Coach Martin rides the PGA Tour roller coaster

Langston has long been the home of black golfers in and around Washington, D.C.

When you walk in the door, the fine dining restaurant announces itself. Fried garlic from the open-air kitchen. (L'Angelo, corner Potter and Rosewood, South Philadelphia.) Pouring red wine on a nearby table. (Piatti, Avenida de la Playa, La Jolla Shores, California) Chocolate mousse passes on a cork tray. (Lion's Rock, E. 77th Street, NYC, permanently closed.) So, in a different way, so does your better specialty store.

I entered the store at Langston Golf Course, close to busy Benning Road, not far from RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, without any expectations. (This was expected in 1999.) This is one of the best.

If you don't know, Langston has always been the hometown of black golfers in the area, dating back to an era more defined by color lines than these. Lee Elder is already a legend on the tour and has been its teaching expert and manager for many years. The Howard University golf team under construction, funded by Stephen Curry, will make Langston its home field. Bowelling, the golf course architect who worked with Tiger Woods, is considering refurbishing the course, which is owned by the National Park Service and managed by a new organization called the National Links Trust.

Celebrating moment after the game in Langston in 1946.

Langston's future is so bright and needs shadows. The specialty store I walked into on Saturday was a time capsule.

There are no clubs for sale. For now, catering services are limited, which is a tribute to these strange times. 

What surprised me was the powerful, understanding and proud nod to the black golfing experience in this country. A photo of Tiger Woods crouching under the brim of his black Nike hat to put on, when he is at the highest point of smoldering intensity. A painting depicting Charlie Seaford, Calvin Pitt, Jim Thorpe, Lee Elder, Jim Dent, and Tiger. A plaque and portrait of John Mercer Langston, a 19th-century American educator, politician, and lawyer, and the uncle of the poet Langston Hughes. Maybe you read "Dream" in high school:

Hold on to your dreams because when your dreams are shattered, life is a wilderness frozen by snow.

I can't imagine Earl Woods, with his superb wisdom, not knowing the works of Langston Hughes, or the history of John Mercer Langston, or the contribution of the City Stadium to the game. At the end of the Vietnam War, he participated in the game at Dyke Beach Stadium in Brooklyn. The knitting of military experience and black golf experience is performed as brilliantly as the figure-of-eight knitting of Harlem Globetrotters. Without Dyke Beach GC, there are no 15 Grand Slam titles related to Woods' name. In any case, this is my opinion.

Ben Foster, on the far left, is a familiar face in the Langston store.

Artwork on the corner shelf.

(And, while we are here: Happy belated Veterans’ Day, I wish all the veterans who find their way here. Thank you-much more than any of us said. Almost every major club manufacturer is an active soldier. Offer discounts.)

What shocked me at the Langston store was the two black men who happened to be behind the counter that afternoon—Ben Foster and Ernie Andrews. They are Penn and Teller of Langston. Not in the magic sense, but in the conversation sense. Mr. Andrews was as taciturn as Mr. Foster. Ernie Andrews is a legendary teacher in Langston. Do you want to learn the correct grip? Ernie is your man. Do you want to imitate the rhythm? Ernie is your man. If you let him start, he can go deep about golf and Langston and everything else. On the practice range, he will teach you to swing, you can swing without hurting you. How could it be the starting point!

This is another starting point. "Practicing range, this is our top priority," Welling told me the other day. A college golf team (Howard in this example) needs a range that can complete its work at dawn and throughout the day.

PSA of Nat'l Links Trust: The group is raising funds to renovate three historic stadiums in the area: Langston (Welling), East Potomac (hosted by Tom Doak) and Rock Creek (hosted by Gil Hanse). This is completely unpaid work.

Stephen Curry is funding the Howard University golf team, which will make Langston its home court.

