Rosedale Cemetery, in the working-class New Jersey suburb of Linden, not far from New York City, houses a gravesite unlike any other: a 36-ton, life-size granite replica of a 1981 Mercedes-Benz 240D. The hulking monument marks the resting place of Raymond Tse, a car-lover who was only 15 when he died in 1983. Tse’s older brother, David, commissioned the Mercedes, complete with Ray’s name on the license plates, for a reported fee of $250,000, and had it installed behind the mausoleum where Ray is interred.  

Not all the graves at Rosedale are so conspicuous. When John Matthew Shippen Jr. was buried there in 1966, he was commemorated only by a slab of concrete demarcated by a number. No name, no birth or death year, no acknowledgment of Shippen’s deeply important place in golf history. Just a random numeral — 70 — assigned by the cemetery’s record-keepers.

***

IF YOU’RE UNFAMILIAR with Shippen, that’s kind of the point. For decades, he was the trailblazing golfer who time forgot — but who is certain to get some shine this week. That’s because the U.S. Open is for the sixth time returning to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club (est. 1891) on Long Island’s East End. In the first of those editions, in 1896, Shippen, then a 16-year-old assistant professional at Shinnecock, represented his club in a 35-player field made up largely of Scottish and English pros. Shippen’s youthfulness was not what made his appearance in the second-ever U.S. Open notable — his race was.

Shippen was born in Washington, D.C., in 1879 to a Shinnecock Indian mother and Black father. When John was 9, his father, John Sr., a Presbyterian minister and former slave, moved the family to the Southhampton, N.Y., area after he’d been assigned a ministry on the Shinnecock Indian Nation.

John Jr. began caddying at Shinnecock Hills, a course he’d helped build as a member of the crew that cleared the land. He was a fast study and a fine player. By 16, he had ascended to an assistant-pro role and soon after found himself in the field at the 1896 U.S Open, aided by Shinnecock members who covered his entry fee. Playing alongside Shippen was another trailblazer with the Shinnecock membership’s backing: Oscar Bunn, a Shinnecock Indian who, like Shippen, caddied at the club and developed an aptitude for the game.

Shippen and Bunn would become the first Black and Native American golfers, respectively, to play in a U.S. Open, though their starts didn’t come without resistance. When the other pros in the field learned that golfers of color would be competing, they threatened to boycott the championship. USGA president Theodore Havemeyer didn’t blink, proclaiming the event would proceed even if only two players remained on the tee sheet. The protesting pros stood down, and on July 18 the competitors dug in for the one-day, 36-hole contest.

In the morning round, Shippen shot 78 on the 4,400-yard setup, good enough for a six-way share of first at the midway point. His stellar play continued in the afternoon … until it didn’t. On the short par-4 13th — the same hole on which Phil Mickelson would melt down 122 years later, in the 2018 U.S. Open — Shippen missed right onto a sandy path. Things got uglier from there. Years later, Shippen, as quoted in Pete McDaniel’s “Uneven Lies: The Heroic Story on African-Americans in Golf,” said, “I kept hitting the ball along the road, unable to lift it out of the sand and wound up with an unbelievable 11 for the hole. You know, I’ve wished a hundred times I could have played that little par-4 again.”

An 11. Seven over.  

It’s silly to play the what-if game in golf, but, in this case, hard to resist. Shippen signed for an 81 in the second round to finish at 159, seven behind the winner, Scottish pro James Foulis. If Shippen had made par at 13 instead of a mess, who knows — today he might have his own wing at the World Golf Hall of Fame.

***

SHIPPEN WASN’T ONLY the first Black club professional but also the first American-born club pro, period. He played in five more U.S. Opens, his last in 1913, when another longshot, Francis Ouimet, famously prevailed at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. It would be another 35 years before another Black golfer would play in a U.S. Open (Ted Rhodes, 1948, Rivera); another 46 years before a Black golfer would make a cut at the U.S. Open (Charlie Sifford, 1959, Winged Foot); and another 87 years before a Black golfer would win a U.S. Open (Tiger Woods, 2000, Pebble Beach).   

