Jim Dent, a pioneering Black golfer, one of the PGA Tour’s longest hitters and a 12-time winner on what is now PGA Tour Champions, died at age 85 on Friday.
Dent, who died a week before his birthday in his native Augusta, Ga., was recovering from the effects of a stroke, the PGA Tour said on its website.
“A lot of people will remember Jim Dent for how far he hit the ball, and he really did. Yet his long-term success, especially on our tour, proved Jim was more than just long off the tee,” said PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady. “Jim was as easy going as he was competitive, and he added so much during his time as a PGA Tour Champions player. We offer our sincere condolences to his entire family.”
Dent worked as a teenager caddying at Augusta Municipal Golf Course, known at “The Patch.” He also worked at Augusta National Golf Club but in his adult years never qualified as a player for the Masters in 16 consecutive campaigns on the PGA Tour, when he never appeared in less than 22 tournaments a season.
Turning pro in 1966 and qualifying for the PGA Tour starting in 1971, Dent made the cut in 296 of 450 tour events, including 25 top-10 finishes, and earned $565,809 in official money in a different era for tournament purses.
He was runner-up once, to Jack Nicklaus at the 1972 Walt Disney World Open Invitational in Dent’s second year on tour. Dent made the cut in six of 11 majors that he played (six at the PGA Championship, five at the U.S. Open).
The World Long Driving Champion in 1974 and 1975, Dent also won the Florida PGA Championship three straight years beginning in 1976, as well as the PGA Tour’s Tournament Player Series event in 1983 in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Dent successfully transitioned in 1989 to the senior tour for age 50 and older, with 131 top-10 finishes and 535 of 545 cuts made. He earned over $9 million in official money.
His first of 12 victories was the 1989 MONY Syracuse Senior Classic — where runner-up Al Geiberger joked after losing by one shot, “Jim Dent ought to be outlawed (for) the way he can hit the ball.”
Dent won again the same year at the Newport Cup. His last victory on the senior tour was the 1997 Home Depot Invitational at Quail Hollow.
He was inducted into the Caddie Hall of Fame and the African-American Golfers Hall of Fame. The road leading into “The Patch” was renamed Jim Dent Way. His son, Jim Dent Jr., is the head golf pro there.
Augusta National plans to continue renovation of “The Patch,” including a redesign of the main 18-hole course and a new, nine-hole, par-3 course through a partnership with Tiger Woods’ design company, TGR.
–Field Level Media
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