![]() That’s my take, anyway.īen Foster, far left, is a familiar face in the Langston pro shop. No Dyker Beach G.C., no 15 Grand Slam titles attached to the Woods name. The military experience and the Black golf experience weave like the figure-8 weave the Harlem Globetrotters executed so brilliantly. He took up the game at the Dyker Beach course, in Brooklyn, at the tail end of the Vietnam War. ![]() I can’t imagine Earl Woods, with his towering intellect, not knowing the work of Langston Hughes, or the history of John Mercer Langston, or the contributions of city courses to the game. A plaque and a portrait of John Mercer Langston, a 19th-century American educator, politician and lawyer and the great uncle of the poet Langston Hughes. A painting that depicted Charlie Sifford, Calvin Peete, Jim Thorpe, Lee Elder, Jim Dent and Tiger. A photo of a crouching Tiger Woods, lining up a putt under the brim of his black Nike hat, at the height of his smoldering intensity. What bowled me over were the powerful, knowing and proud nods to the Black golf experience in this country. The food service, for now, was limited, a nod to these strange times. The pro shop I walked into on a recent Saturday was a time capsule. Langston’s future is so bright it will need shades. Beau Welling, the golf-course architect who works with Tiger Woods, is on the docket to renovate the course, owned by the National Park Service and managed by a new group called the National Links Trust.Ī celebratory moment after a tournament at Langston in 1946. The work-in-progress Howard University golf team, funded by Steph Curry, will make Langston its home course. Lee Elder, already a Tour legend, was its teaching pro and manager for years. Langston, if you don’t know, has been a longtime home for Black golfers in the District, going back to times far more defined by color lines than these are. (Expectations are so 1999.) It’s one of the best. I entered the pro shop at the Langston Golf Course, off busy Benning Road, not far from RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., with no expectations. 77th Street, NYC, permanently closed.) And so, in different ways, it is with your better pro shops. (Piatti, Avenida de la Playa, La Jolla Shores, Calif.) Chocolate mousse passing by on a corked tray. (L’Angelo, corner Porter and Rosewood, South Philadelphia.) Red wine being poured at a nearby table. The superior restaurant announces itself when you walk through the door. ![]() Langston has been a longtime home for Black golfers in and around Washington, D.C.
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