History’s Mysteries: Lee Elder and the 1974 Monsanto Open

Welcome back, friends, to yet another edition of History’s Mysteries. Every so often, MyGolfSpy takes a look back in time at the equipment, people and events that mattered and made a difference.

This has been an exciting week in golf, with Nelly Korda and Scottie Scheffler battling it out to see who the best golfer in the world is. But with all the hubbub, a very important anniversary came and went this past Sunday, and it’s an event that should always be remembered.

On April 21, 1974, Lee Elder won the Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Fla. That victory was the first in Elder’s PGA Tour career. More importantly, the win earned Elder a spot in the 1975 Masters, making him the first African American to play at Augusta.

If you’re a student of history, particularly of the 1960s and ’70s, that’s no small milestone.

History’s Mysteries: Who Was Lee Elder?

Lee Elder was born in Dallas in 1934, the youngest of eight children. When he was seven, his father was killed in World War II and his mother died three months later. Elder’s first job in golf was collecting stray balls at a local muni (he was too small to carry a bag) and he wouldn’t play his first full 18-hole round until he was 16.

Elder honed his game and became a bit of a hustler. He ultimately joined up with Alvin Thomas, better known as the legendary golf hustler Titanic Thompson. Thompson made a living hustling money from rich country club members around the country and Elder would play a role in his favorite hustle. After beating a member soundly, Thompson would berate the player, saying his caddie could beat him. The player, incensed, would take Thompson up on that challenge. The caddie, of course, was Elder.

After a stint in the army, Elder joined the United Golf Association Tour in 1961. It was a tour for black golfers because the PGA Tour still officially held its “Caucasians only” clause. Elder was dominant on that tour, at one stretch winning 18 of 22 tournaments. The prize money, however, wasn’t great, often in the $500 range.

The PGA Tour officially lifted its color barrier in the early ‘60s but it took Elder until 1967 to earn enough money to attend Q-School. He finished ninth out of 122 golfers, earning his Tour card for 1968. His rookie season saw him place 40th on the money list, highlighted by losing on the fifth playoff hole to Jack Nicklaus at the American Golf Classic at Firestone on national television.

The 1974 Monsanto Open

By April of 1974, Elder had five second-place finishes in his career, including another playoff loss in Hartford to Lee Trevino. But he had yet to win on the PGA Tour.

Elder’s previous experiences at the Monsanto Open were not pleasant. As a rookie in 1968, Elder and other black players on Tour were forced to change clothes in the parking lot. Members at the Pensacola Country Club refused to allow Blacks in their clubhouse.  

But the ’74 Monsanto would be quite different. Elder went 67-69-71 in the first three rounds. That put him in the final pairing, two shots behind leader Peter Oosterhuis. Elder would tie for the lead twice during the final round but, by 16, Oosterhuis was back up by two.

Elder birdied 17 to pull within one. But he badly pulled his tee shot into the trees on 18. Newspaper accounts say Elder then “hooked a miraculous approach around the trees,” to within five feet of the hole. While Oosterhuis scrambled for his par, Elder drained his birdie putt to force a playoff.

Oosterhuis missed a three-footer on the first playoff hole that would have won the event. He also missed a four-foot birdie putt on the second hole. After routine pars, Oosterhuis placed his approach on the fourth playoff hole to within 20 feet. Elder followed, playing his approach two feet closer, on the same line.

Oosterhuis missed but Elder drained his 18-footer for the win.

Officials immediately hustled Elder into the clubhouse for the trophy presentation. The ceremony was moved inside after police received notice of death threats against Elder earlier in the day.

It was the same clubhouse Elder was barred from entering six years earlier.

The Masters Invitation

The practice is standard now: win a PGA Tour event and you’re automatically invited to the Masters.

That policy, however, hasn’t always been official. African-American players Pete Brown and Charlie Sifford were multiple winners on the PGA Tour in the ‘60s but were never invited. In the early ‘70s, a group of Congressmen lobbied Masters chairman Clifford Roberts to invite an African-American to play. Roberts, however, remained unfazed.

“We are a little surprised as well as flattered that 18 Congressmen should take time out to help us operate a golf tournament,” Roberts is quoted as saying at the time. “We feel certain someone has misinformed the distinguished lawmakers because there is not and never has been player discrimination, subtle or otherwise.”

This was the same Clifford Roberts who, in 1933, reportedly declared that “all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black,” for as long as he could influence the situation.

