusta, Ga. He was 80.
PGA Tour officials announced his death. He had had several strokes and congestive heart failure, The Augusta Chronicle reported.
Brown joined the tour in 1963, two years after Charlie Sifford broke the color barrier, and played until 1978, making 356 career tournament starts and surviving the cut in 225 of them.