One Sport, Four Generations

Preston Combs follows in his great-grandmother’s monumental footsteps

by Naimah Jabali-Nash

Family stories are passed down from generation to generation. With each telling, brief tales grow into extended hyperboles. The hill your uncle climbed every morning on his way to school somehow transformed into a mountain five years later. That walk your parents took to and from the market is always a few miles farther each time you remember to listen. Although these varied exaggerations are commonplace for most families, Preston Combs need only skim the pages of any golf history book to find his family’s past. And he’ll get it right each and every time.

The 19-year-old Combs comes from a pedigree of golfers. It’s in his DNA. “I started playing golf when I was about six months old with a pancake flipper and a plastic ball,” he recalls. But long before Combs took his first stroke with this unorthodox club, his great-grandmother, Helen Webb Harris, filled a void in the game of golf—a game that reluctantly included only a few African American men and even fewer women.

It was 1937, on the bustling streets of  northeast Washington DC, when Webb Harris met with 13 other women to establish The Wake Robin Women’s Golf Club—the first formal organization for African American women golfers. Her husband, Dr. Albert Harris, was an organizer of the African American male Royal Club. African American men were only allowed to play at West Potomac Park, women were still not welcome. They endured taunts from men, yet Webb Harris was determined to have a spot on the tee box alongside her male counterparts.

Despite gender based discrimination within her own community, Webb Harris was still committed to the destruction of Jim Crow. After countless battles with city officials Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, decided to pass a petition set forth by the Wake Robins Club desegregating public courses in the nation’s capital. Construction began on an abandoned dumpsite the following year. The byproduct was Langston Golf Course, home to golf legends Tim Rhodes, Lee Elder and Charlie Sifford.

More than seventy years later Webb Harris’ legacy lives on in her great-grandson. “She opened up a lot of doors along with my great-grandfather. I’m connected in a special way,” Combs says. “The efforts that they went through, from having rocks being thrown at them, to all the death threats and even the possibility of being thrown off the course. It’s helped me appreciate the game a lot more.” 

Golf remains a family tradition. A graduate of the prestigious Peddie School in his hometown of East Windsor, NJ, Combs has had much success on the junior golf circuit. The five-time Times/Mercer County Future Champions Junior Tour winner decided to attend Methodist University nestled in the sand hills of Fayetteville, NC. “Its reputation as one of the top golf programs in the nation impressed me,” he says. “The practice facility, the wonderful academic program and the fantastic connections available throughout the industry are incomparable.”

These days this scratch golfer has traded in his spatula for a set of Titleist 762s. As the Professional Golf Management Tour Commissioner and Director for intramural golf at Methodist he organizes 16 nine-hole matches throughout the school year, all while making the dean’s list. His credentials allowed him to take part in the summer internship of a lifetime at Valhalla Country Club in Louisville, KY—home of the 2008 Ryder Cup.   

“That was one awesome, awesome week,” he exclaims. Combs was one of four students selected from schools across the country that offer the Professional Golf Management program accredited by the PGA of America. “The experience taught me about member relationships. Everything that head pro, Keith Reeves, and the assistants taught me about running a top notch facility was very important. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we don’t see as the general public.” 

Combs aspires to play on the university’s golf team. As he prepares for open-tryouts in the spring, Combs remains optimistic about his chances. “One of the great benefits of attending Methodist University is the year-round golf climate.” In this year’s PGA Tour Jones Cup, Combs posted the second best score for Methodist University shooting 78-83 (161). His deeply rooted passion for the game continues to fuel his desire to play professionally after graduating with a degree in business administration with a concentration in professional golf management.

One sport, four generations and the impact of the late Webb Harris’ contribution to the game of golf is heard today in her great-grandson’s voice. “To be related to someone so prominent in golf history has opened my eyes to what black people in the golf industry have gone through to reach this point,” he says of his great-grandmother. This story has all the elements of an epic tale: an ancient game, spanning generations, breaking barriers and one woman’s profound influence on her family. But to Preston Combs it’s far deeper than that, it’s one family story that will never change.