Golfing pioneer dies at 85

WINTER HAVEN — Former PGA pro Andy Bean remembered the first time he met Charlie Owens.

Bean was in high school at the time playing with a friend at Willowbrook Golf Course in Winter Haven when Owens and his playing partner asked to play with them.

Seeing Owens’ unorthodox cross-handed swing when he was warming up, Bean thought it wouldn’t be much of a competition.

Bean had second thoughts about that when he saw Owens drive from the first tee.

“It was pretty amazing what he could do,” Bean said.

Bean and his partner actually won that day when he birdied the last two holes.

“I was lucky,” he said.

Owens stood out not just because of his unique swing. He played in an era when it was nearly unheard of for an African-American to play golf. And he later popularized the use of the belly putter, which he employed to overcome the yips, causing Golf Digest to describe him as an overlooked pioneer in a 2007 article.

Owens died Thursday night in Winter Haven. He was 85.

Because of Hurricane Irma, his daughter, Pamela Robinson, said funeral arrangements won’t be made until Wednesday. (Update: Funeral services are at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17 at First Missionary Baptist Church, 200 Avenue R NW, Winter. There will be a public viewing prior to the service from 9:30-11:00 am.)

“He was well-respected and admired,” Bean said.

Charles Owens was born Feb. 22, 1932, in Winter Haven. Growing up in the days of segregation and racism, he graduated from Jewett High School before going on to Florida A&M where he played football.

But it was golf that he developed a passion for while growing up around the Willowbrook Golf Course, when it was a nine-hole course on the site of the current Polk State College. Homer Snead, Sam Snead’s brother, was the teaching pro.

Owen’s father, Fred Sr., was the groundskeeper, and Owens spent many hours helping his father and working as a caddy.

It was there, his daughter suggested, that Owens taught himself his unique swing.

Owens served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and sustained injuries to both knees and his left ankle during a parachute jump at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 1952. The injuries left him with a limp.

After turning professional as a golfer in 1967, Owens eventually joined the PGA Tour in 1970 and spent seven years on the tour. He later joined the Senior PGA Tour, now the Champions Tour.

He won four tournaments as a professional: the Kemper Asheville Open, a PGA Tour satellite event, in 1971, and the Florida Open in 1974. On the Senior Tour, he won the Treasure Coast Classic and the Del E. Webb Senior PGA Tour Roundup, both in 1986.

Because of his disability, Owens was allowed to use a cart while competing with the PGA. However, he fought the U.S. Golf Association, which banned the use of carts, staging a protest at the 1987 U.S. Senior Open.

“I think his accomplishments in golf and taking on the USGA, he was most proud of that,” his daughter said. “I think that challenge and making it to be a success in the golfing industry.”

Bean had mixed feelings about the issue. His professional side, he said, felt that rules are rules.

“The other side of me said all that he wants is the chance to play,” Bean said. “I always admired him for what he was able to do and the way how went about doing it.”

Off the golf course, Owens was an friendly, affable guy, who loved fried chicken — his mother made the best fried chicken, he told his daughter — and macaroni and cheese.

“He was a sharp dresser,” Robinson said. “He was neat as a pin. Everything needed to be in its place.”

Owens was married twice and had four children, three daughters and one son with his first wife, and another daughter in his second marriage. He also had five other children.

He wrote his autobiography, "I Hate to Lose," and was the long-time head pro at Rogers Park in Tampa.

“He was very polite and he was a very nice person,” said Charlie Lentz, who worked for Wilson Sports Goods, which signed Owens to a contract. “He did a lot for black golfers.”

Lentz said Owens would encourage young African-Americans to play golf and would hold free clinics.

Owens continued to play golf well into his 70s. In 1987, he won the Ben Hogan Award and was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. He entered the African-American Golfers Hall of Fame in 2007.

“He was a credit to golf,” Lentz said.

Roy Fuoco can be reached at roy.fuoco@theledger.com or 863-802-7526.