SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — A slice of golf history merges with a piece of American history whenever the U.S. Open returns to one of its most storied landscapes, Shinnecock Hills. The golf course, a links-style masterpiece that was one of the USGA’s five founding clubs in the 1890s, lies across ancient burial grounds that once belonged to the Shinnecock Nation, whose own people built the course.On Thursday, 156 players from around the world will tee it up for the sixth U.S. Open held on the site. Among those playing back in 1896 — the first time the USGA brought the open to the outer reaches of Long Island — 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. 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’s national championship.
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.
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