Our Hangout Place

Quail Hollow will receive all the national attention this month, but across town a nine-hole course with a remarkable history is named for golf legend Charlie Sifford—and itremains the course for everyone

- Jodie Valade

YEARS AGO, before the golf course was renovated and reconfigured, and before it earned a regal new name, Cletis Dozier came to Revolution Park because it was where he felt welcome.

Other golf courses in the Charlotte area might have had lusher fairways or smoother greens. Other courses might have been more prestigious and elegant. But in the 1970s, Dozier lived in the Westover Hills neighborhood near the Revolution Park course, just outside uptown. All of his friends and neighbors came here for golf and “fellowship,” as Dozier calls the socializing he did while lounging in the clubhouse. He felt at home.

In a sport that skews white, Revolution Park was a haven for black golfers in the last half of the 20th century—a fact made even more interesting when you consider that for years before that, they were forbidden from playing here.

Just down the street were Southside Homes and Brookhill Village, subsidized housing communities where many who frequented the course lived. Interstate 77 prevented the fairways from advancing beyond nine holes. A bit down the road from the entrance was a dump. Revolution Park wasn’t the most picturesque from the outside, but it was perfect, as far as the regulars were concerned.

“All the neighborhood guys would hang out and talk trash to one another and play golf and brag,” Dozier says. “It was just sort of a gathering place for the African American guys who wanted to get involved with golf and have fun together.”