Birds chirp over the steady, sharp thwak! of golf balls whizzing through the morning air at Rogers Park Golf Course.
Lionel Ballard steers over the lush fairways — tracing the same land that shaped his life. He’ll often start his mornings stepping out of the humming golf cart to tee up his shots.
But one day a few years ago, that rhythm broke.
A bus pulled up, carrying a group of local politicians running for office. They came to learn about the history of Rogers Park — now nearly 75 years old.
As the park’s unofficial “mayor,” Ballard stepped in to share the story — how, during segregation, the Black community carved out a sanctuary for the sport when few other parks welcomed them.
But as he spoke, something struck him.
“If I’m the only one they can rely on, then we need to do some more research, because I only gave them little bits and pieces of what I knew from (when I was) a kid,” Ballard recalled.
That moment ignited a journey. He turned a swing into a story — a memory into a mission to preserve the history of this Tampa treasure for generations to come.
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— Rogers Park Golf Course 1
Tampa’s Rogers Park Golf Course is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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— Rogers Park Golf Course
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— Rogers Park Golf Course driving range
Meleah Lyden / WUSF
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— Rogers Park Golf Course
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— Rogers Park Golf Course people playing
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— Pond view at Rogers Park Golf Course
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How Rogers Park Golf Course was born
Nestled near the winding Hillsborough River and roaring Busch Gardens is Rogers Park Golf Course. A straight shot down North 30th Street — also recognized as Willie Black Drive — will lead you to its entrance marked by a set of train tracks.
Michael Cooper, former senior regional advisor with the United States Golf Association and former diversity director for the World Golf Foundation, said when you pass that crossbuck, there’s a shift in the air.
“When you cross those tracks, that’s the way golf should look and feel. That’s the way America should look and feel,” he said. “There’s hugging. There’s friendship. People from all walks of life.”
Longtimer Joseph Bell added it’s the next best thing to family.
“Some place to go, something to do, friends and camaraderie. Almost fall short of saying everything, but it’s close,” Bell said.
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“Rogers Park Golf Course: 18 Holes of History”
Rogers Park Golf Course is named after Tampa businessman and philanthropist Garfield Devoe Rogers.
The 18-hole, par-71 course was once part of a playground for African Americans during segregation. It’s also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ballard said it was around 1947 when Garfield Devoe “G.D.” Rogers, a Black entrepreneur and philanthropist, donated the land. At the time, people in the Black community didn’t have a park to go to and wanted recreation for their kids, he stated. City records show it was officially dedicated in 1951, a few months after his death.
Bell said he used to come to the park after church with his family.
“It was amusement, swings, monkey bars, barbecue, baseball, just a place for Black people to go because we couldn’t go anywhere else. That was during Jim Crow,” he said.
A pavilion in the area had a jukebox, so people would drive down and park their cars. There would be music, dancing and concessions.
Joseph Bell said Rogers Park Golf Course is the next best thing to family.
A few guys wanted to play golf, but they weren’t allowed into the other clubs in Tampa. So, with spoons and forks, they scooped out three holes around the playground. Unofficially, Rogers Park had a golf course.
Ballard said it wasn’t until 1951, when Mayor Curtis Hixon permitted a group of Black caddies from South Tampa’s exclusive and then-all-white Palma Ceia Country Club to build a nine-hole golf course.
One of those caddies was Willie Black, who grew up in Georgia playing golf and helped build several courses in the Peach State. He would become Rogers Park’s first head golf professional.
Black directed a group of caddies and other volunteers, and all the tree removal and shaping was done by hand, according to the city of Tampa.
“They played golf with one set of clubs; everybody would share to play the event,” Ballard explained. “So it was really a very interesting project because nobody was a golf designer. They just built from what they saw on other facilities and made it fit in on the property.”
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“Rogers Park Golf Course: 18 Holes of History”
A map of the original nine hole layout at Rogers Park Golf Course.
The course was completed in 1952.
Ballard remembers the first few holes because he was around the playground as a child. But as part of his project to solidify the course’s history, he tracked down a few men older than him and rode around the property. He had each make drawings of the original course and checked how every hole matched up with the others’ version.
Nearly a decade later, in 1961, Rogers Park expanded to 18 holes after people cleaned up the city dump across the street.
Golfing through adversity
In the course’s early days, one of the known families was the Smiths. Ballard mentioned that two of the brothers, Eddie and Albert, went through challenges to even come to the course.
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“Rogers Park Golf Course: 18 Holes of History”
A segment out of the book “Rogers Park Golf Course: 18 Holes of History” with a picture showing the Smith brothers.
“They used to walk through the community to get to Rogers Park, and the people would sic their dogs on them, and they would have to run to get to the park, but they were determined to play golf,” Ballard explained while flipping through old photos inside the clubhouse.
Their stories are part of a larger narrative: Golf has long grappled with issues of access and diversity.
Michael Cooper, 69, saw this firsthand. He’s originally from Chicago and grew up playing the game, including for the Arizona State University team, before eventually moving to Tampa.
“I did notice that in competitive spaces, I was always one of the only — or very rarely, would I see folks the same race as me. If you did, you stuck out. You got to know each other,” he explained.
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Michael Cooper
Michael Cooper is seen working the scoreboard at a golf tournament. He said this picture was taken between the mid-1980s to early 1990s.
According to a report by the National Golf Foundation, in 2024, 28.1 million Americans played the game, the most since 2008. Out of this number, 28% were female and 25% were Black, Asian or Hispanic. Both represent the highest percentages recorded.
