Making Change

A local golfer known for his putting wagers turned his love for the game into much more for his community.

Minnesota

Local golf icon “Fast Eddie” Manderville was known to enjoy a money game when playing a round or putting for quarters on Theodore Wirth GC practice green. According to his cousin, Jamez Staples, he was an “equal opportunist” when it came to identifying a mark and fleecing them with his smooth putting stroke. Perhaps the better hustle was that Eddie’s marks still appreciate him long after he took their money—because his legacy in the game far outpaces his reputation for mining his competitor’s quarters.

Case in point: On April 6, the Minneapolis Park Board held an open hearing on a proposal to rename the Wirth GC chalet for Eddie Manderville (who died in 2020 at age 88), and several people stood up in the crowded hearing room (many were also on hand to comment on the future of Hiawatha GC) to give testimony in support of the measure. Doug Jordal said the following:

“I have been playing golf for a long time and I had the privilege of playing with Eddie Manderville many times. I am honored to be here to speak in favor of renaming the chalet the ‘Eddie Manderville Chalet.’ He was a great guy. I remember losing lots of money to him on the putting green.”

By all accounts, to know Eddie Manderville was to be his friend—not because he created the weekly gathering of the WPA (Wirth Putting Association) to relieve his friends of their spare change, but he was a character and one who treated everyone with respect and friendship. Manderville grew up a talented archer and boxer in North Minneapolis and he stayed a friend and ally to the area his entire life.

“He was just really a kind, gentle guy,” said Henry Crosby of his friend. “The last time I was out with him, my grandsons came along and he was so kind to them to encourage them to maybe hang around with Grandpa and play a little golf. He was a very classy guy. I’ve never heard anything derogatory from him; he was always upbeat and uplifting. Spiritually, he was grounded in his own way, but he loved the North-side and loved the people who played golf with him.”

Breaking Barriers
Manderville discovered golf at age 26 when the game took hold of him, and he quickly played it with increasing skill. But doing so was not easy for an African American golfer. Manderville had to break into the game—which took courage, determination and a winning personality. But challenging norms was nothing new to him; Manderville married his wife (of 60 years), Lorraine, a white woman, at a time when that was looked down upon. He told his black friends he was going to join a men’s club when that, too, wasn’t done. But he ultimately was credited with integrating the men’s club at Wirth GC at a time when most Twin Cities golf clubs didn’t allow black members.

“That speaks to the personality and character of Eddie,” Staples said. “He’s going to walk up and he’s going to smile and he’s going to talk to you. I know some people are confrontational; he wasn’t confrontational at all. He wanted it all to be easy-going, ‘let’s have a good time.’ Eddie liked to have a good time.”

Once in the door, Manderville became a fixture at the course. And when the other members saw him play, they were even more impressed. Manderville had big, strong hands that helped him hit the ball a long way. But they were soft and effective at “putting for dough.” And in the game of golf, those two skills can be a lethal combination and Manderville’s golf resume is proof: 

He won the 1972 Gross Invitational with his first sub-par round in competition, a 2-under 69. He also won the 1983 MPGA Senior Public Links Championship and the 1987 MGA Senior Amateur Four-Ball Championship’s senior division title with partner Dick Bolin. Manderville qualified and played in the U.S. Senior Open (1986), and the U.S. Senior Amateur (1991), he finished runner-up five out of six years at the Upper Midwest Bronze Amateur (1985-1991) and he won on the MGA Senior Tour (1998).

A Passion for Teaching
Manderville loved the game and soon sowed that love as an instructor like a local Johnny Appleseed of golf. He could be seen at Hiawatha and Wirth or on the Columbia GC driving range, working with his students. 

“He would analyze our swings as we hit the ball and would comment on how to position ourselves with each club,” Crosby said. “He would just kind of strip you naked about things you were doing wrong. And he wasn’t doing it for the money; that’s not who Eddie was. He just loved the game.”

