The golf club house that once denied Eddie Manderville may soon take his name

Eddie Manderville in an undated photo. Photo courtesy of Martha Arradondo

By David Pierini, Editor

Eddie Manderville died in 2020, but friends say his spirit still walks the fairways of the Theodore Wirth Golf Club. Those friends want Manderville’s name to live on more tangibly as they campaign to have his name above the clubhouse that once denied him access because of the color of his skin.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board held the first public hearing on April 6 after a formal request was submitted to rename the Swiss chalet-style clubhouse after the groundbreaking golfer who lived in North Minneapolis.

The renaming of park property is a two-year process. A final hearing is scheduled for September 2023 and a final vote would take place by the end of that year.

To call Manderville a golfer doesn’t adequately address his contributions to the game. Manderville mastered several sports, from football and boxing to skiing and archery. But he did not hold a golf club until the age of 26 when he first set foot on the course at Theodore Wirth. He was hooked after that first round.

He practiced for hours and hours on putting greens and the driving range. He was initially denied access to the clubhouse but as his game grew, Manderville was instrumental in desegregating the Men’s Association at the club.

The chalet that could be renamed for Eddie Manderville. Minneapolis Park and Recreation photo.

Over a 60-year career, he held several positions with the club and co-found Black Women on Course (BWOC). As a recruiter and instructor, BWOC has more than 200 members, many who first learned the game from Manderville.

“Eddie was in hospice, on his deathbed and still coaching me, telling me (about competitors) and saying, ‘I know you can beat this person,’” said Martha Arradondo, a BWOC co-founder who submitted the request to rename the clubhouse Eddie Manderville Chalet. “This is all about Eddie and what he’s done.”

Manderville won several golf tournaments and his license plate advertised his knack for hitting the rare hole in one. Manderville hit 11 of them over the course of his career, his last one when he was 85. In 2013, lightning struck twice for Manderville as he hit back-to-back holes in one on Wirth’s Par-3 course. The odds of hitting back-to-back holes in one are 17 million to 1, according to a national registry that tracks the fabled shot.

He was a first-class hustler who loved to play for money and, thus, earned him the nickname Fast Eddie.

“I remember losing lots of money to him on the putting green,” Doug Jordal said at the hearing. “I got to know Eddie really well. He was a kind, wonderful person. After I played with him a lot, he said ‘You can play with me anytime.’ That meant a lot.”

Arradondo and Jordan were among a handful of speakers at the hearing,

Pam Stoddard remembers walking with fellow BWOC members to begin play in the Upper Midwest Bronze Amateur tournament and hearing Manderville say, “There go my girls!”

“He’s a person who leaves a footprint on your life and keeps you going forward in the journey, even though he’s not here,” Stoddard said. “I really would appreciate Eddie as a people’s golfer being considered for that chalet.”