Bill Wright - the 1959 USGA Public Links Champion from Eastmoreland

 In 1933, Eastmoreland golf course hosted the USGA Public Links Championship.  That year a handful of Eastmoreland players vied for the championship, though came up short in the final matches. It would be 3 years before Bill Wright would be born, and another 23 before he crowned Champion in 1959 at Wellshire G.C. in Denver Colorado. 

Wright at the driving range where he teaches near LAX airport. Courtesy of Golf.com

Through the years many other Eastmoreland players have played what's affectionately called the Publinx, from Benny Hughes in the late 1930's to Jack Schneider as recently as 2000 at Great Blue at Heron Lakes.  ​However we have only one champion in Bill Wright.... and though I say "we" he was in fact an adopted member.  He should have been representing Franklin Park Golf Course in Seattle but because of the segregated clubs, he came to Eastmoreland where he was welcome to establish a handicap. 

I first learned about Bill's story from Portland's own PGA professional Vincent Johnson, winner of the 2010 Long Beach Open and now assistant director of the Portland Parks golf program.  Vincent has had an opportunity to speak with Bill during his early years as a PGA professional.  From these beginnings, I started to research and came upon a terrific article by Golf Magazine titled "Wright & Wronged" published on October 9, 2009. That very same day he was honored by the USGA, First Tee and Franklin Park in Seattle as "Bill Wright Day" in recognition of the 50th anniversary of his historic win.  

For Bill, who at the age of 73 at the time still had the buttery smooth swing of a that could knock drives 275+, competing at golf was a matter of individual accomplishment.  While he is very proud of being black american and a champion, his real focus was just getting an opportunity to play and showing he could compete and win. Given the racial prejudice of America getting into the roster required Bill Wright to do far more than just play champion level golf. He had to scale the walls of racial prejudice. 

He had a good mentor too, as Charlie Swifford, the PGA tour player who played alongside Joe Lewis was a close family friend, staying with the Wright's when he played tournaments in Seattle.  It was Joe and Charlie who fought the PGA's "caucasians only" clause installed in 194. By 1959 that overt discrimination would would be dealt a knock-out blow by none other than Joe Lewis.

Bill Wright had to face the more challenging barrier of passive discrimination. While the USGA did not have overt discrimination policies, the clubs which governed local membership were often segregated in many cities, including his home course of Franklin Park in Seattle

 The ultimate measure of a player is the flight of your ball 
​                                                           - Ben Hogan

​

According to a 2009 article in the Denver Post, Bill couldn't get a handicap to compete in the U.S. Public Links anywhere in the entire state of Washington.:

​In order to enter the tournament, players had to be members of a public course and carry an official USGA handicap. At that time in Seattle, Wright said, there were courses where Chinese, Japanese and black players were welcome and even played with handicaps, but they weren’t recognized by the USGA.

Now this may surprise a reader in the modern era.  Isn't a "public club" different from a "private membership club"? How can they exclude minorities?  Well, it's an interesting mechanisms of the USGA and a sign of the times. In order to have a valid handicap, one must be a member of a recognized club, with a handicap chair, making the club as a whole responsible for ensuring the player's proper scoring.  Today, joining a public club is something anyone can do online and the association is a mere formality.  Back then Franklin Park Golf Club was technically a private member corporation with it's own set of rules, and they came up with all sorts of reasons why he couldn't be a member. Because of this "de facto" segregation  Bill's father Bob Wright, had earlier been a founding member of the Fir State Golf Club which was created in 1947 to give african-americans of Seattle a place to play, part of the clubs inspired by the Leisure Hour Club in Portland in 1943. However the USGA at the time had very specific rules that only one member club was allowed per course so the Fir State Club was not officially sanctioned by the USGA.

 So Bill needed a new plan... and that was to come to Eastmoreland Golf Course, the only local club that would have him so he could have a valid USGA handicap. See Western Washington University window into golf. The Eastmoreland Club was comprised of both men and women with a history of inclusiveness. My hope is to speak to Bill directly and learn more about his interaction with any club members. I'd ask him he played Eastmoreland himself at that time, or otherwise got to play with any of the scrappy players from Leisure Hour or the Wolves over the years.

