A Life Well Lived: Jim Dent, May 11, 1939 – May 2, 2025

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a better, kinder man,” said Margaret Brown about the late Jim Dent, who passed away after 85 glorious years on this earth. Margaret is the widow of Pete Brown, the first Black man to win a PGA TOUR event in 1964, and a close friend of Jim Dent, who she simply called “Dent.” 

The Browns found themselves in hard times when Pete’s health started to slip late in life. Their friend Dent stepped up to extend his home just outside of Augusta, Georgia, for the Browns to live. They stayed there for three years until Pete finally passed in May 2015. “He was there for us. Dent was there for a lot of people,” Margaret remembered. “But you’d never know because he never talked about it. He didn’t want credit, he just helped people.” 

There are stories about Dent’s talent as a golfer. There are legends about his distance with the driver. All of them pale in comparison to the endearing stories of his humanity and kindness.

A lot of the Jim Dent lore comes from Tampa, where he lived in retirement. Every major city in America has a Black golf club. In Tampa, that’s Rogers Park. Dr. Michael Cooper, an administrator with the USGA and former pro at Rogers Park, shared a Dent story. 

“We had a bunch of kids in a clinic one day, and Dent was close by watching. When we got done I told him about a kid named Elizabeth who had some talent, but had to make due with a makeshift set of clubs. The next day, quietly and discreetly, Dent gave her a bag, clubs, balls, everything. He did it privately. He did stuff like that all the time. It was never about him, but it was always about helping.” 

Cooper’s next Dent story is the kind that leaves him laughing, but also with a tinge of regret. “One day we were having breakfast. It was me, Dent, and the band leader from Bethune-Cookman College. We were having a tournament to raise funds for Bethune-Cookman and Dent kept talking about his friend Ely and how we should really be investing money with his friend Ely. Ely says this, Ely is gonna do that. Ely, Ely, Ely.” Cooper paused and exhaled. “Man…” Cooper paused again. “He was talking about Ely Callaway! If we had invested, let me tell you we’d be rich! Do you know how many times that stock has split?!” Ely Callaway was, of course, the iconic founder of Callaway Golf. 

While Dent made roughly $10 million dollars over 30 years as a professional on small tours, the PGA TOUR and his real cash cow, the Champions Tour, he made quite a bit more from the stock options Callaway had given Dent in return for his promotional work with the company. Dent probably ranks behind only Tiger Woods in money won or earned playing golf by a Black man. 

A big part of Dent’s success was his length. Dent was long long. In fact, he won the World Long Drive Championship twice in 1974 and ’75. When he got to the Champions Tour, he was arguably the longest player who had ever teed it up on that circuit. Dent won Rookie of the Year in 1989 with two victories and followed up that campaign with four more wins in ’90. 

It would make sense that Ely Callaway, who had just developed this massive driver that he called “The Big Bertha,” would look to someone with Dent’s résumé to promote his new driver. “Ely was a unique man. He was brilliant. He was brave,” Dent told me in February when I interviewed him for a story about Pete Brown. “And he was very good to me. We had a great friendship and professional relationship, too.” Dent would remain a Callaway ambassador for the rest of his life. 

They say you can’t take it with you, and Jim Dent certainly wasn’t shy about using what he had to help folks out. He paid for funerals. He paid overdue rent to keep people he didn’t know from being evicted. He paid for travel expenses when friends didn’t have it. For someone who lost so much at such a young age — he was orphaned at age 12 — he sure knew how to give. 

For all of his prowess as a golfer, for all of his strength, what those who knew him will speak of first when they speak of Jim Dent is his kindness. He was the best of us.  

The next time someone tells you “nice guys finish last,” tell them they’re lying. Tell them about Dent.  

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