Word: palmers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...first tee is filled with foursomes; on the practice green, more players stand poised over putts. The game may be golf, but it bears scant resemblance to the pastime of the country-club set. The scene is Detroit's Palmer Park Municipal Golf Course, and among its players are some of the city's best-and best-known-black golfers. The aim is action, bankrolls are at the ready, and the style is straight soul. Indeed, to play Palmer Park is to take a lesson in lively ethnic semantics...
...action is swift, and the stakes can reach several hundred dollars. Regulars bent on a killing will make apparently fatal concessions. Bus Driver Dave Brown, a Palmer Park legend, used to play hackers while standing on one foot, a trick he could perform and still come close to ducking the card...
Unwitting hackers take their lumps from other Palmer Park fixtures such as "Sugar Jim," "Hookin' Walker," the "Prime Minister" and "Clean" Hunkey Clay. Then there is "Stabbing" Eddie Suns, so named because his swing has no follow-through. Sims takes no divots, the experts say. "He digs foundations." Needing a birdie on the par-three ninth hole one day to salvage a tie, Sims boomed a pitchout toward Woodward Avenue. The ball hit the fence, ricocheted back and fell into the cup for a win. The Rev. Floyd Moore resorts to higher tactics. "You know I love the Lord...
Even the few black pros who have made the big-time tour have had their troubles with the regulars at Palmer. After the 1967 Buick Open, Charlie Sifford made tracks for the old park. "He came here and lost four days in a row," remembers one regular. "Then he went to Hartford and won the tournament...
...Palmer Park became the most popular of Detroit's six city courses after Motown Recording Stars Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye took up the game in the mid-'60s. Today's players include a cross-section of teachers, policemen, doctors, auto workers and judges. There is no color barrier, however, and up to 40% of its players are white...