Soon after Shippen’s U.S. Open debut at Shinnecock Hills, he landed the head-pro role at the Maidstone Club, just east of Shinnecock, before transitioning into the same job at Aronimink, the Philadelphia-area club that hosted the PGA Championship earlier this year. In 1924, Shippen took another head-pro post, settling into a club at which he would spend the bulk of his career: Shady Rest Country Club in Scotch Plains, N.J., where he taught golf and built clubs for 36 years.

Shady Rest, which opened three years before Shippen came aboard, was the first Black-owned country club in the U.S. The property offered nine holes of golf cut into a hillside and so much more: horseback riding, croquet, skeet shooting, a baseball diamond and tennis courts, where greats Althea Gibson and Ora Washington honed their games.

Shady Rest also had a lively social scene and was a popular venue for many top Black musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. Shippen, who lived on the second floor of Shady Rest’s clubhouse, was central to the club’s growth, as a manager, steward and ambassador. He never lost confidence in his game, either, challenging any comers a dollar that they couldn’t outdrive him. Few could.

Shippen lived to 88, spending his final days at a Newark nursing home, apparently with little savings. He was buried about 10 miles south, at Rosedale Cemetery, beneath an unmarked gravestone, which would remain unmarked for the next 29 years. It’s hard to fathom such an important figure in the game’s history resting in anonymity, but such was Shippen’s fate. The nondescript grave was symbolic of a larger injustice: the golf world’s general lack of recognition of Shippen’s accomplishments and contributions.

That began to change on Feb. 14, 1991, when the Newark Star-Ledger published an article by sportswriter Jerry Izenberg that detailed Shippen’s story and unheralded place in history.

“Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since his death,” Izenberg wrote, “but the life and times of John Shippen shamefully remains a patch of rarely recalled history. This comes to mind this morning because school systems everywhere are celebrating Black History Month but, in the town, where John Shippen died in 1968 nobody speaks his name, and no historical plaque marks his passing. Maybe there are too many other heroes whose stories are easier to tell or maybe there are times when it is simpler to create ersatz ones. It takes a little work to piece together his remarkable story.”

Scotch Plains residents Ruby and Thurman Simmons were prepared to do that work. When the Simmons were tipped off to Izenberg’s piece by a history professor of Ruby’s, honoring Shippen’s legacy became their calling. By this point, the course was owned and operated by the town of Scotch Plains and had been renamed Scotch Hills Country Club. The Simmons presented Shippen and Shady Rest’s stories to the city council and began a years-long lobbying campaign that resulted in an annual tournament, youth academy and foundation, all in Shippen’s name.

In 2015, the clubhouse underwent a $1.1 million restoration. In 2019, the township dedicated a room in the clubhouse to Shippen’s memory, filled with memorabilia, artifacts and news clippings. In 2021, the course was rechristened again, returning to its original name. “It is time, in my opinion, to right a wrong,” Scotch Plains Mayor Josh Losardo said at the time. The following year, the National Park Service granted Shady Rest a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Shippen’s resting place also got the respect it deserved.

***

IN THE EARLY DAYS of Thurman and Ruby Simmons’s quest to commemorate Shippen, Thurman couldn’t get past Shippen’s unremarkable burial site. “The haunting image of an unmarked grave at Rosedale Cemetery lingered in his mind, a stark reminder of Shippen’s forgotten history,” Ruby wrote in “A Golf Legend,” her and Thurman’s 2024 memoir of her and her husband’s pursuits.

Yet another wrong that needed to be righted, and Thurman dedicated himself to the cause.

“I thought I’m gonna do some research and try and find out where he is,” Thurman told me in a phone interview the other day; he’s 82 now and said he tires quickly. But over a 25-minute conversation, it was clear his passion for honoring Shippen has not waned.    

That research, over weeks, led Thurman to an old friend who owned a funeral home. As luck would have it, the home had Shippen’s resting place in its records.

“So I went to the cemetery and I asked in the office, where is John Shippen located?” Thurman continued. “They said, ‘Well, he’s over in this area called Sunny something.’”

That would be Sunnyside, a plot with hundreds, if not thousands, of graves on the northwest side of the 125-acre property. “So I went over there and walked the whole area for about an hour or so,” Thurman recalled. “Finally, I found a slab of concrete, and there was a number, 70.”

