Bill Wright was the first Black golfer to win a United States Golf Association (USGA) event, 1959’s Amateur Public Links Championship in Denver.Wright was a standout golfer and basketball player when he attended high school in Seattle, as well as at Western Washington University.
He was in his senior year of college when he entered the USGA Amateur Public Links Championship. After his groundbreaking victory there, Wright had a dream of playing golf professionally, but it wasn’t an easy road for a Black man at a time when the PGA’s bylaw still included a “Caucasians only” clause.
He played in PGA Tour events beginning in 1960, but he was unable to gain any sponsors, and full-time professional play was an unsustainable path in this segregated.
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