AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Jim Dent was a golfing giant here in Augusta, even on tour.
With an unconventional start, Dent began as a caddy both at the country club and Augusta National Golf Club.
He never played in a masters tournament.
Dent passed away earlier this month.
He never played in a masters tournament, but his contributions to the sport both near and far, and he will forever be remembered.
“I put him on my Mount Rushmore of sports figures from Augusta,” said Corey Rogers, executive director, Lucy Craft Laney Museum.
That’s the only way you’d probably get Jim Dent to stay still, even at 80.
“A fulfilling day for him might be going to play a round of golf, and then going to play cards inside the clubhouse at the patch, or playing a round of golf,” said Rogers.
By the way, he found his way around a course the same way he approached life..
“I think with Jim Dent, he sat back and observed and listened to what was going on around him, and said to himself, you know what? I like this game of golf.
Maybe I don’t want to carry someone’s bag for the rest of my life, maybe I’m the one, I want to be on the other end,” said Rogers.
The Laney graduate played 16 consecutive years on the circuit.
Dent never appeared in less than 22 tournaments a season.
He played in five U.S. Opens, outdriving the best of them.
“The fact that he was this caddy who parlayed his caddying career into a professional golf career, who parlayed his golf career into an entrepreneur career, as it relates to Callaway Golf and his connection to the Big Bertha driver,” said Rogers
The tour golfer set a precedent where there wasn’t one.
“I think that they represent an attitude that you can go far beyond what people tell you you can do. I think oftentimes people get trapped into this notion that this is your ceiling right here, and you can’t go beyond that,” said Rogers.
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