Fletcher golf's first African American player walks down memory lane

  • Rodney McIntyre stands at a putting green in the '60s. (photo courts of the Beaches Museum)
    Rodney McIntyre stands at a putting green in the '60s. (photo courts of the Beaches Museum)
  • Rodney McIntyre stands in his golf room at his house. (photo by Liza Mitchell)
    Rodney McIntyre stands in his golf room at his house. (photo by Liza Mitchell)

Shifting tides changed the cultural landscape at the Beaches in the early '60s when African American students once bussed across town were open to attend school on the island where they grew up.
By 1967, desegregation was still a young concept, but students like Rodney McIntyre found common ground on the athletic field. At Fletcher High School, 16-year-old McIntyre of Jacksonville Beach made waves as the first African American member of Fletcher High School’s golf team.
For his first experience in an integrated school, McIntyre wasted no time getting involved with athletics. Demonstrating his athletic prowess leveled the playing field amongst the other students. McIntyre upped his game by joining the school’s all-white golf team and he quickly became a stand out player, earning MVP two years running. But not all greens were open to him.
“I played baseball, football, track and wrestling, but I know I was the best in golf. I was interested in golf before I got to Fletcher. That’s why I played. I started playing about sixth grade. It was just something I started doing and I kept on and kept on until I got good,” he said. “Jax Beach Golf Course is where I got my first golf club and I learned how to hit it straight. It used to be blacks couldn’t play. We couldn’t go out there unless we were carrying a bag for somebody. That’s how it was. At Jax Beach, at 12 or 1 o’clock, I would sneak out there and be putting just as good as I wanted to. But when you see a car coming, you got to run.”
As the school’s first – and, for decades after, only – African American member of the golf team, McIntyre was voted Most Valuable Player in 1967 and 1968, but inequality was the biggest handicap because private clubs often refused to let him play during a school tournament.
The team practiced at the Jacksonville Beach public course and at the Mayport Naval Station, but they were not always welcomed when the team travelled for tournaments.
“I teed off last with the best golfer from the other school and they came up and thrown me off of the golf course,” recalled McIntyre. “This man came out there and said ‘ain’t no black people playing out on this golf course.’ People didn’t know a black person was on the golf team and they didn’t allow blacks playing on no courses. When they saw a black person was on their golf course, they went crazy.”
The team rallied in his defense, but McIntyre said his mother had a decidedly different perspective on the situation.
“My mama said, ‘I told you not to get on that golf team.’ he knew integration wasn’t all together then. It was too new,” he said. “The rest of the Fletcher boys said ‘if our number one ain’t playing then we ain’t playing either.’ That’s the worse experience I ever had as a young kid. I wasn’t nothing but 16.”
McIntyre went to school at Jacksonville Beach Elementary School No. 144, where African American students attended elementary through ninth grade. Despite the Supreme Court Ruling in 1954, the state of Florida had yet to fully embrace segregation once he reached high school. African American students living at the Beaches were bussed across town to Douglas Anderson, which was the “black school,” he said. Fletcher High School was integrated by the time he reached his junior year, though the transition to his “home” school was not an easy one.
“They bussed everyone from the black school to the white school in ’67 so everything was tense. Everybody didn’t know how to get along with everyone else. Whites and blacks were separated. They didn’t want us there and we didn’t want to be there. We wanted to stay in our own black school but they bussed us so we had to go,” explained McIntyre. “It was rough at first but it got better. Some of them was nice. Some of them was a jerk. You know how that is. In varsity football, I ran five touchdowns in one game. And when I did that, they came around. People wanted you to win the football game.”
McIntyre’s teammates were never off put at the notion of playing alongside “a black kid from the black school,” McIntyre said. To them, he was just another member of the team.
“It wasn’t something we really thought about, as far as on the golf team anyway. He was just another player. He was a better player than I was. He played number one or two and I was four or five, but we all got along,” said former teammate Randy DeLoach of Jacksonville Beach.
Deloach remembered standing by his friend. The team was not concerned with the politics of the day. They were focused on playing the game and supporting their teammate, even if it meant taking a loss.
“There were certain golf courses we couldn’t play because Rodney was on our team. So, we had to reschedule our games against other schools because certain schools played at private clubs and Rodney couldn’t play there. We’d reschedule those games for our Beaches course or we had to find a different public course like Brentwood or Hyde Park,” he said. “At one time, I remember they said you can play the other high school but Rodney can’t play and we said ‘well, that’s not going to work.’ Besides him being deemed one of the better players, we’d just either forfeit or go play somewhere else. It wasn’t even a question of what we were going to do.”
After graduation, McIntyre received a full four-year scholarship for golf to Perryview, Texas, but he pursued a higher calling, graduating in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in theology from Edward Waters College.
“I went into the ministry,” he said.
He met his wife, Joyce, and the two married in 1977.
Even with a young, growing family, McIntyre played golf every at every chance. He even taught his wife how to play. They would go play a round out at Jacksonville Beach, but while Joyce found the game relaxing, she would get frustrated when her husband hit the ball so far, she would lose sight of it.
“Keep your eye on the ball,” she said. “That’s the first thing he taught me.”
His skills were well-known throughout the neighborhood. People would often come knocking on the door looking for Rodney to give them pointers or a quick lesson.
“All the time,” said Joyce. “Where’s Rodney at? I need him to show me how to hit the ball straight. He’d take them into the back and then they’d go on their way.”
McIntyre maintained his passion for the sport and established a lengthy career in golf course maintenance at such courses as Selva Marina, Marsh Landing and Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, where he spent 22 years. He also worked at the TPC course where he recalled diving into the murky waters surrounding the famed 17th hole, coming up with hundreds of errant golf balls.
Buckets of balls are still stashed away in “Rodney’s Golf Room,” spelled out in foam letters on the face of the wooden door of his Jacksonville Beach home. Inside is a veritable shrine to his love of the game. Photos of Tiger Woods and Calvin Peete hang on walls covered in wallpaper picturing mini golf clubs. Peete was the the Tiger Woods of the 1980s, winning 12 tournaments on the PGA Tour, including The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra in 1985. McIntyre framed the front page of the newspaper celebrating Woods’ historic Masters’ win.
“When Tiger won, I thought right then he was going to open up some doors,” he said.
In May 2012, McIntyre suffered a debilitating stroke. But he kept his eye on the ball, determined to walk again despite the odds stacked against him.  Today at 68, he walks with the aid of a cane and often sits in his front yard swinging a club to build up strength in his right arm and keep his love of the game alive.
“On weekends, if you wanted me, you had to find a golf course. I still want to get back out there,” he said. “I enjoyed every minute of it.”