Shippen’s number. Thurman had found him.

Ruby’s recounting of her husband’s discovery offers more color. Again, from the couple’s memoir: “As he returned home, bursting through the door, he shouted to me: ‘I found the marker!’ The words hung in the air, resonating with the weight of the journey, and the significance of the revelation. Shippen, once lost in obscurity, now had a marker, a beacon to guide future generations to the remarkable story of the first American-born golf pro.”

Thurman took his find to the township, along with an ask to properly commemorate Shippen with a tombstone. “I went back to my committee, and I told them what I did,” Thurman said. “And they said, ‘Why do you want to do that?’ I said, ‘Because John Shippen did what he did over 100 years ago. He should be recognized in the world of golf. They hemmed and hawed, and they finally okayed it. It cost $800 to put the tombstone there. And that was it.”

You can visit the site. Shippen’s light-gray granite headstone stands about 3 feet tall, just to the right of a cedar tree and a stretch of unmarked graves. His stone reads:

JOHN SHIPPEN
1879 — 1968

THE FIRST AMERICAN BORN
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
GOLF PROFESSIONAL

GOLF PRO SHADY REST COUNTRY CLUB
1924 — 1960

In the bottom righthand corner, in smaller type, are a letter and three numbers that signify the grave’s location but also serve as a reminder of its formerly unidentified status: S-4-12-70.

Thurman said he was satisfied with the headstone. He also takes great pride in all that he and Ruby have been able to do to honor Shippen’s legacy. But, he said, so much more still needs to be done. A college event called The John Shippen has been awarding a PGA Tour and LPGA exemption since its 2021 founding, but Thurman would like to see a professional event in Shippen’s name that annually moves from state to state. He’d like to see a Shippen statue installed in front of the Shady Rest clubhouse. And generally, he’d like to hear Shippen’s name mentioned more frequently alongside the game’s other Black pioneers.

“It’s a shame that the golf world still don’t know who Shippen was,” Thurman said. “People who teach young kids about golf only talk about Tiger Woods, Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder, Mr. [Pete] Brown — they don’t talk about Shippen. … I watch golf on TV a lot. They don’t hardly mention that man’s name. They mention everybody else.”      

That will not be the case this week as the U.S. Open returns to Shippen’s old stomping grounds. Shippen look-backs, like the one you’re reading, will be published by many media outlets. But one week of attention, Thurman will tell you, cannot make up for decades of neglect.

“We wanted to correct this here wrong,” Thurman said of his and his wife’s mission to shine a light on Shippen. “The man should get his due for what he did.”

The 2026 RBC Canadian Open Concludes on Sunday with the final round at TPC Toronto. You can find full RBC Canadian Open tee times for Sunday’s fourth round at the bottom of this post.

RBC Canadian Open tee times: What to know

Wyndham Clark started his Saturday three and a half hours before the final group, six shots off the lead. He ended it with a third-round 63, leaving him just two shots off Jackson Suber’s lead and a ticket for the final group on Sunday.

After a win last month and a T3 last week at the Memorial, Clark is poised for his second win in three starts after a rough 2025 and a mixed bag to start 2026.

“I’ve actually played pretty solid golf most of the year, I just haven’t done it for consecutive rounds,” Clark said after his round Saturday. “And then the missing part has kind of been the putting. Since I switched to this Ping putter, it’s been amazing. Yeah, so now I feel like all the hard work I’ve put into my swing is paying off because when I hit the greens or hit it close I’m actually making the putts, where maybe earlier in the year I wasn’t.”

Clark won’t be the only chaser Sunday. Between him and Suber is Bud Cauley at 12 under and there are three other golfers tied with Clark at 11 under, including Tommy Fleetwood, who will play in the penultimate grouping.

Clark will tee off in the final round at 12:45 p.m. ET alongside Suber and Cauley. Tee times were adjusted to split tees and threesomes due to heavy overnight rains expected Saturday night.

