Bill Spiller, Born: October 25, 1913, Tishomingo, Oklahoma, United States Died: 1988, Los Angeles, California, United States

Born in Tishomingo, OK, Spiller moved to Tulsa as a nine-year-old to live with his father where he quickly learned the drawbacks of being black in America. One day, he went to a store to return some merchandise he had bought. A white sales clerk slapped Bill for what he claimed was impudence. It so angered Bill that he raced home, got a gun, strapped it on and wore it until his sophomore year at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. Spiller wore his indignation about race on his sleeve. He was also an excellent athlete, a two-sport star in high school.

However, golf was not one of them. He didn’t take up the game in earnest until he was almost 30, but quickly became one of the top black players in Southern California, where he had moved to live with his mother after earning enough college credits to obtain a teaching certificate in the state of Texas. He pieced together a game based on the swings of his favorite PGA Tour stars. By the mid-1940s, Spiller had won several black amateur tournaments in Southern California and felt ready for bigger challenges. He played against the best African American players in the Joe Louis Invitational at Rackham GC in Detroit and the nation’s best pros in the Los Angeles Open and Tam O’Shanter in Chicago, two PGA Tour events open to Blacks.

He befriended several white players, including Lawson Little and Jimmy Demaret who helped convince CC president George S. May to invite black players to his tournament. In 1947, Spiller turned pro and toured the UGA with Louis, among others. The competition forced him to take a reality check. One day Spiller hustled Louis out of $7,000 in a showdown that started at dawn and didn’t conclude until it was too dark for the pair to see each other. He bought a small house with his winnings. Peace of mind, however, would prove more expensive and elusive. Spiller desperately sought to earn a living playing golf professionally and that meant eschewing the paltry purses of the black golf tour for the more lucrative PGA circuit.

Only one thing stood in his way; the PGA’s exclusionary Caucasian-only clause. Spiller shot a 68 to tie Ben Hogan for second place after the first round of the Los Angeles Open at the Riviera Country Club in 1948. Although he faltered and eventually finished 20 shots behind the victorious Hogan, Spiller finished in the top 60, making him eligible for the next PGA tournament, the Richmond Open outside Oakland.

However, when he showed up to play, PGA Tour official George Schneiter enforced the Caucasian-only clause and turned them away. It wasn’t until four years later that Spiller and his fellow outcasts, led by Louis, were able to deliver the first effective blow to the PGA and its policy.

It came at the San Diego Open, where tour officials refused entry to Spiller and another African American pro named Eural Clark. Louis was allowed to play after the PGA was the subject of several critical reports by Walter Winchell in a national radio broadcast that exposed the tour’s racial bias even toward a war veteran. Louis’ tenacity forced a vote later that week by the PGA Tournament Committee that resulted in a rule change. Essentially, African Americans could not be kept out of a tournament if they received one of the 10 sponsor exemptions or earned one of 10 spots in the field through open qualifying. However, the association refused to budge on the matter of allowing them to hold PGA Tour membership. Spiller’s lack of success in the PGA Tour events in which he was allowed to compete (his best finish was a 14th place at the Labatt Open in Canada) forced him to turn to other means of supporting his family. He hustled golf lessons and caddied at Hillcrest Country Club. That hurt him collectively more than anything else.

Later in life, when confined to a convalescent home after suffering two strokes and being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Spiller would clutch the faded newspaper clippings detailing his protests in the clubhouses and exploits on the course. Bill Spiller died in 1988.

Article by Dianne Washington

Jin Young Ko (photo gossipgist.com)

BY AAGD STAFF – AUGUST 30, 2019

The overtake has been accomplished by South Korean professional golfer Jin Young Ko, who on Thursday, broke one of Tiger Woods’ playing records.  The LPGA phenom became the only known person in the world to have gone more consecutive holes in professional tournament play without making a bogey.

Ko’s 2019 season has been incredible.  She has won four times, including two majors.  Playing since a youth, by age 22 Ko had won 10 times on the LPGA of Korea Tour and she also placed second at the 2015 Ricoh Women’s British Open, and had won the 2017 LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship.

She completed the record on the ninth hole of the first round of the Cambia Portland Classic, Ko finally made a bogey, ending a remarkable streak of 114 consecutive holes without one.  This must have been shocking to Ko, as she had completely missed the hole at nearly just three feet.