But by 1974, the Masters had changed its policies to extend an invitation to any Tour winner. Roberts contacted Elder after the Monsanto win to officially invite him but Elder told Roberts he’d have to think about it.

“I just wanted to give Cliff a taste of his own medicine,” he’s quoted as saying.  

The 1975 Masters

Jack Nicklaus won the ’75 Masters in a thrilling final-round showdown with Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf. Elder, who was 40 at the time, missed the cut after shooting 74 on Thursday and 78 on Friday.

“When I arrived at the front gate and drove down Magnolia Lane, that’s when the shakes began,” Elder told the BBC News in 2015. “What if I hook or slice into the woods? I just collected my thoughts as I approached the first drive and just kind of swung the club.”

The week at Augusta was both thrilling and trying. Elder received death threats and hate mail leading up to the Masters, to the point where he rented two different houses so no one could be sure where he was staying. Two bodyguards were with him at all times and his meals were prepared by the kitchen at Paine University, a historically Black college in Augusta.  

The Augusta patrons, however, were a different story.

“Every green I walked up on, the applause was tremendous. I mean, everyone shouted ‘Go Lee! Good luck Lee!’”

After finishing his first round, every staff member at Augusta greeted Elder on the path leading to the clubhouse, just to say thank you.

And because life does come full circle, 22 years later Elder was at the 18th green to greet that year’s champion, Tiger Woods.

The Elder Legacy

“I didn’t realize how important (playing the Masters) was at the time,” Elder told Golf Digest years later. “I don’t think I knew what a big deal it was.”

From what we’ve learned from people who knew Elder, that’s not surprising. Michael Cooper, a Senior Regional Golf Engagement Advisor for the USGA, was a teenager when he met Elder in the summer of 1974 at the Pipe O’ Peace golf course on Chicago’s South Side.

“The head pro was a gentleman named Bobby Milton, who had played for the Harlem Globetrotters,” Cooper tells MyGolfSpy. “Bobby set up a Lee Elder Day. It was a big celebration and Lee played a nine-hole exhibition. I got to play with him and Bobby.”

Cooper says he knew the stories of what Elder went through but adds Lee never spoke of it.

“Never once can I recall him talking about all the bad stuff and racism. He talked about all the good people he met and mentioned Gary Player quite a bit. Player invited him to play in South Africa during the apartheid era.”

Jim Beatty, executive editor of African American Golfer’s Digest, met Elder at a tournament in St. Louis.

“When I found out he was going to be a guest, I got giddy. He was pretty reserved, given all that he accomplished. But I did not see in him nor did I detect any aspects of bitterness, which was encouraging because he certainly had reason to be. He was just a very kind person.”

African American Golfer’s Digest publisher Debert Cook met Elder at the 2005 PGA Show. “Lee was always kind and gracious, beholding of a positive disposition. His outlook was always that of hope and that things would get better.”

History’s Mysteries: Elder Memories

“I can’t recall the year but I was at the Masters and there’s a big souvenir shop near the entrance,” recalls Beatty. “Lee and his wife were just standing there. He was older and not necessarily recognizable, but I knew who he was. So, as people are coming in, especially Black people, I’m going to them and saying, ‘Hey, do you know who that is? That’s Lee Elder. Please go shake his hand.’ I was just pleased and humbled to be his biggest cheerleader”

And the hate mail, death threats and parking lot indignities in Pensacola? Beatty says that was just the reality of the times.

“That’s a very tough part of American history. But it’s what African American golfers – Ted Rhodes, Charlie Sifford, Bud Spiller and Lee – had to endure. It was par for the course.

“But they handled it in such a magnanimous way. I hope people in general, but certainly African Americans, can understand, grow and learn from it.”

“For us, his win reaffirms the notion that prejudice, racism and discrimination do not reflect capability and talent,” says Greenwood Golf CEO Chris Word. “It’s important for us to continue to pursue our dreams and goals to honor his legacy.”

In 2019, Elder was awarded the USGA’s Bob Jones Award for distinguished sportsmanship in golf. In 2021, a visibly ailing Elder joined Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as a ceremonial starter at the Masters. Club Chairman Fred Ridley announced Augusta would establish men’s and women’s golf scholarships at Paine University in Lee’s name, and would endow the women’s golf program.

Elder would die just seven months later, at the age of 87.

“I believe people are good at heart,” Elder said in 2019. “If you treat people how you’d like to be treated, they’ll come around eventually.”

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