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December 22, 2000

Presidential campaign: Elder for captain

  • News you can use after 5 p.m.

    • SOUTH AFRICA -- A campaign is under way to make Lee Elder U.S. captain for the 2002 Presidents Cup in South Africa.

    Sharon Elder said she was sending a letter to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem outlining the reasons why her husband would be the appropriate choice to lead the American team at Fancourt Lakes.

    Elder, known best as the first black to play in the Masters in 1975, broke another barrier a few years before that when Gary Player invited him to play a golf tournament in South Africa at a time when blacks and whites were banned from playing in the same competition.

    Player is the likely choice to be the International team captain in 2002.

    "Lee has been back to South Africa several times, he has a school named after him there and he's well-received," Mrs. Elder said from their home in south Florida. "Those are the reasons why we feel so strongly he would make a wonderful captain."

    Finchem and Henry Hughes, chief of operations for the tour, were on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment.

    Elder would certainly fit the profile of a Presidents Cup captain.

    While the Ryder Cup has selected captains who are in the twilight of their careers and still in touch with current players, the Presidents Cup lately has gone for the ceremonial pick -- Arnold Palmer in 1996, Jack Nicklaus in '98 and Ken Venturi this year.

    The Elders are asking a few key players to write letters on his behalf.

    "I think it would carry some weight that I was the first black to play multiracial sports in South Africa," Elder told The Palm Beach Post last week.

    Elder won four times on the PGA Tour and eight times on the Senior Tour, and also played on the winning Ryder Cup team in 1979.

    To be named Presidents Cup captain "would just about outweigh it all," he said.




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