John Boyette, THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE
(The Augusta Chronicle) — Pete Brown, the first black golfer to win a PGA Tour event, died Friday morning at Doctors Hospital, family friend Ramona Harriet said. He was 80.
Brown, who moved to Evans in 2011, won the Waco Turner Open in 1964 and the 1970 Andy Williams-San Diego Open. The golfer had suffered a series of strokes in recent years and also suffered from congestive heart failure.
“Pete had a lot of medical challenges,” Harriet said. “He was a strong man, he was a fighter. He beat all the odds, he was strong not just on the golf course, but off it.”
Brown and his wife, Margaret, moved to the Augusta area at the urging of Augusta native and fellow golf pro Jim Dent in 2011. Harriet said the couple recently celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary while Brown was in the intensive care unit.
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