CLEVELAND — As a young boy growing up, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb took a summer job as a caddy at Beechmont Country Club in Orange, hoping to earn a little money and better learn the game of golf.
"I remember for the first three or four weeks when I was at the Country Club, I saw the same black golfer every weekend," recalled Bibb. "It was Charlie Sifford."
Charlie Sifford was the Jackie Robinson of golf, the first African American to earn a PGA Tour card in 1961 and the first to win a PGA Tour Event in 1967 at the Greater Hartford Open.
"I got the courage to go up to him and say, 'Mr. Sifford, how did you fall in love with the game of golf? What was your story?' And he gave me his whole history," Bibb said. "And he said, 'Young man, I learned how to play right here at Highland Park Golf Course.'"
Sifford considered the 36-hole course in Highland Hills owned by the City of Cleveland as one of his home courses. He was just part of the long history of the course that has seen the likes of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and it is said the legendary comedian and lover of the game Bob Hope played his first round there. But in Greater Cleveland's Black community, it meant even more, access to the game.
"Oh, it meant everything to me 'cause this is the only place that I learned how to play," recalled golfer William Tell.
In the 50s and 60s, the course was home to local Black golf leagues and hosted the PGA's Minority Collegiate Golf Championship in 1987. Tell and fellow golfer Jimmy Chandler had a front-row seat for much of that history, good and, in recent years, bad.
"The way it was going, it was going to go away," Chandler said.
We first met Chandler last fall when Cleveland was discussing plans to change the fortunes and future of the place, bring in a world-class operator to run the course for the city and the newly formed Highland Park Golf Foundation. Eight months later, Bibb, who learned to golf there as a boy, with his Dad on hand Monday, announced a partnership with Troon Golf.
Troon operates over 750 golf courses worldwide; this will be their tenth in Ohio. Its goal, along with the city, is world-class play without the world-class price.
"So we want to make sure that every child, every family in this city has that country club experience that's accessible and affordable for them, and we think this is going to go a long way to help revitalize the East Side for our community," Bibb said.
Making it, as Chandler said, "a place that everybody wants to play and everybody can play."
Sifford died in 2015, but on hand this day was his son Charlie who said his father would be smiling at the commitment to improving the course while honoring its heritage by maintaining its access.
"My Dad was, you know, was interested in his career, but he also wanted to see the younger generation come up and have an opportunity to play the game," said Sifford. "He fell in love with it when he was 10 years old. I'm sure he'd be proud of what lays in the future for Highland Park."
