A Family’s Golfing Story, With Lessons Beyond the Fairways

‘Cumberland Rising: The Extraordinary Story of the Ted Rhodes Golf Course’By Rickey. L Hampton Sr. African American Athlete LLC, 218 pagesIf you love golf, you’ll find much to admire in “Cumberland Rising: The Extraordinary Story of the Ted Rhodes Golf Course.” If you love history — the hard, unsparing kind — Rickey Hampton’s book offers an important chapter in the story of American golf. And if you believe in the power of family, service and persistence, it tells a tale that reaches well beyond the fairways.At the center of the 218-page work is a nine-hole course built on swampy land beside the Cumberland River in North Nashville. Opened in 1954 as “Cumberland Golf Course for Negroes,” it was renamed Ted Rhodes Golf Course in 1969. Today, it stands as a living monument to Black golf history and to the determination of Joe Hampton, the man who helped make it possible.Mr. Hampton, Rickey’s father, was the course’s head professional, superintendent and guiding force. In an era of segregation and Jim Crow oppression, he helped transform a flood-prone tract near a dump into what became known as “The Mecca of Black Golf.” The assignment was daunting from the start: In 1952, the city gave him 50 acres and a $40,000 bond to build a public course for Black golfers barred from Nashville’s other three public courses.“No one who looked at this land and approved it expected anything to grow there,” Rickey Hampton writes.A veteran sports columnist, he is uniquely qualified to tell the story. Rickey grew up in an apartment above the golf shop with his parents and five siblings, getting a firsthand view of the work and the people who made Cumberland what it became. He was his father’s “Shadow,” watching as Pro Joe worked from sunrise to sunset to turn a seemingly impossible project into a challenging course and a destination for some of Black America’s most prominent figures.The book does not romanticize the obstacles. The clubhouse faced constant threats of being bombed, and the course required constant work to survive the elements and its difficult beginnings. Joe Hampton, a former caddie, kept many of those threats to himself while building a place where Black golfers could play — and be treated with dignity.The names who passed through Cumberland give the story its aura. Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis and major league baseball Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe played there, as did pro golf legends Lee Elder, Calvin Peete, Charlie Sifford, Jim Thorpe, and Jim Dent. Mr. Elder, the first Black golfer to play in the Masters, practiced on a cornfield that Pro Joe converted into a driving range. Tennis great Althea Gibson also visited.Not everyone came to play. Some gathered beneath a large shade tree near the first tee, where wagers were settled and men discussed what men discussed. Rickey Hampton captures the course as both a sporting landmark and a community gathering place.One of its most enduring figures was trailblazing professional golfer Ted Rhodes, a gifted ball-striker known for his fashion style and his friendship with Pro Joe. The two served as caddies at Belle Meade Country Club, the exclusive white club for Nashville’s elite.Mr. Rhodes won more than 150 tournaments where he was allowed to compete in a career that unfolded against the barriers imposed on Black golfers. Rickey Hampton’s portrait of him is especially intimate: He calls Mr. Rhodes “Uncle Bimp,” and recounts the legacy of a player whose excellence could not overcome golf’s systematic exclusion. Mr. Rhodes died in 1969, the year the Cumberland Golf Course was re-named in his honor.The book is also a tribute to Hazel Hampton, Joe’s wife of 56 years and a force in the daily life of Cumberland. She was, in effect, chief executive, financial manager and cook, feeding workers, attorneys, entertainers, athletes, surgeons, gamblers and anyone else who needed a meal. Her famous wiener sandwich became part of the course’s lore. Her firm hand kept the operation running while Pro Joe concentrated on the course itself.Rickey Hampton’s affection for his parents is evident, but so is his willingness to confront golf’s history of racial exclusion. The PGA of America did not rescind its “Caucasian only” clause until 1961. “Golf, a game based on fairness and abiding by the rules, practiced systematic racial exclusion against the men who might have been its greatest players,” he writes.One of the author’s happiest memories was taking his father to watch Tiger Woods play in the 1997 U.S. Open at Congressional. The moment carried particular meaning for a man who had spent years helping Black golfers find a place in a sport that had denied them opportunity.Joe Hampton died in 1999. His legacy remains in the course, the Joe Hampton clubhouse and now in his son’s account of the work that built them. “Cumberland Rising” is a loving family portrait, a history of a neglected corner of golf and a reminder that a landmark can be made not only of land and labor, but of love, conviction, and community.

A Family’s Golfing Story, With Lessons Beyond the Fairways

A Family’s Golfing Story, With Lessons Beyond the Fairways

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