Pioneer Information
Born in New Orleans, Bartholomew was one of the first African Americans to design and build a public golf facility in the United States. Having left school after the eighth grade, he learned the game of golf while working as a caddie at Audubon Park Golf Course, eventually becoming a greenkeeper. Professional golfer Fred McLeod hired Bartholomew as his assistant, during which time he learned how to make golf clubs. After traveling to New York to study golf course design with golf course architect Seth Raynor, Bartholomew returned to New Orleans in 1922 and designed Metairie Country Club’s golf course, teaching and making golf clubs at the course for a few years after it opened. He then went to work as a greenkeeper at New Orleans Country Club, remaining there for only a short time before he was hired in 1933 to design New Orleans’ City Park No. 1 course with landscape architect William Wiedorn. Bartholomew designed and built Pontchartrain Park’s golf course, which opened in 1956 and was named after him in 1979. City Park’s North course, which opened in 1968, was also designed by Wiedorn and Bartholomew. Bartholomew designed and constructed courses in Covington, Hammond, Abita Springs, Algiers, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as well as one course in Mississippi. Not being able to play on the courses he designed due to segregation, he built the seven-hole Crescent City Golf Club, a private African American golf course, on his property in the New Orleans suburb of Harahan. In addition to designing golf courses, Bartholomew also started a construction company, expanding his business into other areas such as landscaping. Bartholomew died at the age of 81 after suffering a stroke. The following year, he became the first African American inducted into the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.
