Golf legend John Shippen's history revealed by determined N.J. couple

John Shippen was a child of former slaves who found his way onto a golf course and made history there. 

New Jersey couple Ruby and Thurman Simmons shed light on his overlooked legacy in their book "A Golf Legend." 

"I wanted to correct the injustice that was done in the game of golf," Thurman Simmons said. "I said, I'm gonna talk about and do some research on this guy, John Shippen." 

"The golfers did not want to play with him"

John Shippen was born in 1879. 

"His father was a minister, Presbyterian minister, and they went to minister to Shinnecock Indians," Thurman Simmons explained. 

At Shinnecock, Shippen discovered golf and, according to Simmons, he took to it really well. 

"He was making clubs, giving lessons and playing in golf tournaments, and that's how Shippen got in," Thurman Simmons said. "He was an American, but of African descent, and the golfers did not want to play with him. They came over from Scotland and Ireland."

At the 1896 U.S. Open, Theodore Havemeyer, the head of the golf association, insisted he play, no matter what the other golfers said or did. Shippen finished in fifth place, winning $10 in prize money. More importantly, he secure a place in history as the first Black golf professional. 

By 1924, Shippen settled in as the pro at Shady Rest Golf Course in Scotch Plains New Jersey, the first Black golf club in the country. 

Shippen's family shared their genealogy, and the couple even received one of Shippen's original well-worn putters from someone who heard they had embarked on this project. 

"This is what they call a wooden shaft," Thurman Simmons said. "And the way they kept it straight was they would put it in hot water and then kind of straighten it out because it would warp."

Honoring Shippen's life

Another of the goals in recognizing Shippen's life, was to honor him in death as well.  He died alone at a nursing home in Newark in 1968, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Linden. 

"All they had was a number 71 in a slab of concrete that was his marker," Thurman Simmons said. 

"We put a very nice headstone on with the information, the first American, first African American, and the dates on there," Ruby Simmons said. 

Shippen was issued a PGA card in 2009, a prized essential for any pro golfer.  

"I don't feel like I did anything important other than correct a little bit of history in America that most people don't even know about," Thurman Simmons said. "I brought attention to it, and it got out there, yeah, and it ran by itself because it was the truth."