Golf has lost one of its most significant pioneers.

Lee Elder, a talented and determined player and an elegant gentleman, died on Sunday at the age of 87.

Elder is best known for breaking the color barrier at the Masters, where he became the first African American to compete in the tournament in 1975.

After too many years, Elder finally was invited as one of the honorary starters at last April’s Masters, sharing the stage with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as they took the ceremonial first tee shots. Elder was not physically well enough to take the shot, but he slowly stood from his wheelchair to acknowledge a warm ovation.

“For me and my family, I think it was one of the most emotional experiences that I have ever witnessed or been involved in,” Elder said last year.

“Lee was a good player, but most important, a good man who was very well respected by countless people,” Jack Nicklaus wrote on his Twitter account. “The game of golf lost a hero in Lee Elder. Lee Elder was a pioneer, and in so many ways. Yes, he was the first black golfer to play in the Masters Tournament, but that simply underlined the hard work Lee put in to further the cause of everyone who has a dream to play on the PGA Tour and perhaps thinks there were too many barriers before them.”

Elder also became the first African American to represent the U.S, in a Ryder Cup in 1979.

Elder famously drove from Florida to Augusta, Ga. during the final round of the 1997 Masters so he could be on the property to witness Tiger Woods win the Green Jacket, becoming the first black man to accomplish that feat.

After his win, Woods paid tribute to the likes of Elder and Charlie Sifford, who came before, for paving the way for him.

“I thought about those guys coming up 18,” Woods said. “I said a little prayer and said thanks. I wasn’t the first. I wasn’t the pioneer. I thank them. I think that’s why this victory is even more special. Lee, because of what he did, I was able to play here. Because of Charlie, I was able to play on the PGA Tour. I lived my dream because of those guys.”

Elder was 40 when he played in his first Masters because of the era of racism in which he lived during his prime golfing years.

In 1972, the Masters changed its qualifying rules to extend an automatic invitation to any player who won on the PGA Tour. Two years later, Elder won the 1974 Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Fla., outlasting Peter Oosterhuis on the fourth hole of sudden death playoff.

That win earned him a spot at the 1975 Masters. Two black golfers before him, Sifford in 1967 and Pete Brown in 1964, won PGA Tour events but were denied an invite to the Masters.

“The only way I was going to go to Augusta was if I earned my way,” Elder once said. “I’m not going to accept anything other than that. So that’s what I did.”

In the weeks leading up to that 1975 Masters, Elder recalled receiving so many racist death threats that he rented two houses in Augusta, one under an assumed name.

He shot 74-78 and missed the cut in ’75, but he went on to qualify for five more Masters with a best finish a tie for 17th in 1979.

Elder won four times on the PGA Tour and eight times on the Senior Tour.

Elder got into golf initially working as a caddie and he didn’t play his first 18-hole round until he was 16. After that, he made money hustling games against white players on the golf course.

When his father was killed in World War II while serving in the Army and his mother died months later, Elder was a 9-year-old with no parents, raised by various family members.

He was born on July 14, 1934 in Dallas, the youngest of 10.

The loss of Elder elicited responses from golfers all over the world and even some non-golfers with high admiration.

“Mr. Lee Elder … one of my heroes … words don’t do justice to the impact you had on golf and the Black community,” Steph Curry tweeted Monday. “All I can say right now is thank you for blazing the trail. It’s on us to stay the course and keep going in your honor. Rest easy legend.”