Why is Calvin Peete not talked about?

[RightEdge]

I was just looking at some videos and clinics on great ball strikers and was looking at Moe Norman videos.  He was labeled as one of the best ball strikers of all time.  Then I ran up on this thing about an african america golfer in the 80s named Calvin Peete. Did you guys know he held the driving accuracy record on the PGA for 10 years? Also, I think he won a PGA Championship and was called "Deadly" from 150 yards and in.  I think he had like 12 PGA wins if the article I read was correct.  If that is true why isn't this guy ever mentioned?  I have been following golf for many years and I don't think I ever heard his name before.  Meanwhile we are hyping up players on the European tour that have a few wins there but have never even won a PGA event or if they have it's like 1 or 2 but this guys has 12?

Are we forgetting the golfers of old or are won only remembering the ones who won majors?  As I said before, I don't know anything about this golfer other than what I just read and I just wanted to ask you guys because I'm sure somebody on this board probably knows his history.

[RightEdge]

Another video on pitching..

[flopster]

Calvin Peete regularly was the most accurate driver on tour during the 80's, he said maintaining good balance was the single most important factor for being so accurate with the driver, it was usually him and Mike Reid as the 2 most accurate during that time.

[RonTheSavage]

I remember a video of his where he said "dont do anything at the sake of balance, you're only going to hit the ball so far."

[David in FL]

One of my favorite golfers of all time. I was at the Greater Milwaukee Open in 1979 when he won his first tour event. Little known fact was that he injured his left elbow falling out of a tree when he was a young child. It never healed properly and he was still able to become one of the most accurate drivers on tour.

[RonTheSavage]

He's never taken a lesson and didnt pick up the game until his 20's

[RightEdge]

One of my favorite golfers of all time. I was at the Greater Milwaukee Open in 1979 when he won his first tour event.

Little known fact was that he injured his left elbow falling out of a tree when he was a young child. It never healed properly and he was still able to become one of the most accurate drivers on tour.

Ok but if this guy was one of the most accurate drivers, won a pga championship and won 12 pga events, WHY is he never mentioned?  There are plenty of golfers who have won 5 or 6 events and are talked about all the time. Some that have never even won anything but european events and are considered great.  But this guy american born doesn't even get an honorable mention?  He's not the only golfer that falls into that category but he kind of just stands out to me.

[David in FL]

Ok but if this guy was one of the most accurate drivers, won a pga championship and won 12 pga events, WHY is he never mentioned?  There are plenty of golfers who have won 5 or 6 events and are talked about all the time. Some that have never even won anything but european events and are considered great.  But this guy american born doesn't even get an honorable mention?  He's not the only golfer that falls into that category but he kind of just stands out to me.

Because he was a solid player, but nothing close to hall of fame material. Not to mention playing before a lot of the members on this site were out of the 3d grade.... :-D You don't hear many people talking about Andy Bean, Bob Gilder, or Don Pooley these days either. Time passes, and only the real stars tend to be remembered, or talked about.

[Wansteadimp]

Ok but if this guy was one of the most accurate drivers, won a pga championship and won 12 pga events, WHY is he never mentioned?  There are plenty of golfers who have won 5 or 6 events and are talked about all the time. Some that have never even won anything but european events and are considered great.  But this guy american born doesn't even get an honorable mention?  He's not the only golfer that falls into that category but he kind of just stands out to me.

He didn't win a PGA Championship, a tied 3rd in the 1982 PGA was his best result in Majors.

[boogielicious]

He was one of my favorites at the time.  He didn't win any majors and the media/viewers have a short attention span.  How many tour winners from the 70's and 80's do we really talk about?

[David in FL]

He was one of my favorites at the time.  He didn't win any majors and the media/viewers have a short attention span.  How many tour winners from the 70's and 80's do we really talk about?