One of Manderville’s students, Martha Arradondo, became quite accomplished in golf. Arradondo, an event planner by trade and an excellent racquetball player, won the Bronze Tournament twice. But she also, along with her friend Shirley Hughes (daughter of another local golf icon Solomon Hughes), founded the Black Women on Course (BWOC) league. And those accomplishments would have been difficult to achieve without the assistance of Eddie Manderville.

“He was a dear, dear friend. I met Eddie about 12 years ago and, at that time, I was just learning golf and someone told me about him,” Arradondo said. “I was at Brookview by myself with all these old guys golfing every morning—that’s when I met Eddie, and we just kind of clicked. I told him I’m going to start an African American women’s golf league because I don’t know any other African American women in Minnesota who golf.”

But Manderville did, and he made the introductions, and soon the BWOC was formed. Manderville conducted clinics for the women and provided golf instruction and the program grew. Today, Arradondo has a database of nearly 135 women who have played golf through the BWOC. Manderville often attended their tournaments to see how “his girls” were playing and was always a great supporter of the BWOC.

“Eddie would take the ladies to 2nd Swing to help them buy clubs,” Arradondo said. “He would call us ‘his girls.’ He was like the Charlie of “Charlie’s Angels” to us. He was so proud of us. He would watch us in tournaments and he would be beaming.”

Arradondo and Manderville became great friends (in fact she still takes meals to Lorriane Manderville, who is 92 years old). They played golf together when the chance arose, and both were tough competitors—but Eddie was ever the teacher.

“When we were out playing together, they would pair us with somebody, and he’d be coaching them,” Arradondo said. “They would take in everything he would say. I said, ‘Eddie! They’re beating us!’”

Honoring His Legacy
Arradondo recognized just how much Manderville meant to the game and to Wirth GC in particular, and in 2018, worked to have a bench installed at the edge of the Wirth course putting green in Manderville’s honor. Now, she is spearheading the effort to emblazon his name on the Theodore Wirth Chalet—and Arradondo is going to see it through.

“It would have been done in six months, but we ran into a snag, and now it’s a two-year project,” Arradondo said. “But I am willing to go the distance. It’s for Eddie, so it’s worth it.”

Everyone who spoke on Eddie’s behalf on April 6 recalled his “15 minutes of fame” generated by two holes-in-one on consecutive holes at the Wirth Par 3 course at age 81—and it’s hard to tell his story without mentioning it.

“When you see one one [next to each other] on a scorecard that usually means you got an 11,” Jordal said at the Park Board meeting.

But the only 11 on Manderville’s career scorecard represents the total number of aces he hit. So, he commemorated it on his car license plate with “HOL-IN1.”

A Trailblazer
But that’s only a part of Manderville’s story. He worked 20 years as a Minneapolis building inspector on the Northside, where he also served as executive director, long-time board member and president of Northside Neighborhood Housing Services, working to improve housing conditions where he grew up.

“Eddie would help people get the money to fix their house up,” Staples said. “He would connect them with contractors, help him find the money to fix it up and make sure the work was done right. He was just an all-around guy who handled his business and treated people the way he wanted to be treated.”

Manderville was elected to the MGA Board of Directors in 1990, serving three 3-year terms. During the 1990s, he served on the MGA Mixed Amateur Team Championship Committee and as chair of the MGA/PGA Cup Matches in 1997. He retired as an MGA rules official after two decades of volunteer service in 2018. He also found the time to teach the game at the Anwatin School, over time teaching hundreds of people to play golf. And according to Arradondo, he was still teaching to the end.

“On his death bed, he said if he could get out of bed, he would show me how I could win my next match,” Arradondo said.

Eddie Manderville loved the game of golf—which could be said about many golfers. But if that passion only translates into good play on the course, that’s great, but it falls short of the example here: it also matters what you do for others with that love.

“Eddie was a trailblazer,” Staples said. “He brought people into the game that traditionally would’ve never gotten involved or even expressed an interest. He used golf to teach kids and to teach women, and he brought blacks and whites together. He’s like the Martin Luther King of golf. I don’t have any other way to compare it.”