“First putt was good, but the second putt I decelerated, so I made bogey,” Ko said.

For some, it’s difficult to know that the streak has ended, however, Ko can rest satisfied in knowing that she “bested” Tiger Woods’ record of 110 consecutive holes without a bogey, a record he set during his historic 2000 season. The World No. 1 said she knew about Tiger’s record, and had it front-of-mind as she played the fourth hole. “I made a great up and down,” Ko said of the par that tied her with Tiger.

By Pete McDaniel
Freelance Writer

 
(August 25, 2019) Atlanta, Ga.—The refurbished homes along a threesome of thoroughfares (Memorial Drive, Alston Drive SE and Second Ave. SE), some of them with fancy stone facades that both reveal their rejuvenation and disguise their dark past, gives one the impression that the community surrounding famed East Lake GC has been forever Rockwell painting peaceful and biblically pastoral.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

When I first came here more than 20 years ago, those same thoroughfares were littered with houses crumbling from disrepair and neglect. The community was unsafe for residents let alone visitors. That fact wasn’t lost on this journalist whose assignment had included mingling in a hell hole called the East Lake Meadows–a public housing project referred to by locals as “Little Vietnam” because of the violence and crime that had even the most hardened tenants fearful 24-7.

The impoverished conditions stood in stark contrast to the immaculate East Lake GC layout, which had also been in dire need of a facelift before Rees Jones restored the Donald Ross design in 1994. Around that same time, real estate mogul and philanthropist Tom Cousins formed the East Lake Foundation charged with redeveloping the East Lake community.

The massive project replaced the crime-infested projects with brand spanking new mixed-income housing, produced an 9-hole executive course (CharlieYates GC) to accommodate the East Lake First Tee, encouraged local builders to take a serious look at the area, constructed the Charles R. Drew Charter School to serve local students, and forged a solid partnership with Atlanta-based Coca Cola, whose deep pockets made it a major sponsor of the Tour Championship and later a supporter of the finals of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

The Tour Championship has proved a cash cow for the City of Atlanta as thousands stream into the area to see and be seen. Of course, the serious golf fan has the rare opportunity to witness the game’s top players up close and personal.

Cousins’ redevelopment project was so successful it became the model for other distressed communities around the country.

More importantly, it has positively impacted numerous young lives by affording them opportunities to elevate their statuses through the game of golf and higher learning.

The payoff has been more than encouraging.

This past May, Drew School graduated its third senior class. Members of the Class of 2019 were accepted by more than 110 colleges and universities and received more than $12 million in scholarship offers.

The school-year also produced a first by the varsity boys golf team that etched their names in the Georgia Public Schools record book. In winning the Class A Public State Championship, the team (all members of the East Lake First Tee) became the first Atlanta Public School to win a state crown and the first champion consisting entirely of African American players and coaches.

During my trip here those many years ago, I admittedly was somewhat skeptical, having experienced similar blight and white flight in some of my neighborhoods back home in North Carolina and in Bridgeport, Ct., which bordered Fairfield, where I resided at the time.

I could recite the horror stories about gang violence, drug addicts pushing up on residents like zombies, and the cracking sound of a wayward bullet interrupting the silent night.

I have lived less than a half-hour away from East Lake the past 14 years, and I’ve covered every Tour Championship at East Lake GC since it debuted here in 1998. I witnessed the transformation of a community only the brave at heart or too foolish to be afraid would traverse after sundown to a bona fide reclamation with thriving businesses and a seemingly harmonious lifestyle.

“Is it perfect? No,” says Catherine Woodling, Director of Communications at The East Lake Foundation. “But it’s getting better.”

A chain-link fence along the 12^th fairway separates the players and the tournament traffic on Second Ave. Inside the fence, a twosome of colorfully clad players walk intently up the fairway. Not too long ago, a similar group might have been accosted by a vagrant or another local down on his luck.

It seems a lifetime ago, thanks to a man with a vision and a community that has risen from the ashes of poverty and desperation.

ABOUT PETE McDANIEL

Pete McDaniel is a veteran golf writer and best-selling author. His blogs and books are available at petemcdaniel.com

Comments on this topic may be emailed directly to Pete at: [email protected] or visit his Facebook page.