How the USGA is preserving artifacts from this golf trailblazer

This content material was first revealed in Golf Journal, a quarterly print publication completely for USGA Members. To be amongst the first to obtain Golf Journal and to study how one can guarantee a powerful future for the sport, become a USGA Member today.

At the 2021 African American Golf Expo in Atlanta, Peggy and Tiffany White have been USGA artifacts once they got here throughout one thing neither had ever seen: a match program {photograph} of Ted Rhodes, Peggy’s father and Tiffany’s grandfather, who was additionally one in every of the nation’s prime Black golfers in the late Forties.

Rhodes began in golf as a caddie in his native Nashville, Tenn., earlier than growing right into a topnotch participant, largely by training in native parks. Due to the racial segregation insurance policies of the PGA of America and lots of host golf equipment, nevertheless, he had few alternatives to play towards the period’s prime execs.

Rhodes did qualify for the 1948 U.S. Open at The Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, turning into the first African American to compete in the championship since John Shippen in 1913. His first-round 70 put him three strokes behind the chief and eventual champion, Ben Hogan; although Rhodes finally completed T51, his efficiency demonstrated on a worldwide stage the simple expertise of Black golfers.

As a results of the African American Golf Expo, USGA Golf Museum and Library staffers started a dialogue with Peggy and Tiffany White. These conversations led to a plan to preserve and share with the world the household’s delight and pleasure — the solely gear objects recognized to have been utilized by Rhodes, consisting of 4 golf equipment, two headcovers and a golf bag from the Forties.

These objects made their public debut at the 2022 U.S. Open History Experience for 1000’s of followers to find and respect. In 2023, because of the Ted Rhodes Foundation, the artifacts have been donated to the USGA Golf Museum and Library, the place this trailblazer’s wooden-shafted putter is now on everlasting show.

Victoria Nenno is the senior historian of the USGA.