A Philadelphia golf course seeks to reclaim its status as a force for opportunity and inclusion

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia region has welcomed major championships to five of its golf clubs, most notably Merion and this week’s PGA Championship at Aronimink.

Yet the area’s greatest contribution to the game may have come a few miles away in West Philadelphia, where a rebirth is taking place at Cobbs Creek Golf Club.

While Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Gary Player were competing for titles and trophies at the venerable Main Line layouts, Cobbs Creek offered something more tangible: inclusion and opportunity.

Opened in 1916, Cobbs Creek welcomed golfers of all backgrounds. Women could play at Cobbs Creek before they were eligible to vote. And, while very few golf courses were open to Blacks, there was no segregation at the course.

Hall of Famer Charlie Sifford took advantage of the course's open-door policy. He claimed it as his home and honed his skills there on the way to breaking golf’s color barrier in 1961 as the first Black member of the PGA and among its first Black winners.

Sifford’s success and connection to the course helped spark a groundswell of support for the Cobbs Creek Foundation and its effort to restore the long-neglected 350-acre parcel that also touches Delaware and Montgomery counties. The effort got a significant boost with backing from Tiger Woods.

The relationship between Woods and Sifford is well-documented. Woods credits Sifford for helping pave the way for his success and referred to him as “the grandfather I never had.” He even named his son, Charlie, after Sifford.

That connection led Woods to get involved with the Cobbs Creek project, opening his foundation’s second TGR Learning Lab there in 2025. The educational facility with golf-related activities for youth in underserved areas is one of the cornerstones of the revitalization efforts and has been an immediate success.

Woods says the renovation is as much about education and giving back to the community as golf.

“Coming here, to a place he (Sifford) played, he grew up, he called home, and for me to have the support of the entire community, to be able to build something,” Woods said. "A home, a safe place, innovation. ... I didn’t start the foundation to produce golfers that hit golf balls. I started the foundation to produce the greatest humans possible.”

The learning lab also has a junior practice putting green, built with a $250,000 donation from the foundation of three-time major champion Jordan Spieth. Also on property is a 68-bay driving range and a short course designed by Woods’ company. All the elements play a role in the bigger project: the championship course restoration.

“There’s a lot of new ways that people are picking up the game now, and you’ll have all of that available here,” Spieth said at the opening of the putting green. “The accessibility for anybody, of any age, to come. Do golf however you want to do golf.”

The grand plan is to restore the course to the original design by Hugh Wilson, the golf course architect responsible for crafting nearby Merion. The rebuild has been made more daunting by near-constant flooding and decades of disrepair that led to the course closing in 2020.

The hope is to eventually host a PGA Tour event at the site. For now, golf is just piece of the puzzle.

“We knew we were going to restore this golf course and it was going to be for the good of the public,” said Cobbs Creek Foundation COO Enrique Hervada.

“Golf is very exclusive in many ways. This is extremely inclusive. Everybody is welcome here. It was always that way, too.”

Philadelphia-owned Cobbs Creek was established to serve those unable to golf at private clubs.

Wilson is credited with the design of Cobbs Creek’s “Olde Course,” with an assist from noted golf course architects George Crump (Pine Valley), A.W. Tillinghast (Winged Foot), George Thomas (Riviera) and William Flynn (Shinnecock Hills).

The layout hosted the USGA’s Amateur Public Links in 1928. A nine-hole layout, the Karakung Course, was established in 1929. In 1947, Cobbs Creek was the site of the Negro National Open, with heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis as the first-round leader. It became one of only a handful of courses in the National Black Golf Hall of Fame in 2021.

Sifford and Howard “Buth” Wheeler, a pioneer among Black golfers and multi-time United Golf Association national champion, were notable players at Cobbs Creek. Sifford was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2014. He died in 2015.

In the 1950s, the original layout was tweaked to make room for four missile silos and barracks as part of the U.S. air defense system. The original layout was reconfigured and the course continued to deal with flooding. Conditions also deteriorated while under the control of different management companies.

The renovation comes with a $180 million price tag. There have been numerous stops and starts during the rebuild while awaiting permitting and other hurdles. Fundraising is a near-daily endeavor for Hervada.

Golf architects Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, who led the restoration of Aronimink, are refurbishing the “Olde Course.” The drainage issues have been dealt with and the plan includes restoring three miles of creek and creating more than 20 acres of wetlands.

“The people involved knew it was going to be a herculean effort,” Hervada said. “We’re really close, but we have a long way to go. We’re building this for the next 100 years."

The 30,000-square foot educational facility for grades 1-12 was the first building to open on the Cobbs Creek campus, in April 2025. It is the second TGR lab, after the first in Anaheim, California, opened in 2006. Others are planned for Georgia and California.

The plan is for the profits from the golf operations to help fund the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) after-school and weekend programs.

The learning lab got off to a fast start, thanks to Woods’ TGR Foundation.

