WSGA

IT IS A CURIOUS IRONY that Hattie Harris joined the Vernoncrest Golf Club in Los Angeles - the oldest organization for Black women golfers west of the Mississippi - as a result of her nephew introducing her to the game. Because once she started playing, the driving purpose of joining other ladies was to ensure that children were introduced to and supported in golf.

Harris, a standing superior court commissioner who is in her early 80s, once viewed golf with suspicious eyes. "Elitist, racist and sexist - the triumvirate," Harris says now. Then her nephew stopped by her home one day, professed his excitement for golf after a session at the driving range and told his aunt, "If you did it, you would like it. Come to the driving range with me."

So she did, though they had to scrounge up a left-handed club for her. "Of course, I whiffed it, and he laughed," she says. "I told him I'd beat him in a year. Sorry to announce that never happened, but I stayed with golf."

Harris eventually was playing regularly at L.A.'s most renowned Black golf course, Chester Washington GC, and ran into a longtime friend from USC law school, Sheryl Meshack, who had become a prominent member of the Vernoncrest group. That was a few decades ago, and though Meshack is no longer with us, Harris and her cohorts have continued to advance the club's mission of nurturing young and old golfers, while also experiencing a lot of laughs and camaraderie.

"Our goal has been to raise good citizens," Harris said. "We want to involve people who are concerned about their community and concerned about one another."

The Vernoncrest Golf Club - originally founded as Vernondale, and no one is sure about the nature of the original name or the change - was the brainchild of a group of Black women back in 1947, the same year that Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. They were teachers, nurses, real estate agents and held other professional positions in Los Angeles, and their husbands were prominent businessmen who played golf. The women had a problem, though: Their husbands weren't all that keen on them taking up the game or even coming to the course. So the women set out to form their own club.

Breaking Barriers

Understand that in that era, all Black golfers faced discriminatory practices at most local golf courses. Most of the access was afforded only to those who served as caddies, and the PGA Tour didn't eliminate its "Caucasian-only" clause until 1961. The Los Angeles Open ignored the Tour's policies, and going back to the 1940s, Black legends such as Bill Spiller, Charlie Sifford and Teddy Rhodes competed.

For women to establish a golf club at the time was truly extraordinary.

According to Susan Henderson, a former president of Vernoncrest and one of seven women who have been members of the club for more than 30 years, most of the founders were alumnae of the prominent Black sorority, Delta Sigma Theta (DST). Even today, the club's members wear the colors of red and white that are associated with DST. The members beyond Harris and Henderson who have been there for at least three decades are Lillie Norman, Sarah Jones, Teresa Jennings, Lisa Collins and Myretta Long.

"There was no social mandate. The club was created out of necessity, to show that having your own voice was important," Henderson said. "Tearing down barriers was important. We wanted access to golf just like the men had."

Henderson, whose career was in business development before she "retired" to start up the Mountain Views News in Sierra Madre, had her own very personal experience dealing with the attitudes of men. She joined another longstanding Black golf organization in L.A., the Cosmopolitan Golf Club, and became the first female board member. At one meeting, the group was reviewing the bylaws and Henderson was chatting with the men, and then the room suddenly got quiet and uncomfortable. They had arrived at the bylaw that prohibited women from becoming members unless their husbands were members.

"Are you kidding me?" Henderson recalled saying. "So, if you got a divorce, and your husband was a member of the club, you had to go."

She implored them to change the bylaw, and they did - to allow solo women members as long as the men voted them in. Incremental progress, to be sure, but, as Henderson said with a laugh, "The cat was out of the bag."

Vernoncrest became an important part of the growth of Black golf and in 1954 was a founding member of the Western States Golf Association - an organization that supported Black golf clubs all over the West. In the early years, it's believed the Vernoncrest ladies played much of their golf at the Fox Hills courses in Culver City, which were designed by George C. Thomas and William P. Bell in the 1920s and eventually plowed over for houses and the Fox Hills Mall in the 1970s.

Women would eventually break the gender barrier at Chester Washington GC, and Henderson became the first female president of the entire course. She has since been inducted into the Chester Washington Hall of Fame.

Supporting The Next Generation

Vernoncrest has always focused on creating opportunities for women while also supporting youth programs that introduced the game to kids. For decades, the members have donated their time and recruited teaching professionals to conduct clinics at courses around L.A. County. They've also raised money for children to attend summer golf camps at Stanford, and the peak in interest, of course, came with the rise of Tiger Woods. Among the club's most celebrated success stories is the support it provided to Brandi Seymour, who played college golf at Oregon State, and became a Golf Channel commentator and is now a creative producer for Apple TV.

More than any other venue, the Maggie Hathaway GC in South L.A. has been the spiritual home to the Vernoncrest club. A significant amount of the club's play and lessons have been held there, and the elder members knew Hathaway - the late golfer, entertainer and civil rights activist - personally. Henderson became one of her closest friends. The former Jack Thompson GC was renamed in honor of Hathaway in 1997, and the par-3 track has been Vernoncrest club members wear red and white as a tribute to prominent Black sorority, delta sigma theta, where many of the founding members belonged. the site of many a first-ever round of golf played.

There is a particular excitement in the air for the club now with the grand reopening of the Maggie facility after a $21 million renovation spearheaded by the fundraising efforts of The Los Angeles CC, SCGA and USGA.

"We've missed Maggie's a lot, and what they've done there is fantastic," Henderson said. "There is a spirit of camaraderie there. Everybody is there to help you to either learn the game or help you be a better golfer."

Just as it was envisioned by those brave and industrious women who founded the Vernoncrest club 79 years ago. They were certainly the Maggie Hathaways of their time.