L-R: Mike Welton, Megan Padilla and John Perry on the 8th hole of the Ocean Course at Hammock Beach Resort (Photo by Megan Padilla)
May 1, 2019
A newbie golfer, I had the privilege of playing the Ocean Course at Hammock Beach Resort with longtime African American Golfer’s Digest contributor John Perry. It was his 70th birthday and though he’d greatly anticipated playing all 18 holes of the Jack Nicklaus-designed course on his own, he’d slowed down to patiently coach a fellow writer Mike Welton, and me through the first nine. Not only did John suggest which clubs to use when, where to aim and how to swing, but also he introduced the etiquette of playing a course, which is pretty daunting to newcomers.
John Perry’s golf bag (Photo by Megan Padilla)
During our play on the Ocean Course and later, over a delicious birthday dinner at Hammock Beach Resort’s upscale Delfino’s Italian restaurant, I learned more about John and his lifelong connection to the game of golf. He and his story have left a huge impression on me.
John’s been playing for 59 years, since he began as a caddy at age 11 in the segregated south, at the Henderson Country Club in his hometown of Henderson, NC where the only two jobs for African American men, he recalled, “were working in the tobacco fields or being a caddy.”
John Perry on the 8th hole of the Ocean Course at Hammock Beach Resort (Photo by Megan Padilla)
The only time he and his fellow caddies could golf was on Caddy Monday during the early morning hours. He doesn’t recall school getting in the way. Otherwise, “We had nowhere else to golf, so we made our own course in the backyard, dug our own holes and made flags and called it the U.S. Open.” Their clubs were cast-offs they’d pick up from the country club.
When John turned 18, he rode the Greyhound straight to New York City and soon after was able to golf for the first time as a regular guest at the Van Cortland Park Golf Course in the Bronx, the first public golf course in the country. “You just paid your fee and golfed,” he recalled. “It was liberating!”
John Perry relaxes at lunchtime at the popular eatery Captain’s Bar-b-que, located on Highway A1A, outside of St. Augustine, Fla.
After raising his own family, John went on to become the head coach of the John Shippen Youth Golf Academy in Scotch Plains, NJ. “I ran that program for 12 years, before my wife and I moved to Florida,” said Perry. Of course, John Perry never had the chance to meet John Shippen, who died in 1968. “Shippen was not only the first African American to play in the U.S. Open, but also the first American,” said John. It was 1896, the second year of the tournament. “Shippen is part of the African American exhibit at World of Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine,” said John, just north of where we met at Hammock Beach.
John Perry celebrating his 70th birthday at Delfino’s at Hammock Beach Resort (Photo by Megan Padilla)
A lifetime highlight:
Watching the Masters in April 1995 and then playing the course on Family Day in May. “All the money in the world can’t buy you a ticket to the Masters,” he said. “You have to be invited.” His invite came from his nephew Harden Perry III, who was the first African American manager at Augusta. “I was so excited, being a golfer all my life. To find myself on it, I was overwhelmed. It was like a dream come true to be on the course. Like going to the Holy Land.”
His dream foursome:
“Charlie Sifford, the first black golfer with a PGA card in 1961, Teddy Rhodes, he never got a PGA card but was probably the best black golfer ever, and James Black, an African American golfer who never got a chance to showcase his skills.”
Since Sifford and Rhodes are deceased, John is willing to sub in Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.
The interview he hopes to land:
Cheyenne Woods, the niece of Tiger Woods.
Thank you John for sharing your life’s passion with me. Something you taught me on the course that I think I’ll take with me into my daily life, “Slow down, trust the swing, enjoy the game.”
Megan Padilla is a freelance writer & content strategist and resides in Orlando, Fla.
