This elegant sterling trophy is engraved WESTFIELD GOLF CLUB – OCT. 13, 1913 – MIXED FOURSOME HANDICAP – LOW GROSS – GERTRUDE NOE & C.S. BENDER
It was won only days after Francis Ouimet won the US Open.
While there is no relationship to Ouimet or Brookline Country club in Massachusetts, the history of this golf club and trophy is noteworthy, especially during this year’s Black History Month, with the following brief information gathered from “Game of Privilege an African American History of Golf” by Lane Demas and by using Chat GPT.
The Westfield Golf Club (1900-1921) was a nine-hole golf course built on farmland in what is now Scotch Plains, NJ about half an hour from Newark airport. A 1700’s farmhouse on the property is still used today as the club’s clubhouse. On April 5, 1921 Westfield Golf club merged with the Cranford Golf Club to form The Echo Lake Country Club. After that merger in 1921 a group of African -American investors known as the Progressive Realty Company, Inc. purchased the club and established The Shady Rest Golf and Country Club. It is recognized as the first African-American owned and operated golf and country club in the United States. From 1931 to 1964, the club was the home and workplace of John Shippen, Jr. – celebrated as the first American born African-American professional golfer to play in the U. S. Open. He played in the 1896 U. S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
The trophy pictured is from 1913 and the Westfield Golf Club. It was awarded to a two-person female/male team for the Low Gross score in the Mixed Foursome alternating shot event.
Discovery and high appreciation by Bob Gettis, GHS member #928