[quote name="Wansteadimp" url="/t/74970/why-is-calvin-peete-not-talked-about#post_998649"]He didn't win a PGA Championship, a tied 3rd in the 1982 PGA was his best result in Majors. [/quote] I'm too lazy to look it up right now, but didn't he win The Players Championship one year? Something else pretty big too, but I know no majors....

[whorippedit]

Racism believe it a million percent . Happens daily still just being upfront here

[David in FL]

Racism believe it a million percent . Happens daily still just being upfront here

Good grief. :doh: Other than the fact that he's Black, what do you have to support such a ridiculous claim? Without looking it up, I bet VERY few people could name 3 golfers from the same time period, call it 1980ish, that weren't "big name" major winners.....

[boogielicious]

I'm too lazy to look it up right now, but didn't he win The Players Championship one year? Something else pretty big too, but I know no majors....

He did wear that cool white hat and always looked so relaxed.  1985 Players.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Peete

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournament_Players_Championship

[RightEdge]

Because he was a solid player, but nothing close to hall of fame material. Not to mention playing before a lot of the members on this site were out of the 3d grade....

You don't hear many people talking about Andy Bean, Bob Gilder, or Don Pooley these days either. Time passes, and only the real stars tend to be remembered, or talked about.

He didn't win a PGA Championship, a tied 3rd in the 1982 PGA was his best result in Majors.

Oh ok, maybe I got that mixed up a bit.  Here a list of his wins.

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Jul 15, 1979	Greater Milwaukee Open	−19 (69-67-68-65=269)	5 strokes	Victor Regalado , Jim Simons , Lee Trevino
2	Jul 11, 1982	Greater Milwaukee Open	−14 (70-66-69-69=274)	2 strokes	Victor Regalado
3	Jul 25, 1982	Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic	−10 (66-68-69=203)	2 strokes	Bruce Lietzke
4	Sep 5, 1982	B.C. Open	−14 (69-63-64-69=265)	7 strokes	Jerry Pate
5	Oct 24, 1982	Pensacola Open	−16 (65-66-72-65=268)	7 strokes	Dan Halldorson , Hal Sutton
6	May 22, 1983	Georgia-Pacific Atlanta Golf Classic	−10 (68-75-63=206)	2 strokes	Jim Colbert , Don Pooley , Chip Beck
7	Jul 24, 1983	Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic	−8 (66-75-66-69=276)	1 stroke	Tim Norris
8	Oct 7, 1984	Texas Open	−14 (67-67-66-66=266)	3 strokes	Bruce Lietzke
9	Jan 20, 1985	Phoenix Open	−14 (65-65-72-68=270)	2 strokes	Morris Hatalsky , Doug Tewell
1 0	Mar 31, 1985	Tournament Players Championship	−14 (70-69-69-66=274)	3 strokes	D. A. Weibring
11	Jan 11, 1986	MONY Tournament of Champions	−21 (68-67-64-68=267)	6 strokes	Mark O'Meara
12	Mar 23, 1986	USF&G; Classic	−19 (68-67-66-68=269)	5 strokes	Pat McGowan

[3putter]

I know he preached balance as one of the most important fundamentals. He won the player's championship the year I was born, ha! Nice!

[RonTheSavage]

Its way to easy to blame racism in this case. Yes he and others dealt with racism while playing but i cant see that spilling into why hes not mentioned more these days.

[Fourputt]

Racism believe it a million percent . Happens daily still just being upfront here

Yeah.... right.

Peete won several tournaments, the only one really of note was what was then called the Tournament Players Championship.  The rest were the typical second tier tournaments that are soon forgotten.

Scott Hoch has 11 wins in mostly second tier tournaments (the only real difference is that he never won the Players, but he did get into a sudden death playoff at the 1989 Masters, losing to Nick Faldo, someone you may have heard of).  Hoch is white, but he's never mentioned either.

Bruce Lietzke played in the same era, is white, and won 13 times without a major, lost 6 time in playoffs (one in the old T of C to Jack Nicklaus, another player you may have heard of).  Lietzke is also never talked about now.

It has everything to do with performance and when they played, and nothing to do with race.