How boxer Joe Louis, an actress turned activist and Gil Hanse play into one of the USGA’s most intriguing projects

“That’s the power of this game. This is a very big game. This game can change your life because it puts you with great people.”

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Now the second district supervisor for Los Angeles County, Holly Mitchell smiles while admitting she might not have possessed a driver’s license when she first learned to scoot around on a golf cart in and around Maggie Hathaway Golf Course, a short track that has proved to be a gateway into the game for many South L.A. residents.

Not only did a young Mitchell brush up on her driving skills at the par-3, 9-hole loop that sits inside Jesse Owens Park on the corner of Century Boulevard and Western Avenue, but she knew the course’s namesake.

And in this neighborhood, that’s a major point of pride.

Hathaway was inspirational on multiple levels, a person with so many talents, she seemingly could do anything she put her mind to. A blues singer who scored multiple Hollywood acting roles, the Louisiana native took up the game of golf after ribbing legendary boxer Joe Louis during a pro-am event held at Griffith Park in 1955. After Louis stuck the green on a short par-4, Hathaway joked that she wasn’t impressed with the feat. The heavyweight champ said he’d buy her a set of golf clubs if she could do the same. And in her first-ever golf swing, Hathaway did just that, sparking a love of the sport that would stay with her until her passing in 2001.

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Hathaway began writing golf columns in the local weekly paper just three years after she caught the golf itch and later founded an organization that helped support young Black golfers.

In 1997, the Jack Thompson Golf Course was renamed in her honor, and the course is now a consistent hub for activity, as well as a participating site for the Southern California Golf Association’s Junior Golf Foundation.

So when the USGA announced it would help kickstart the renovation of the popular course by donating $1 million, part of what organizers hope will raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 million, Mitchell was ecstatic to help lead.

“You know, the county has got a lot on our plate. We’re partnering with the mayor and the city of L.A. to try to provide resources to our unhoused population,” said Mitchell, who pointed out that she grew up in a home that embraced the game. “So to be able to have additional private resources step up to help government in a real partnership to make that course the diamond that it should be in South Los Angeles gives me a great sense of pride.”

The project is ambitious, to say the least. The SCGA and the membership at Los Angeles Country Club, the host venue of the 123rd U.S. Open, are helping to secure the necessary funding that will continue junior golf programs for years to come, even after esteemed architect Gil Hanse provides some pro bono design work. USGA CEO Mike Whan touted the project to the media back in May, and believes the investments will help transform the course into a showpiece not just for the neighborhood, but the entire city.

Fred Perpall, who became the first black president of the USGA in 2023, said during Wednesday’s press conference that the collaboration puts the magic of golf on display.

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“We’re proud this year to invest $1 million along with our partners at the Los Angeles Country Club to restore this golf course, to provide an oasis in this community for the kids and the adults to have a place to play golf,” Perpall said. “That’s the power of this game. This is a very big game. This game can change your life because it puts you with great people. This game changed my life, and I’m sure like many of you, this changed your life, as well.

“These programs kind of are at the core of Mike and our management team’s unify, showcase, govern and advance strategy, one we’re proud of, and one that we continue to work tirelessly on.”

Whan, who speaks with passion on almost anything, finds an extra gear when he waxes poetic about Glen and Mary Porter, who have led programs at the golf course — voluntarily, in Hathaway’s honor — for two decades.

“If you want to meet an angel that walks on this Earth, meet Mary Porter,” Whan said. “These are powerful people. We talk about this (U.S. Open) trophy on Sunday is going to change somebody’s life — and I promise you, it’s going to change somebody’s life — but what’s really happening around this U.S. Open, with Maggie Hathaway and Gil Hanse, they’re changing lives.

“That’s what makes this trophy so much cooler than just the guy who lifts it.”

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