Green Coat, Cut From Hero’s Cloth, Would Fit Peete to Tee

The uniformed law officer guarding the door to the dining room at Augusta National held out a hand when Calvin Peete reached the entrance.

Only a Northerner who gained much of his insight into Southern law enforcement from such 1960s movies as “Easy Rider” and “Heat of the Night” could appreciate the potential for confrontation here between the white cop and the black golfer.

“Cal,” said the officer, extending paper and pen, “could you sign this?”

Peete smiled and signed his autograph.

“Thank you, sir,” the officer said.

Calvin Peete is treated with uniform courtesy, respect and even awe here at golf’s shrine. He is the sport’s newest and hottest superstar.

His color is no longer a novelty. In fact, that’s the angle this year at the Masters--that he is no longer Calvin Peete, black golfer, but Calvin Peete, star golfer.

But the truth is that you don’t change golf overnight and you don’t change the South overnight. People still notice that Calvin Peete is a black man playing a white man’s game.

Three years ago, I stood in the gallery as Peete addressed the ball at one tee. He was one of two black men playing in the Masters then.

I overheard two spectators discussing Peete’s play to that point in the tournament.

One of the two men casually asked his companion, “How’s the other one doing?”

True, Peete is finally being accorded the respect he deserves as a golfer, but nobody really ignores his color. Least of all those in his gallery.

In Thursday’s opening round, roughly 1,000 fans followed his twosome around the course, and roughly 100 of those fans were black.

With the other twosomes, black faces in the gallery were rare or nonexistent. Just about every black spectator on the course Thursday, it seemed, was in Calvin Peete’s gallery.

Abraham (Bear) Brown Jr., for instance, had come here with a friend to follow one golfer.

“Our main objective today was to physically see Peete in action,” Brown said. “And by all means, to lend our support, to let him know that we’re with him, that he’s not out there by himself.

“Today is Calvin Peete Day for me.”

It was Calvin Peete Day for many.

“Everybody kind of feels like they could give him some support,” said Tom Butler, who is from Augusta but now lives in Washington, D.C.

“Being born and raised in this environment (Augusta), one of the most hostile to blacks, I want to be here, so when Peete looks over, he’ll see another black guy and it might give him some encouragement.”

Reverse racism? Blacks siding with a black athlete, against whites?

I don’t think so. I used to love watching Pete Maravich play basketball, because he was a white player excelling and entertaining in a predominantly black game. You didn’t have to root against Maravich’s black opponents to root for the Pistol.

“We’re all Americans, but we all have ethnic backgrounds,” Brown said. “It has nothing to do with racism, but here’s a new game that we’re not supposed to be good at playing, and we just want to see him play.”

Peete is, in short, an inspiration to blacks, rather than an avenging angel come to conquer the racist white golf lords of Augusta.

“It would mean a great deal to blacks in general (if Peete were to win),” said Christine Peete, Calvin’s wife, who was in his gallery Thursday. “They would feel like they won the tournament, and he would feel that way, too, that he won it not only for himself, but for his black friends.”

Even though other blacks played in the Masters before Peete, he has the most legitimate shot at the green coat.

Just as black fans rooted for such sports pioneers as Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis, so they cheer for Calvin Peete.

Peete is trying to play down the race angle this week, but he has said in the past that his own early career was inspired by black golfer Lee Elder. Deep inside, then, Peete is surely aware of his effect on blacks who are watching.

“You like to see someone in golf doing well,” said George Nixon, walking with the Peete gallery. “It makes it easier for others later, gives ‘em a role model. He has been a role model, and blacks are proud.”

Certainly Calvin Peete is cut from hero’s cloth. Nobody on the tour got to the top via a rockier or more unlikely road. And he handles his increasing fame with grace and style.

He is popular with white and black fans alike, but the white fans were already here. Peete has helped bring out the black fans.

“You look at the number of black spectators when he first came on the tour,” Christine Peete said. “I’d go weeks without seeing one.”

Thomas (Hank) Hankerson, an Augusta ophthalmology technician, has seen every Masters since ’64 and has walked every round with Peete since ’80.

“In 1964, there were very few black spectators,” Hankerson said. “You wouldn’t see over a dozen on the course.”

Several of the black spectators I spoke to have followed Peete every hole, every round he has ever played in six Masters tournaments.

Frank Fletcher has seen every swing Peete has made at the Masters.

“He’s definitely an inspiration to blacks as a whole,” Fletcher said. “It lifts the feeling up as far as black men being accepted in other sports, recognized for their ability, not their race. I admire him so much.”

Thursday, Peete shot a 75. His fairway work was typically brilliant, but his putter clanked.

His fans, however, did not desert him. And this morning, on the first tee, they will be back.