Pete Brown, first black player to win PGA Tour event, dies at 80

Published May. 2, 2015 12:04 a.m. ET

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Pete Brown, the first black player to win a PGA Tour event, died Friday. He was 80.

PGA Tour officials say Brown died in Augusta. Details on the cause of death weren't immediately available.

Brown won the 1964 Waco Turner Open in Burneyville, Oklahoma, and the 1970 Andy Williams-San Diego Open.

A native of Port Gibson, Mississippi, Brown survived polio as a child and learned to play golf in Jackson, Mississippi, after first working as a caddie. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem called Brown a gentleman and a credit to the game.

Brown joined the tour in 1963, two years after Charlie Sifford broke the color barrier, and played until 1978.

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