Bill Wright, the slender putting wizard from Seattle, who grew up playing in Portland, conquered Jack Campbell the husky slammer from Florida 3-2 - Oregonian July 19, 1959

Bill Wright watches a putt during his 3-and-2 victory over Frank Campbell to win theU.S. Amateur Public Links title at Wellshire Golf Club in 1959. Courtesy of Denver Post

Details of the Match: Amateur Public Links 1959

Gaining entry into the tournament is only the beginning.  Bill started off with low expectations simply playing well enough to justify all the effort. By the end of the first two days of stroke play, he achieved that goal, shooting a 36 hole score of 149 (+ 5 over for two rounds) which nabbed him a qualifying spot in the match play portion ranked 63rd out of 64 places.  He breezed through the first three matches and then met Don Essig III in the semi-finals, who just happened to be the 1957 Champion. This was the first true test of a championship run, and he won 3-2 with only 23 putts (the expected number of putts on a par round is 36 - though 30 is considered by most to be a good day).  It was what why the Oregonian would call him the "slender putting wizard."  He went on to birdie the first two holes of the final 36 holes and go 4 up after 5.  He never let go of the lead and won the final match 3-2 to claim the championship trophy.

Bill Wright's challenges were turned into opportunities as his parents took the public clubs to court.  

“My parents fought for it, and eventually there was a law passed that said we had to be allowed to join the public courses,” Wright said. “After that happened, there weren’t a lot of happy faces. There was this undercurrent of tension.”

Winning earns excemption into the U. S. National Amateur

The other amazing tale of Bill Wright's magical year of competitive golf in 1959, is that as the champion of the public links he got an automatic inviation to the U.S. National Amateur.  This was significant because in 1959 and well into the 1960's it was mandatory for all entrants to have be members of a private club. As has been detailed, many private clubs will invite hot young golfers for free sponsorship, with the hope they can represent the club and win on a national level.  However in the era of segregation, Bill Wright got an invitation the best way, playing his way into a spot.

Once there Bill had another experience of the racial prejudice that must have been so daunting on a day to day basis.  His assigned partners for the practice round refused to play with him.  The elder Chick Evans, himself an Amateur Champion, founder of the Chick Evans scholarship noticed the "problem" and invited Bill to join his foursome.  So he played along with Chick and a rather chubby young man, a few years his young.  Who might that be? Why Jack Nicklaus who went on to win the 1959 Amateur Championship and host his trophy just like Bill Wright had a few weeks earlier.  

Here's a tip of the cap to Bill Wright - I hope to hear more golf stories from you and perhaps get to play one more 18 at our municipal track here in Portland.

"I wanted to be black. I wanted to be the winner. I wanted to be all those things. It just hit me that other people were thinking [about race]. I was just playing golf."
                                      - Bill Wright in Golf Magazine

Bill Wright's Accomplishments from the PNGA Hall of Fame:

• One of the first participants in the Fir State junior golf program at Seattle's Jefferson Park GC in the 1950s
• U.S. Amateur Public Links Champion - 1959 (an historic victory, being the first African-American to win a USGA national championship)
• Competed in the U.S. Amateur Championship - 1959
• Member of the Hudson Cup Team - 1959
• Won the NAIA collegiate individual golf title - 1960
• NAIA All-American - 1960
• Former member of the PGA Tour
• Competed in the 1966 U.S. Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco
• Competed in five U.S. Senior Opens
• Member of the Western Washington University Athletic Hall of Fame
• Enshrined in the USGA Museum in Far Hills, N.J.
• "Bill Wright Day" declared by USGA, WSGA, First Tee of Greater Seattle, Fir State Junior Program and Jefferson Park GC, honoring the 50thanniversary of his historic USGA victory - October 10, 2009
• Longtime golf instructor in Los Angeles, Calif.
• Inducted into Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame - 2013