Calvin Peete, former US PGA Tour winner and

Ryder Cup player, dies at 71  
Former USA Ryder Cup star and Players Championship winner Calvin Peete has died. He was 71.
The US PGA Tour confirmed his passing on Wednesday morning but details of the cause of death were not revealed.
Peete overcame physical difficulties to enjoy a fantastic career as a professional golfer and was the most successful African-American player on the US PGA Tour prior to the emergence of Tiger Woods.
He won 12 times on the Tour and was the most accurate driver of his generation, leading the tour in driving accuracy every year from 1981 to 1990.
His most successful year was in 1982, when he won four times, and he claimed the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average in 1984, edging out Jack Nicklaus.
He won The Players Championship in 1985 and represented the USA in the Ryder Cups of 1983 and 1985, winning both of his singles matches and finishing with a record of four wins, two defeats and one half.
Peete achieved all this despite playing with a left arm he could not totally extend because of a broken elbow that occurred during a childhood fall, and his permanently bent arm ensured his swing was easily recognisable.
He is survived by seven children and his wife Pepper, who said: “Everyone in the family admired and loved him.
“We are so thankful that he was in our lives as a father, husband and role model.  He was a blessing, and he will be missed.”
PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said: “Calvin was an inspiration to so many people.
“He started in the game relatively late in life but quickly became one of the Tour’s best players, winning and winning often despite the hardship of his injured arm.
“I can still remember watching Calvin hit drive after drive straight down the middle of the fairway, an amazing display of talent he possessed despite some of his physical limitations.
“Throughout his life, he gave so much, and we especially noticed it when he moved to Ponte Vedra Beach as he continued to support the community, the US PGA Tour, and our various charitable pursuits.
“Calvin will always be remembered as a great champion and an individual who consistently gave back to the game. We will dearly miss him.”

FROM GOLF DIGEST
By John Strege

Calvin Peete had an aversion to heat that was rooted in the summers of his youth and long hours picking corn and beans beneath Florida’s blistering sun. It left sweat stains on his soul that would not allow him even to keep a vegetable garden at home. One day, friends invited him to play golf. “Who wants to chase a ball under the hot sun?” he asked rhetorically.
Peete, who died Wednesday morning at 71, was as unlikely a champion as golf ever produced. There was his upbringing; he was one of 19 kids from his father’s two marriages and was a high school drop-out who worked in the fields “from sunup to sundown,” People magazine once wrote.
He had diamonds implanted in his two front teeth and sold jewellery to migrant farm workers.
He did not take up golf until he was 23, and in a sport that preaches left arm straight, his was permanently bent from falling off a tree and breaking the arm.

He not only took up golf, he became proficient at it, winning 12 tournaments, including the Players Championship in 1985. Eleven of those victories came from 1982 through 1986, more than any other player, and he spent 20 weeks in the top 10 in the World Ranking. Peete won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average in 1983. Jack Nicklaus was second. He also played on U.S. Ryder Cup teams in 1983 and 1985.
“Calvin was an inspiration to so many people,” US PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement. “He started in the game relatively late in life but quickly became one of the tour’s best players, winning and winning often despite the hardship of his injured arm.”
His arm was crooked, but his forte was straight. For 10 consecutive years, from 1981 through his last full season in 1990, he led the US PGA Tour in driving accuracy. In 1983, he hit 84.55 percent of the fairways. He also led the tour in greens in regulation on three occasions.
Peete was a quick study. Within six months of taking up golf, he was breaking 80. A year later, he was breaking par. He never took a lesson, but read instructional books by Hogan and Snead, Nicklaus and Toski. At the age of 32, he earned his US PGA Tour membership.
“I can still remember watching Calvin hit drive after drive straight down the middle of the fairway, an amazing display of talent he possessed despite some of his physical limitations,” Finchem said.
 “Throughout his life, he gave so much, and we especially noticed it when he moved to Ponte Vedra Beach as he continued to support the community, the PGA Tour and our various charitable pursuits.
“Along with his wife, Pepper, he made such a difference working with the First Tee and junior golf in this area. Calvin will always be remembered as a great champion and an individual who consistently gave back to the game. We will dearly miss him.”