Shinnecock Hills Golf Club National Register of Historic Places Listing

It started in 1891. William Vanderbilt and his wealthy buddies returned from Biarritz obsessed with this strange Scottish sport. They bought eighty acres of sandy, wind-swept terrain on Long Island's South Fork and hired Willie Davis to carve out twelve holes. Then they built a clubhouse. Designed by the legendary Stanford White in 1892, this shingle-style masterpiece still sits atop the hill, making it the oldest golf clubhouse in the country. Actually, Shinnecock is all about firsts. It was one of the five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association in 1894. They even allowed women members right from the very beginning. Unheard of for the Gilded Age.

Local Shinnecock Nation members actually built the place. They cleared the thick brush by hand and shaped the fairways using horse-drawn scrapers. One of those workers was a young kid named John Shippen. He could play. Shippen, who had African-American and Shinnecock heritage, entered the 1896 U.S. Open hosted at the club. Several English and Scottish pros threw a fit and threatened to boycott the tournament if he played. But USGA president Theodore Havemeyer stood his ground. He told the protesters the tournament would run even if Shippen was the only guy on the course. Shippen played and finished fifth. So, this patch of sandy soil is not just about wealthy elites playing a game it is where American golf confronted its own ugly racial barriers right at the starting line.