John Shippen

Before Sifford, Elder and Tiger, John Shippen Stepped Up

By Matt Hood
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 11, 1997; Page F7

When Tiger Woods won The Masters in April, he made a special point to thank the minority golfers who had come before him, professionals such as Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder, the Washingtonian who broke the tournament's color barrier in 1975.

Long before any of them, however, there was John Shippen. In 1896, the U.S. Golf Association chose Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., as the site of its second U.S. Open. Shippen was 16 and a caddie at Shinnecock when he registered to play. The tournament was different then: There were no qualifying rounds; the Open was a 36-hole event with two rounds played on the same day; and many players in the field of 35 were amateurs.

One element of the game wasn't different, though. It was primarily a white man's sport. Many of the professionals who were to play in the Open didn't like the idea of sharing the course with Shippen or another man who had signed up to play, Oscar Bunn, a full-blooded Shinnecock Indian.

Those professionals signed a petition saying they wouldn't play if Shippen and Bunn were allowed to. Presented with the petition, USGA president Theodore Havermeyer informed the dissenters that Shippen and Bunn would play even if they were the only two golfers in the tournament.

Shippen proved that he belonged. He fired a first-round 78, just two strokes off the lead. He beat his playing partner, former club champion Charles Blair Macdonald, by 12 strokes. Macdonald was so disgusted he withdrew and didn't play the second round.

Shippen had a chance to win the Open, but in the second round the 13th hole dealt him an unlucky 11. He went on to shoot an 81.

"It was just a little, easy par-4," Shippen recalled years later, according to "The Official U.S. Open Almanac," by Salvatore Johnson. "All I had to do was play it to the right, but I played it too far right and ended up on the sand road. I kept hitting it on the sand until I ended up with an 11."

On July 19, 1896, the Chicago Tribune reported the story of the second U.S. Open. It told of James Foulis's victory and his $150 prize. But the story also mentioned Shippen, the "colored lad who learned his game as a caddie at the Shinnecock club during the last year and a half." And it had these words to say about Shippen and his place in golf history:

"Anyone who plays Shippen has got to forget his boyishness and pay careful attention to his golf, for Shippen is, in view of the circumstances, the most remarkable player in the United States."