You can watch Sunday’s final round of the 2026 RBC Canadian Open from 1-3 p.m. ET on Golf Channel followed by the CBS broadcast from 3-6 p.m. ET. PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will provide exclusive early streaming coverage starting on Saturday at 7:45 a.m. ET, in addition to featured group and featured hole coverage.

Check out the complete Round 4 tee times and groupings for the RBC Canadian Open below.

Hoping to wager on the RBC Canadian Open? Sign up for Fanatics Sportsbook with code “SUBPAR” to receive a special welcome offer.

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2026 RBC Canadian Open tee times for Sunday: Round 4 (ET)

Tee No. 1

10:30 a.m. – Kevin Yu, Chandler Phillips, Max McGreevy
10:41 a.m. – Neal Shipley, Ben Kohles, Tom Kim
10:52 a.m. – Keith Mitchell, Tony Finau, Sam Ryder
11:03 a.m. – Doug Ghim, Taylor Pendrith, Aldrich Potgieter
11:14 a.m. – Adam Hadwin, Alejandro Tosti, Collin Morikawa
11:25 a.m. – Matthew Anderson, Taylor Moore, Justin Matthews (a)
11:36 a.m. – Luke Clanton, Max Homa, William Mouw
11:47 a.m. – Robert MacIntyre, Shane Lowry, Sahith Theegala
11:58 a.m. – Viktor Hovland, David Skinns, Matt Fitzpatrick
12:09 p.m. – Ryan Fox, Sam Burns, Jacob Bridgeman
12:20 p.m. – Billy Horschel, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Jimmy Stanger
12:31 p.m. – Brice Garnett, Tommy Fleetwood, Jesper Svensson
12:42 p.m. – Jackson Suber, Bud Cauley, Wyndham Clark

Tee No. 10

10:30 a.m. – Brooks Koepka, Matthieu Pavon, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
10:41 a.m. – Beau Hossler, Davis Thompson, Erik van Rooyen
10:52 a.m. – Alex Fitzpatrick, Harry Hall, Emiliano Grillo
11:03 a.m. – A.J. Ewart, Takumi Kanaya, Ben Silverman
11:14 a.m. – Michael Thorbjornsen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Kevin Roy
11:25 a.m. – Keita Nakajima, Dylan Wu, Patrick Fishburn
11:36 a.m. – Johnny Keefer, Denny McCarthy, Kristoffer Reitan
11:47 a.m. – Adam Svensson, Ricky Castillo, Ben James
11:58 a.m. – Vince Whaley, Kensei Hirata, Joey Savoie
12:09 p.m. – Joe Highsmith, Paul Peterson, Haotong Li
12:20 p.m. – Calen Sanderson, Chandler Blanchet, Lanto Griffin
12:31 p.m. – Jeremy Paul, Austin Eckroat, Nick Taylor

The 2026 RBC Canadian Open continues on Friday with the second round at TPC Toronto. You can find full RBC Canadian Open tee times for Friday’s second round at the bottom of this post.

RBC Canadian Open tee times: What to know

Justin Rose may be 45 years old, but he’s certainly playing like he’s much younger so far in 2026.

Rose won the Farmers Insurance Open in January for his 13th career PGA Tour title. Despite switching to all-new McLaren Golf irons mid-season, he’s continued to play well.

The former U.S. Open champion finished T3 at the 2026 Masters, T10 at the PGA Championship and T12 at last week’s Memorial Tournament. Now he’s hoping to build momentum in Canada for a run at his second U.S. Open title next week.

After starting the RBC Canadian Open early on Thursday, Rose will switch to an afternoon tee time for Round 2.

Rose will tee off for the second round on at 12:48 p.m. ET alongside Collin Morikawa and Aaron Rai.

You can watch Friday’s second round of the 2026 RBC Canadian Open from 3-6 p.m. ET on Golf Channel. PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will provide exclusive early streaming coverage starting on Friday at 7 a.m. ET, in addition to featured group and featured hole coverage.

Check out the complete Round 2 tee times and groupings for the RBC Canadian Open below.

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With an ESPN+ subscription, you gain access to PGA Tour Live, where you can stream the best PGA Tour events live from wherever you want.

