12-05-2025
Jim Dent obituary: Caddy turned millionaire golfer
Caddying at the manicured golf courses of Augusta was an escape route from factory or farm drudgery for black youngsters, albeit on terms set by the white ruling class. Black people were allowed to carry bags but not to swing clubs at the best courses in the city that hosts the Masters, America's most prestigious golf tournament. Jim Dent reasoned it was a deal worth taking as he grew up in the racially segregated southern state of Georgia. Earning $2 to $5 a round as a caddie, and a little extra raking bunkers and fetching balls, was preferable to exhausting and dangerous shifts in a cotton mill.
Dent first caddied in the Masters as a teenager. He was allowed to play at an army base
