History and hope on Joe Bart
Course in New Orleans
The following story was written by
Darren Carroll and published on USGA.
org and lgagolf.org.
I’ve been fortunate when it
comes to golf. I grew up learning
the game at a private club on Long
Island, and my career as a magazine
photographer has allowed me
to combine my appreciation of
the game with the opportunity
to capture the sport at its highest
levels. Over the past 15 years, I’ve
been lucky enough to document
major championships on the great
American courses, the storied links
of the Open rota and other famed
venues.
So when a friend at the USGA
asked me to produce a photo essay
about a little municipal course I
had never heard of, tucked into
a neighborhood on the shore of
Lake Pontchartrain in a part of
New Orleans I never knew existed,
I must confess to thinking not much
would come of it. I never expected
this little out-of-the-way track
would have such a fascinating story
to tell.
Joseph M. Bartholomew Sr.
Municipal Golf Course is a
mouthful – perhaps that’s why
regulars simply call it Joe Bart.
But more than just a person and
a place, the lengthy name evokes
everything from golf to course
architecture to race relations to
natural disasters to navigating the
politics of city government. It’s
a history of community building
(and rebuilding), and passing on
the story of a quiet, unassuming
individual who helped build that
community through golf.
First, some background on Joseph
M. Bartholomew Sr. He was born
in 1881, and by age 7 was working
as a caddie at Audubon Golf Club
in New Orleans, where he studied
and copied players’ swings so well
that he eventually shot the course
record (62), presumably on the one
day a week that blacks were allowed
to play. At Audubon, he was taken
under the wing of head pro (and
1908 U.S. Open champion) Fred
McLeod, promoted to equipment
manager and greenkeeper, and
eventually hired away by Metairie
(La.) Country Club. The members
there were so impressed with
his course design skills that they
commissioned him to build their
new course – but first, they sent him
East to study course architecture
under Seth Raynor.
He returned in 1922 and built
the new Metairie course according
to plans supplied by Raynor. It
opened to accolades in 1925,
and according to club history,
Bartholomew was its first pro, from
1925-36. But there still weren’t
many, if any, courses that blacks in
New Orleans could play regularly.
In 1956, Bartholomew, now a
successful businessman with his
own construction firm, changed all
that by building one for them.
Joe Bart regular Burnell
Scales, 71, grew up in the same
neighborhood as Bartholomew,
caddied at Audubon as a kid, and
had nowhere to play. “We had to
make our own golf courses,” he
recalled. “We’d go down to the
levees, or dig some holes in our
neighborhood. That’s where we
would practice our game.
Others sought out more
formal conditions. Joe Hall, 75,
remembered sneaking on at
Metairie, where he was a caddie.
One member had an interesting
method of deterrence. “He had
two bulldogs, and if he saw us he’d
turn them loose on us. We’d have
to jump into the canal to get away.”
Hall is the vice president of the
Friends of Joe Bartholomew, an
organization d