Cobbs Creek Golf Course to be restored, reopened – WHY – WHYY

A glorious, inclusive past

Cobbs Creek was considered the best public golf course in America when it was built in 1916, said Chris Maguire, chairman of the Cobbs Creek Foundation.

The course was also unique for its inclusivity. It welcomed people of all races, ethnicities, and genders at a time when most golf clubs only allowed white men.

The course was home to Charlie Sifford, the first African American to win a PGA Tour event.

Sen. Hughes met Sifford, who died in 2015, through a scholarship fund he helped set up in honor of his father, who was also a golfer and president of a golf course in New Jersey.

Mr. Sifford, on his face, he was gruff and kind of ornery. But once you dug a little bit deeper, he was just a big teddy bear with that cigar that he constantly smoked. He just was a wonderful guy, Hughes said. And he talked about, quite often, about the hell that he had to go through to golf professionally.

World heavyweight champion boxer Joe Louis, who became the first Black golfer to play in a PGA Tour event, also reportedly played at Cobbs Creek.

The course hosted the 1928 United States Public Links championship, two Daily News Opens on the PGA tour, as well as the United Golfers Association (UGA) Championship, which operated tournaments for Black golfers similar to those of the PGA during segregation, said Parks Department spokesperson Maita Soukup in a news release. The course was inducted into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame last year.

All the Black golfers in this region in Philadelphia, in Jersey, in Delaware, Maryland, New York they would all come down to Cobbs Creek, Hughes said. This was the place that welcomed them and made it easy for them. They didnt have to look over their shoulders, and we need to recognize this place of great historic value.

The historic golf course sits close to another one of Philadelphias recreational landmarks Laura Sims Skate House in Cobbs Creek Park, the first U.S. ice skating rink designed by an African American architect for a predominantly Black community.

A lack of city funding for maintenance, paired with chronic flooding and erosion, made the course virtually unplayable, said Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell.The city has just signed a lease agreement to revamp the Cobbs Creek golf course, which has fallen into disrepair. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Weve seen the golf course as really, essentially a stranded asset, she said. Its been an asset that we havent been able to put the capital investment into that it is desperately needed for decades.

The concessionaire which ran the course for about a decade was unable to raise the revenue necessary to keep the course up, Ott Lovell said, a problem compounded by the fact that much of the course is underwater much of the time.

Plumbing issues, hydrology issues, environmental issues like invasive weeds and plants, capital issues the building, she said, referring to the historic clubhouse that burned.

Hughes last golfed at Cobbs Creek about 10 years ago.

The course was in serious decline, he said.

The course even became a nuisance to surrounding communities, Jones said.

As the golf course deteriorated, people began to complain more about fairways that allowed golf balls to go into peoples back windows, car windows, and damaged property, Jones said. The landscape deteriorated due to erosion. It was plagued with people who slept in the park.

When the course closed in 2020, Jones said, nearby residents felt mixed emotions for some, nostalgia, for others, relief.The city has just signed a lease agreement to revamp the Cobbs Creek golf course, which has fallen into disrepair. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

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Cobbs Creek Golf Course to be restored, reopened - WHY - WHYY