By Jonah Sharf
On November 9, 1961, the Professional Golfers’ Association ended the ban on non-white players in professional competition. After years of fighting against the rule led by African-American golfers Bill Spiller and Ted Rhodes, and even heavyweight boxer Joe Louis, the PGA finally let in and allowed non-white golfers. However, the rule was reversed so late in Spiller and Rhodes’ careers that they could never take advantage of it. It took until 1964 for an African American, Pete Brown, to win a PGA event. The reversing of the rule, however, allowed for the dominance of one of the greatest golfers ever, Tiger Woods—in addition to being one of the best of all time, Woods was also the first non-white player to win a major in 1997.