It has been a long road for Dale Hargreaves, who became the first African American professional golfer to earn a full playing status in the European tour.
The Orlando-born Hargreaves made his debut on the Japan Tour in 1988 and became the first African American player to reach the quarter-finals of the European Tour Order of Merit for 1989.
Hargreaves became the first to attend high school in Florida, then a bastion of segregated golfing, before playing at Texas A&M, a school for which Tiger Woods had been a student.
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In 2003, he and Tilden Johnson became the first African Americans to compete in the World Match Play Championship in Barcelona, where they both advanced to the second round.
In 2004, when Hargreaves moved from his native Florida to Tennessee, he was ranked 25th in the world and had the career earnings of more than $1.2m.
Hargreaves is survived by his wife and three children.