For as long as golf has been contested professionally, there have been "opens" -- that is, events in which all golfers, amateur or professional, skilled enough to play their way through qualifying, can earn the right to participate against the world's best.
Such was the body of the advertisement, at least. But for many years, the fine print told a different story.
In reality, through most of the 20th century, events on the professional golf circuit (not officially known as the PGA Tour until 1968) were by no means open. African Americans and other minorities were, for many years, excluded from participation, generally as a courtesy to host clubs that were, universally, Caucasian-only.
A single early exception took place in 1896, when a black golfer named John Shippen entered the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills (his place of employment) and, after U.S. Golf Assn. President Theodore Havermeyer stared down a threatened boycott from some less-tolerant members of the field, actually finished in a tie for fifth.
Though Shippen participated in several more U.S. Opens, his was truly a lonely road, for no other black golfer is known to have crossed golf's color line until 1942, when a long-hitting Atlanta-based professional named Howard Wheeler participated in the Tam O'Shanter Open in Chicago, finishing tied for 63rd.
Though few major tournaments were brazen enough to officially record their exclusionary policies in writing, it is generally believed that beyond the carnival-like Tam O'Shanter (which several times invited former heavyweight champion Joe Louis to play) and the U.S. and Canadian national championships, the lone regular event on the professional schedule not to exclude minorities was the Los Angeles Open.
The L.A. event's genuine openness first became apparent when Charley Chung, a Hawaii native of Chinese descent, made multiple appearances during his 1920s stint as professional at the Redlands Country Club -- an opportunity Chung was not always extended at other professional tournaments.
But a more indelibly drawn line was broken in 1945 when Los Angeles resident Bill Spiller, an African American playing out of the old 36-hole Sunset Fields public courses, quietly earned his way into the L.A. Open with rounds of 75-76 in Wednesday qualifying.