By the way, you can find a caddie in Langston. Not now, but in the season. There are about a dozen local children working as caddies there, and the Western Golf Association, the administrator of the Evans Scholars Foundation, pays the caddy fees. If you want, you can give a tip. An old friend of Lee Elder, a legendary caddy named Richard “Jelly” Hansberry, is the mentor of the project. "These kids are beginning to understand," he told me.

In other words, the value that appears, the fun of cash, the fun of the game, the lessons of playing with grumpy old golfers.

Ben Foster is slender and beautiful in shape. He is wearing maroon plaid pants, fuchsia trench coat and purple baseball cap that only he, Rickie Fowler and the late Cal Peete can take off. He is a retired publication salesperson (and other commercial activities), and he actively participates in a project called "Golf My Future", dedicated to introducing this game to people in hard-to-reach corners. This person is full of personality. Before golf became a business, golf shops used to be crowded with people like this, behind the counter.

Do you want a gray Langston golf course hat? Ben would rather see you wearing blue. Give him a minute.

No, brother—unexpectedly. But you know what? The gray one will suit you well.

I'm everywhere here. I realize this, and you haven't even set foot on the golf course that opened about 100 years ago. We will save it for another time. For now, this is definitely a playable and enjoyable course. Welling pointed out that he and his people will not go to Harding Park here-turn a nice public stadium into a stadium where you can host the Presidents Cup. Good decision. Welling will tell you what every smart golfer will tell you: a golf course requires you to be able to walk, find the ball, and play in a reasonable time and at a reasonable price.

Foster took me to his car, an old black Audi, as big as a whale, in good condition, with a golf shop in the trunk. But he didn't have what he wanted, the new Langston Golf Course scorecard.

"I'll mail one to you!" he said.

I was knocked down. again.

First, each hole is named after an iconic black golfer. The first is John Shipon. The seventh place is Ann Gregory. The 14th place is Pete Brown. When I met Brown, he was dying and lived with his wife in a house in Augusta, Georgia. The house was Jim Dent. You know who is named after the 18th place.

The cards are gorgeous. The back seat tee is called Royal, representing Langston's historic men's golf club. The forward tee is called Wake-Robin and represents the historic women's golf club in Langston. In the lower left corner is a dotted line, you can prove it-proof! -Give your score. The ink is black and red, and there is no wax in the paper material, so it is so heavy that it can easily absorb pencil marks. A good scorecard pencil contains 2B lead. In other words, on the soft side.

Why would anyone want to keep score on the phone?

I saw the card and called Colin Sheen, golf coach at Yale University. He is an expert on scorecards. It turned out that he designed this new Langston card. God loves him.

It is not meant to be a daily scorecard. This is a special occasion scorecard.

It is modeled on the old United States National Golf Course scorecard;

It was printed on the 120-year-old printing press of Dexterity Press in New Haven.

Eggshell paper is from the 110-pound inventory of Mohawk Paper in Cojos, New York;

It is not meant to be a daily scorecard. This is a special occasion scorecard. This is your first score below 100!

Welling will supervise the removal of a large number of (literally) invasive plants, and then the stadium will enjoy a beautiful view of the Annacostia River. Choosing to remove trees allows grass to grow where it is most needed on the golf course-such as on the green. After the work is completed, Langston should drain better than ever before.

Coach Sheehan put forward a good point: the earliest golf is city golf. St Andrews is located on the edge of the town. People walked towards it. You don’t need horses, bicycles or cars. On the edge of the city, in the air, in the sky, underneath is a green carpet. Urban golf.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com.

Michael Bamberger writes for GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. Prior to this, he served as a senior writer in Sports Illustrated for nearly 23 years. After graduating from college, he worked as a newspaper reporter, first in the (Martha's) Vineyard Bulletin and later in the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has written many books on golf and other topics, the most recent one is Tiger Woods' Second Life. His magazine work has appeared in several editions of America's Best Sports Writing. He holds the US patent of The E-Club for multifunctional golf clubs. In 2016, he was awarded the Donald Rose Award by the American Association of Golf Course Architects, which is the organization's highest honor.

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