Although inclusion has increased, Cooper said the sport still has a way to go. And in the late 1970s, “the sport wasn’t diverse at all.”
However, he was able to find more people to look up to when he first set foot on Rogers Park Golf Course in the winter of 1978.
“Where I came up in Rogers Park, we had a lot of the older golfers who had stories that they passed down, and they told us about the discrimination and making it in spite of that and the hurdles that they went through,” Cooper explained.
Lionel Ballard is making sure the story of Rogers Park Golf Course is not lost on future generations.
Building the next generation
It’s that same spirit that defines Rogers Park — a legacy built on breaking societal barriers and uplifting younger generations.
Ballard was able to see the beginning of this decades ago as a kid. He’s from West Tampa but started coming to the course when he was around 7 with his uncle.
ALSO READ: Trailblazing Black golfer Jim Dent remembered for his generosity, legacy in Tampa
“I was hitting balls in the neighborhood, and the neighbors were saying I got to go because I’m gonna break some windows. So he would come around and get me then and start bringing me to the golf course,” Ballard recalled.
He explained how his uncle was one of the better golfers in Tampa and was a good teacher.
Darlene Hale, 65, said she’s been coming to Rogers Park Golf Course since 1990 and appreciates the community and history.
But little did Ballard know he’d also have a mentor in one of the PGA Tour’s longest hitters and trailblazers for African American golfers: Jim Dent. The pair met during a midwinter tournament at Rogers Park.
Ballard, then in middle school, was asked to caddy for Dent. This started a lifelong friendship before Dent died this year.
Pro golfer Darlene Hale, 65, has been playing at the course since 1990. She explained how Dent and the late Charlie Owens, another Black pioneer on the PGA Tour, used to come and teach the kids. She even learned a lesson or two herself over the years.
“Charlie Owens, I was picking his head about what do you think about when you’re out competing? And he said he likes to quote Scriptures. So that’s important. That was a good one,” she said.
Cooper picked up the mantle, too. When he came to Rogers Park, there was no junior golf program. He set his eye on starting one and eventually did. It began as Urban Junior Golf, providing affordable and accessible opportunities for children. He even trained youths who went on to earn college scholarships through golf.
Michael Cooper
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Michael Cooper is shown helping junior golfer Terrence Cole. The estimated timeframe this photo was taken is the mid-1980s to early 1990s, he said.
But in the late ‘90s, then-PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem announced a similar group to help kids succeed in golf and life. It’s called First Tee.
“So this was going to become something that was funded by the golf industry leaders and not just from our little community thing,” Cooper explained. “And I said, ‘God, if they’re going to start this on a national level, they need to see what we’re doing out here at Rogers Park.’ So I actually recruited First Tee.”
That effort paid off. Cooper said First Tee of Tampa Bay became one of the early chapters and is regarded as one of the best in the country. The program integrates golf with a life skills curriculum for kids.
Eric Gallman, 65, is a frequent face at the course and said this program made all the difference in his son’s life.
Eric Gallman has had an “over 20-year love affair” with golf after his son got introduced to the game through the First Tee of Tampa Bay.
“I have to be honest and say I don’t think as a man I could have given him what they gave him. They gave him integrity, honesty, they taught him self-discipline, and they taught him how to rely on himself,” Gallman said.
Pro golfer Norman Black, 28, also grew up on the course, beginning when his dad brought him when he was 4. His father was another Black golf pioneer, James Black.
“This is where he put a golf club in my hand for the first time,” Black recalled.
He added that Rogers Park taught him how to carry himself on and off the course.
“Shaking hands, looking people in the eye and speaking articulately,” he said.
A look toward the future
For many at Rogers Park, this isn’t just a golf course — it’s a cornerstone of Tampa’s history.
“This place is special to me, and it should be special to anyone that’s from Tampa because it represents the growth of this area, from what we were in the ’60s to what we are now,” Gallman explained.
Ballard added that the course is a center point of Tampa’s Black community — even for non-golfers. The course wasn’t just a place famous pro golfers frequented; other sports icons also made appearances, including Pro Football Hall of Famers Derrick Brooks and Rickey Jackson, and Tampa-born Major League Baseball slugger Gary Sheffield.
“The community here is like a guardian of this golf course,” Ballard said. “This golf course is sacred land for the Black community in this area.”
But he wants to make it clear the course has always been open to all.
Tampa’s Rogers Park Golf Course is nestled between the Hillsborough River and Busch Gardens.
“But the heritage is always gonna be … It’s got a Black heritage. You can’t get rid of that. I don’t care how you cut it,” he said.
Black said this history of resilience and community is what people hold onto.
“Keeping the history alive — what this course is built on and what it means to everyone. Everyone that’s come through here and everyone that has passed on,” Black said.
As the number of people who witnessed the course’s transition dwindles, Lionel Ballard is making sure the story is not lost on future generations.
His research journey ended in a book called “Rogers Park Golf Course: 18 Holes of History.” And more recently, he put QR codes over photos in the clubhouse, so when you scan them, you can go on a digital journey through the course’s legacy.
But, as Gallman said, there’s that crucial aspect the place will always focus on: mentorship.
“It’s not just about making history. It’s about what we do after we’ve made history,” Gallman explained. “Now, we want to continue to give back to the community, present kids with this opportunity. Because golf offers kids so many opportunities that they’re unaware of.”
Professional golfer Norman Black stands outside Rogers Park Golf Course’s clubhouse. He’s been playing at the course since he was a kid.
