{"id":4100,"date":"2026-06-17T13:37:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4100"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:37:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:37:33","slug":"us-open-host-shinnecock-shares-a-complicated-past-with-golf-and-american-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4100","title":{"rendered":"US Open host Shinnecock shares a complicated past with golf and American history"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE – The U.S. Open Golf Championship trophy is displayed in front of the clubhouse at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo\/Seth Wenig, File)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. \u2014 A slice of golf history merges with a piece of American history whenever the U.S. Open<\/a> returns to one of its most storied landscapes, Shinnecock Hills.<\/p>

Read more Trump plan would fence park near White House long used by tourists, protesters<\/a><\/p>\n

The golf course, a links-style masterpiece that was one of the USGA\u2019s five founding clubs in the 1890s, lies across ancient burial grounds that once belonged to the Shinnecock Nation, whose own people built the course.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, 156 players from around the world will tee it up<\/a> for the sixth U.S. Open held on the site<\/a> . Among those playing back in 1896 \u2014 the first time the USGA brought the Open to the outer reaches of Long Island \u2014 was John Shippen, the African-American golf teacher and club maker at the club who, as a 16-year-old, joined Shinnecock tribe member Oscar Bunn on the tee sheet.<\/p>\n

Shippen was the first Black player to play in the U.S. Open; he and Bunn are believed to be the first two American-born players to play in America\u2019s national championship.<\/p>\n

Before the tournament, pros from Britain told USGA management they refused to play against the Black and Native American players. The USGA president, Theodore Havemeyer, told those pros the tournament would go on with or without them.<\/p>\n

Though the decision flew beneath the radar during a fledgling time for golf in the U.S. and for professional golf anywhere \u2014 in that era, the amateur game, not the pro game, drew the best players \u2014 the precedent Havemeyer set looks better as the years pass in a sport with a checkered record of inclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think of the word \u2018pioneer,\u2019 and it\u2019s probably overused a little bit,\u201d USGA historian Mike Trostel said. \u201cBut I think in the case of Shippen, his pioneering spirit as the first African-American professional\u201d stands out.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s little debate about Shippen\u2019s role as a largely unheralded pioneer, the history between the Shinnecock people and their surroundings is more complicated, and it involves much more than golf.<\/p>\n

As detailed in a documentary, \u201cThe Land We Share,\u201d that came out in the weeks leading up to this week’s Open<\/a> , New York\u2019s state legislature forced the Shinnecock to cede most of its territory to the village of Southampton in 1859. The nation\u2019s boundaries now consist of about 800 acres located south of Montauk Highway \u2014 a short drive from the entrypoint to one of the most exclusive golf clubs in the country.<\/p>\n

But it was members of the Shinnecock tribe who were brought over by the landowners to build this course and who, for decades, maintained it. Tribal member Peter Smith was the third generation from his family to serve as head of the Shinnecock grounds crew. He was widely praised for his setup of the layout when the U.S. Open returned here in 1986, then again in 1995.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s firing in 1999 \u2014 the reasons aren\u2019t well laid out in the documentary and contemporaneous media reports say it was simply because the club was looking to take things in a new direction \u2014 created a rift with the Shinnecock that only recently has started to heal.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s nephew, Matthew, is an assistant on the grounds crew now and was a central figure in the documentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ancestors built that course, my ancestors died on that course,\u201d Smith says in the movie. \u201cThere\u2019s blood, sweat and tears on that course.\u201d<\/p>

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The president of Shinnecock Hills, Brian Pickett, acknowledged in the movie that the course<\/a> and the Shinnecock Nation share \u201ca part of American history that you can\u2019t hide from.\u201d Tribal council chair Lisa Goree spoke about the realities of a poor tribe situated in the middle of \u201call this wealth and opulence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many people who pass right through the golf club, they have no idea where that name came from,\u201d Goree said.<\/p>\n

Pretty much every telling of Shippen\u2019s story acknowledges he wasn\u2019t focused on the history he made when he played Shinnecock in 1896. The short version is that once he started working at the club and took up golf, he quickly became Shinnecock\u2019s best player.<\/p>\n

Members recognized that and paid his entry fee to the U.S. Open. He was part of a field of 35 and was tied for the lead after the first round of the two-round event. He got stuck in the sand on the 13th hole during the second round. He made an 11 there en route to a fifth-place finish and a $10 paycheck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve wished 100 times I could\u2019ve played that little par-4 again,\u201d Shippen recounted in a 1969 interview with Tuesday magazine.<\/p>\n

Were it not for that mishap, he might not only have been the first Black player in a U.S. Open but the first Black winner, as well.<\/p>\n

It took 90 years for the USGA to return to Shinnecock \u2014 largely a product of its remote location on the south fork of Long Island. In between, the sport\u2019s struggle with diversity has been a well-documented part of its story.<\/p>\n

Players like Charlie Sifford (first Black player to earn a PGA Tour card), Lee Elder (first Black player in the Masters) and Calvin Peete (12 wins on the PGA Tour) are on the short list of African-Americans who pierced golf\u2019s racial barrier.<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods won the Masters in 1997 to make the most pronounced breakthrough in the white-dominated culture of this country club sport.<\/p>\n

Shippen\u2019s contribution 101 years earlier \u2014 much like Shinnecock\u2019s Native American heritage \u2014 still remains a footnote. Both, however, are revisited whenever golf returns to one of the more special and complex landscapes from its past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s complicated,\u201d Pickett said. \u201cTo us, having had those relationships and talking about the complications is far better than not having the conversation at all.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Vance, the face of deal to end Iran war, defies hawkish GOP critics<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, 156 players from around the world will tee it up for the sixth U.S. Open held at Shinnecock Hills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nUS Open host Shinnecock shares a complicated past with golf and American history - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4100\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Open host Shinnecock shares a complicated past with golf and American history - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Thursday, 156 players from around the world will tee it up for the sixth U.S. Open held at Shinnecock Hills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4100\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-17T13:37:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d1e14d6cccb6226cfe501c2b024b4ee3-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4100#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4100\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"US Open host Shinnecock shares a complicated past with golf and American history\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-17T13:37:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4100\"},\"wordCount\":1049,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4100#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/46aa2541e3f2b90cb5dfe872376e6016-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4100#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4100\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4100\",\"name\":\"US Open host Shinnecock shares a complicated past with golf and American history - 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