From 1921 to 1964, Shady Rest Golf and Country Club was the first black-owned and African American golf and country club in the United States. Because of this, you could make the argument that Tiger Woods would not be the Tiger Woods that we know without this place AND the legendary John Shippen.
You can read more about Shady Rest Golf and Country Club Here: https://www.shadyrestcountryclub.com/ & http://preserveshadyrest.org/
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What if I told you that there is a golf course that you I can probably guarantee that you have never heard of that is so important in the game of golf in the history of American Golf and the history of world golf that probably Tiger Woods
Would not exist without it he okay he would he would exist without you know his parents but he he would not be the Tiger Woods that we know in golf maybe he would probably not though but to understand that argument where I’m coming from we have
To hear about one golf course one man and we’re going to speak to a few people that know much more about it than I do so let’s go the name of that course Is let me jump in real quick I got to say something this story is not about the course but it is now this course is only nine holes but it’s fun it’s tight good elevation very fun small course but that’s it it’s a small course and you
May be wondering how the nine holes have such an impact on the World of Golf well let’s learn about that why are Hogan Dr Lawrence Hogan Kevin Glover hell I’m Malcolm I’m netting ham I’m Jim chel Gary Jones Tom donatelli this building was built in 19 in the year
1750 and uh it during those years it was a farmhouse it was called the Tucker Farmhouse it became an inn it became a Tavern uh at one point it was purchased by a group of people who turned it into a golf course in the early 1900s it became the Westfield Country Club some
Ands Finance from New York black men who had made some money on their own right in various Enterprises decided that they would establish a club that would be a golf club a tennis club a racket club a uh horseback riding uh so it was really a country club was established I saw
Alilia Gibson at one time there was a a a tennis course here and I would see Al Gib Alia Gibson she played um tennis there and she won the um Wimbleton over England and we were all very proud was really a source of Pride just being um Associated being able to
See black history here American history Country Club started to get people involved and they started to have some jazz club Jazz musicians and they people like uh L Fitzgerald would play here and Sarah vau on um kab Callaway we understand that Lewis Armstrong played here nobody we
Don’t really have any facts about that we’re trying to find more information to see if Lewis Armstrong actually came here and played here but being the the fact is that he was very close to Ella Fitzgerald so we suspect that more than likely Lewis Armstrong spent some time here over the
Years well most people don’t know and didn’t know and even today it doesn’t get the recognition that he was the first American professional Goa not africanamerican professional golfer and he was of Indian descent too but he was the first American professional golfer and that at 16 years
Old he played in the US Open the incident in 1896 uh John shien would end up playing in the tournament in 1896 the US Open most prestigious tournament in in the nation even back then it was uh and uh there was an incident where uh some
Scottish Pros in 1895 was the first US Open uh and it was basically English men and Scottish Pros uh in 1896 uh those professionals it was obviously a prejudicial reason where they picked it up is is always intriguing to think about they decided that uh John shien and his friend Oscar
Bun a Native American I always kind of laugh at the fact that the first two people Americans to play in the US Open one was a Native American and one was a black man uh and uh we know what follows on that in terms of Native Americans and
Black men uh and here it is right at the beginning of golf in this country picking up these uh players signed a petition saying that they would not play if shippen played and Oscar bu played fell named uh overmy he was a major official in the US golf organization at
The time and overmy said they said we’re not playing unless he plays and he played so he pushed for them to play and they did uh and John shippen had a wonderful US Open that year came close to winning it uh was tied for the lead
Into the second round and on the 11th hole I think it is he hit into a sand trap off the Sand Road off the uh main Golf Course the Fairway uh and didn’t have a sand wedge in his I don’t know whether there were sand wedges back then
Didn’t have a sand wedge to get off that road and took an 11 on that road uh and that was uh the thing that did him in he ended up I think five Strokes back if I’m not mistaken and uh lost the open he could easily have won it well John
Shippen uh became a teaching pro uh taught many of the uh major figures in American Finance at the time JP Morgan was one of them uh and uh continued at the shinok where he was u a professional he took money from the 1896 US Open the magificent sum of $10 but
That in turn made him a pro because he got money to play uh and through uh the years after the open he competed in several other opens but never quite the quality of that first open good golf he played but not quite as good as he had
Played in that first open and uh then ultimately ended up here at Shady Rest it was called Shady Rest at that point in time I grew up as a teenager cading um at the Shady Rest Country Club here as a was known at that time I was a
Little kid I grew up I wasn’t allowed to come over across this golf course but I did anyway so I came across the golf course I caddy over here as to get my golf balls out the woods and stuff and it was a common knowledge that this was
The first African owned and operated Country Club in the um United States I saw this as a place of of great pride uh because as a black youth I had excess access to uh making money here as a Cy uh when there were great tournaments here at the Shady Rest
Country Club I would see um great number of cars parked in the parking area um and I knew that I could make make some bucks at that time we was little we to see the I mean the place was packed plan family was packed with cars and stuff
And we just sit here little watch the tournaments and stuff and we used to run across the street and like ah we had what we call shagging balls right here on on the Scot course we would shag balls uh we would go through the swamps there was a swamp here straight balls
Would go to the swamp we would go and to that swamp and look for stray balls because the golfers once they were a ball went to the swamp they wouldn’t go to retrieve their ball I to stick my hands in the water and get the golf
Balls out and sell them back to the to the people uh was out here and stuff we used to fish balls out of the pond and sell them to the people golfing uh it’s most probably what I consider my first job um working playing there and then
Then we would sometimes sneak on a course and if we had a few bucks we’ come play the course I remember one incident where uh was a real nice ball and I said wow this is a nice ball I cleaned it up I sold it for the great
Amount of 35 Cent at that time 35 cents was a amount of money because when we CED I believe that when we CED we earned $1 for the nine holes and once we C uh we were supposed to I believe give the golf pro or the caddy Master some of
