William Wright, the first Black player to win any of the championships contested by the U.S. Golf Association, died on Feb. 19. He was 84.
In 1959, at a time when integration was in its infancy and pre-civil-rights movement, Wright, who went by Bill, beat Frank Campbell, 3 and 2, in the 36-hole final of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Wellshire Golf Course in Denver.
Then a 23-year-old senior at Western Washington University, Wright barely qualified for match play at Wellshire Golf Course in Denver, shooting 149 to make it by a stroke. Wright never trailed in any match that week. Don Essig III, the 1957 champion, put up the toughest fight. He lipped out an eagle putt on the 36th hole of their semifinal match and lost, 1 up.
“I never played a match against anyone who putted as well as Bill did,” Essig said in 2009 of Wright, who had 23 one-putt greens.
As soon as Wright entered the clubhouse, smiling victoriously, a server said a man was holding on the telephone for him. Wright put down his trophy and picked up the phone.
“How does it feel to be the first Negro to win a USGA championship?” a reporter from Wright’s hometown of Seattle asked.
Wright slammed the phone down in disgust.
“It shocked me,” he recalled to Golfweek. “Being the first of my race to win, it never crossed my mind.”
Wright endured his share of racial intolerance in golf. He faced obstacles such as joining a men’s club in Seattle so he could establish a handicap. Another time, he was kicked out of the Seattle City Amateur without explanation after shooting 68. Being the only Black player in the field, Wright knew why he wasn’t welcome.
“He felt so thrilled to be the best golfer that day, not the best Black golfer,” said Wright’s wife Ceta, of his historic victory in Denver in an interview with the Seattle Times. “And, of course, afterward he realized that he was a barrier breaker and that was important to him. It was important to everyone, really, and especially in the Black community.”
Born in Kansas City, Mo., on April 4, 1936, Wright became serious about golf in high school. He hit balls and shagged them at Seattle’s Jefferson Park, the same public course where Fred Couples learned to play. In 2009, the two met and shared a chuckle when they realized the same head pro chased them off the course back in the days when they jumped the fence.
Wright was the individual medalist at the 1960 NAIA championship, and made one more serious run at the Publinx title, losing in the semifinals in 1961, but he got over the defeat quickly.
“Had I won, I would’ve missed my wedding in Chicago the next day,” Wright said.
He and Ceta, a retired schoolteacher, were married for more than 50 years. Wright turned pro in the early 1960s but didn’t have the financial backing to play the PGA Tour full time. So, he taught school in the Watts district of Los Angeles, including during the race riots of 1965.
Wright played the Tour intermittently in the 1960s. In search of a steady paycheck, he managed several auto dealerships in Southern California. He continued to compete and played in five U.S. Senior Opens, including the 1983 event at Cherry Hills CC in Englewood, Colo.
Wright visited the USGA headquarters in 2012 for a symposium on Black players in the game, and became emotional seeing his name engraved on the James Standish Trophy, which was awarded to the champion of the APL, in the USGA Golf Museum’s Hall of Champions.
In January 2017, Wright suffered a stroke, which took away his ability to speak, and he was bedridden the rest of his life, his wife said. He died in Los Angeles, where he continued to teach golf in his later years at The Lakes at El Segundo Golf Club, a nine-hole executive course and practice range near Los Angeles International Airport. When class wasn’t in session, Wright took pride in maintaining his game and still hit four “big tubs” of balls daily.
Said Wright: “It keeps me young.”