2026 RBC Canadian Open tee times for Friday: Round 2 (ET)

Tee No. 1

7:00 a.m. – Seamus Power, Chad Ramey, Vince Whaley
7:11 a.m. – Andrew Putnam, Ben Martin, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
7:22 a.m. – Nick Dunlap, Tom Hoge, Rico Hoey
7:33 a.m. – Brian Campbell, Cam Davis, Alex Noren
7:44 a.m. – Steven Fisk, Jhonattan Vegas, Max Homa
7:55 a.m. – Adam Schenk, Aldrich Potgieter, Harry Hall
8:06 a.m. – Joel Dahmen, Mark Hubbard, Johnny Keefer
8:17 a.m. – Austin Eckroat, Tom Kim, Jordan Smith
8:28 a.m. – Jackson Suber, Neal Shipley, Ben James
8:39 a.m. – Trace Crowe, Keita Nakajima, Dawson Lew -a
8:50 a.m. – Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Davis Chatfield, Jeevan Sihota
9:01 a.m. – Sean O’Hair, Jeffrey Kang, Christo Lamprecht
9:12 a.m. – Jesper Svensson, John VanDerLaan, Matthew Anderson
12:15 p.m. – Keith Mitchell, Kevin Roy, Dylan Wu
12:26 p.m. – Austin Smotherman, Danny Walker, Roger Sloan
12:37 p.m. – Peter Malnati, Matt Wallace, Takumi Kanaya
12:48 p.m. – Aaron Rai, Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose
12:59 p.m. – Tommy Fleetwood, Sahith Theegala, Corey Conners
1:10 p.m. – Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Sudarshan Yellamaraju
1:21 p.m. – Jacob Bridgeman, Taylor Pendrith, Stephan Jaeger
1:32 p.m. – Denny McCarthy, Bud Cauley, Max Greyserman
1:43 p.m. – Matthieu Pavon, Adam Svensson, Thorbjørn Olesen
1:54 p.m. – David Skinns, Dan Brown, Eric Zhao -a
2:05 p.m. – Hayden Springer, Kensei Hirata, Yohann Benson
2:16 p.m. – Kris Ventura, Zecheng Dou, Ashton McCulloch

Tee No. 10

7:00 a.m. – Erik van Rooyen, Emiliano Grillo, Padraig Harrington
7:11 a.m. – Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Hadwin, Mike Weir
7:22 a.m. – Eric Cole, Michael Thorbjornsen, Chandler Phillips
7:33 a.m. – Ryan Fox, Nick Taylor, Brooks Koepka
7:44 a.m. – Wyndham Clark, Kristoffer Reitan, Sam Burns
7:55 a.m. – Alex Fitzpatrick, Robert MacIntyre, Shane Lowry
8:06 a.m. – Kevin Yu, Davis Riley, Nicolai Højgaard
8:17 a.m. – Patton Kizzire, Doug Ghim, David Lipsky
8:28 a.m. – John Parry, Marcelo Rozo, Declan O’Donovan
8:39 a.m. – Haotong Li, Chandler Blanchet, Justin Matthews -a
8:50 a.m. – Alejandro Tosti, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Vince Covello
9:01 a.m. – Patrick Fishburn, Paul Peterson, Drew Nesbitt
12:15 p.m. – Ben Silverman, Matti Schmid, Mac Meissner
12:26 p.m. – Danny Willett, Justin Lower, Hank Lebioda
12:37 p.m. – Rafael Campos, Sam Ryder, Max McGreevy
12:48 p.m. – Michael Brennan, Garrick Higgo, Tony Finau
12:59 p.m. – William Mouw, Karl Vilips, Charley Hoffman
1:10 p.m. – Davis Thompson, Billy Horschel, Chris Kirk
1:21 p.m. – Ricky Castillo, Joe Highsmith, Lucas Glover
1:32 p.m. – Camilo Villegas, Taylor Moore, Lanto Griffin
1:43 p.m. – Brice Garnett, Lee Hodges, Beau Hossler
1:54 p.m. – Zach Bauchou, Paul Waring, Laurent Desmarchais
2:05 p.m. – A.J. Ewart, Luke Clanton, Joey Savoie
2:16 p.m. – Jimmy Stanger, Pontus Nyholm, Calen Sanderson