Our earnings and the golf pro and the caddy master was Mr shipin I remember early in the mornings he would be out there he was a green sweeper he would sweep the the greens with a long bamboo Pole preparing the greens um he made sure the greens were in tiptop um shape
There a lot of kids out here you know it was a great place growing up it was a great place cuz he used to have us you know they used to have us on the golf course playing golf you know we used to play golf a little bit and they had the
Shag build down there and stuff but uh it was really a blessing to be up here and meet the people that I met when I I was a little kid and um I enjoyed it you know I enjoyed it like many golf clubs Shady Rest fell into the spare but it
Was restored so how was it restored at the time Kevin Glover became mayor uh this building was in disarray and it was about to be torn down etc etc so one point it was 2013 and he pulled me and my whole committee away from our tasks to get involved with The Preserve
Shady R committee we undertook restoring this building over objections from members of the council for people citizens they felt it wasn’t a good use of the Township’s resources but today when I pass this building and I see this Living Museum Living Museum in that it contains a a wonderful history but it
Also is functional it’s used by our seniors every week uh and and other groups for concerts for weddings the original John shipping committee which we started in the late 80s going into the 90s we had tournaments here the John shippen annual tournament Thurman and Ruby Simmons started the John shippen
Memorial Foundation uh my father Maro czecho was instrumental in this with mayor Glover on to preserve Shady Rest that was all started in about the last 10 to 12 years the original shipment stuff was ‘ 80s ’90s 2000s we had about 12 or 13 annuals right now um with
Preserve shitts there’s probably about 10 or 15 of us on the committee and we’re just local residents mostly fa and Scotch PLS we’ve added some people in the entertainment industry are getting around us we are starting to have Jazz kns here to revive this country club
This this great um historical gem it’s a Hidden Gem it’s the first African-American Country Club in the United States plus we have the first golf professional and we also have the original t which is Wendell has Haskins another big enti nationally he runs annual tournaments and we’ve become close with him this
Year but our efforts are to preserve maintain and actually push forward uh the history of Shady Rest we got a lot of things done we got signs made we got the bu building restored I would really love to see um us grasp and get a hold
Of all all the people that have some of these momentos in their possession and some of the family members second third Generations luckily Mr netting Ham’s son came and talked we The Preserve Shady Rest committee were able to get this building listed on the national register of historic place my passion toward the
History of this place has really grown and it became it has now become one of my passions to help recreate what this place was in its Heyday we’re looking on our second and third phases of restoring this restoring where John and lived upstairs a sign that nobody pays attention to
Closed to the public upstairs just closed to the public so let’s go upstairs anyway this upstairs originally during the years of Shady Rest this area over here was the lady’s locker room and the lady’s bathroom was in here so what we’re pretty sure is that was like a
Dressing area and this was more like a social makeup area that type of thing some we believe some of these light fixtures are original we’re planning on having these restored someday if you can notice the air conditioning system that we have here during the days of making the downstairs compatible to senior citizen
Events and that kind of thing especially during hot weather the town came in and put central air in this building and not thinking at all about what the history of the building was and what these rooms have could be they just threw duck work all through here and created this Central system for
The one floor that exists today one of our goals is to renovate these floors so goal number one is to renovate the HVAC system utilizing more modern technology in HVAC clean out the duck systems that they have and renovate these areas and create it back to this to or restore it
Back to what it originally was the rooms over here were the Willis’s living quarters so what what we we what we sort of um assume is that maybe some of these performers who came from New York City or from wherever some some of them came from the south and came here just to
Play here maybe they spent the night after their performance here maybe they spent the weekend here we’re not 100% sure on most of those stories but we suspect that that took place here and then in the little bit later years John shippen came here in 1932 I
Believe so at the time this was an attic and shippen actually lived across the street for a period of time Malcolm nting ham I I don’t know if he mentioned the place where shippen lived but he lived in an apartment across the street while they turned this into a living
Quarters and this was John shien’s home from 1932 to 1964 and as you might be able to see the floorboards are the same size as the floorboards down in the main lobby now um you can see the plywood over here and over here this is where they took
The boards out to create the main lobby so these floor boards are all going to have to be restored we have to restore those areas this is the John shipping bathroom and they have the there’s a name for that type of tub I guess it was just too heavy they know
Were never able to take it out and I’m glad that happened there was a Speak Easy downst here we believe the Speak Easy was back there that is a relic of the original staircase that brought people down into the basement so the door we came through
Didn’t exist in those years so we do have the concept of of what it what it looked like at one time so we want to try to reopen up those closets and turn that into the entryway to the basement this is the original foundation of the the original Tucker house you can see
It’s all Fieldstone this was how they built foundations back in those years my friend uh ronado Nehemiah famous track star from back in the 70s and 80s uh we were fascinated at our 40th high school reunion how he and Mark Shaman who’s a famous composer did not know about that
I want to get them back here I want to get President Obama here to see it with Tiger Woods and I think we can do that I think we’re going to find a way to get the pros to come play here they’ll probably play it more as a part three
And they would really get us to that next level uh there’s a lot of local people that really want to give back to the town they love the history and we’re all in our Elder ages where we get to have this fun I’ve been probably playing
40 times here in the last two months so been great what is your favorite hle here that is a great question this one’s super fun you know I I like seven here honestly you can’t really go wrong I mean you know you can find yourself uh hitting quite a few good shots and
Everything’s pretty much in play if you can kind of keep it straight and it’s a lot of fun so as you can see there’s a lot of potential work that needs to take place in order to recreate Shady RIS Country Club and bring it back to its Glory Days