Meredith Foote, the lab's executive director, said when the facility first opened, schools within a mile and a half radius were the targets. Now, all are welcome, and Foote says that 7,000 students have been served.

“We exist to open up doors and opportunities,” Foote said. “And when the right doors to educational enrichment open, there is no limit for our students. It’s really expose, expose, expose."

Corrine Schultz, 18, of Upper Darby, was excited about joining the learning lab from the moment she saw what was offered. The homeschooled high school senior is on a robotics team at TGR.

“Opportunity,” Schultz said of what was offered. “To be part of a competitive team with the robotics. I had never been a part of a competitive team.”

Schultz will continue her education in the fall at Drexel University and plans to return to the lab.

“I’m a student here,” she said. “But whatever future career I decide, I want to give back to the community, to people in general.”

And that is exactly what Foote wants the learning lab to instill in its participants.

“The legacy of this program is the kids who come in and are trying to find their passion and going on to do amazing things in life because of the opportunities they received here at the TGR Learning Lab,” Foote said. “We’re using golf as a driver to lift up this entire community.”

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Seiji Sako hits at the driving range at the Cobbs Creek Golf Club in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The Philadelphia skyline is seen above the driving range at the Cobbs Creek Golf Club in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Shown is the TGR Learning Lab and putting green at the Cobbs Creek Golf Club in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Cobbs Creek Foundation COO Enrique Hervada poses for a photograph at the Cobbs Creek Golf Club during construction in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Construction is under way at the Cobbs Creek Golf Club in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III will present the U.K. government's legislative program to Parliament on Wednesday as uncertainty clouds the future of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's leadership. Starmer on Tuesday defied calls for him to stand down, following a disastrous showing for his Labour Party in local and regional elections last week. Ahead of the King's Speech, he met with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, seen as one of his potential challengers, at his office in Downing Street.

Here's the latest:

Starmer and his wife, Victoria, left their official residence under a pelting of rain and pointed questions from the media as they headed to Parliament for the king’s speech.

The Starmers had no umbrellas as they left 10 Downing Street and walked a short distance to a waiting car.

Perhaps more unpleasant, though, were the questions coming from across the street.

“Will you resign Mr. Starmer? Are you just squatting in No. 10?,” a man yelled from the area where journalists gathered. “Prime minister, is your time up? Have you lost the country, Mr. Starmer?”

The Crown Regalia – the Imperial State Crown, the Cap of Maintenance and the Sword of State – has arrived at the House of Lords ahead of the king’s speech.

The ancient symbols of royal authority come in their own carriage, Queen Alexandra’s State Coach,

The most famous symbol of the monarchy, the Imperial State Crown, will be worn by King Charles III during the state opening ceremony.

It contains 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, five rubies and more than 270 pearls, and weighs more than a kilogram.

Unions affiliated with the Labour Party called for a plan to be put in place to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The Trade Union and Labour Organisation, a group of 11 unions, said the party could not “continue on its current path.”

“It’s clear that the prime minister will not lead Labour into the next election, and at some stage a plan will have to be put in place for the election of a new leader,” the group said.

The King’s Speech dates back to at least the 15th century, and the traditions highlight that history.

The first event got underway early Wednesday when the Yeomen of the Guard — a group of ceremonial bodyguards who still wear traditional red and gold uniforms from the Tudor period — performed a symbolic “search” of the Houses of Parliament for explosives. The tradition is a reminder of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot in which Roman Catholic rebels tried to kill Protestant King James I by blowing up the building during the State Opening of Parliament.

The king will travel in a carriage, as one might expect. A separate coach carries the Imperial State Crown, the Cap of Maintenance and Sword of State.

Meanwhile, a lawmaker goes to the palace as a symbolic hostage to ensure the king’s safe return. It is said the hostage is treated like royalty.

Starmer met privately Wednesday with a cabinet member who could challenge him for the leadership of the Labour Party.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting met for less than 20 minutes with Starmer at his 10 Downing Street residence.

Streeting is considered one of the top rivals as Starmer resists calls to step aside after the party’s disastrous showing in last week’s local elections across the U.K.

Streeting did not speak with reporters as he left the meeting.

The monarch traditionally travels from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament, a distance of less than a mile, in a horse-drawn carriage. He then dons the Imperial State Crown and the robe of state before leading a procession into the chamber of the unelected House of Lords.

A Lords official called Black Rod, named for the ebony rod he or she carries, then goes to the House of Commons to summon the chamber’s members to a joint sitting of Parliament. The doors to the Commons chamber are slammed in Black Rod’s face to symbolize the chamber’s independence from the monarchy, and they aren’t opened until Black Rod strikes the doors three times.

Once members of the Commons have crowded into the Lords’ chamber, the king delivers a speech written by the government and laying out its legislative program for the coming session of Parliament.

After the speech is read and the king leaves, the two houses of Parliament begin several days of debate on its contents.

At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Starmer said he took responsibility for the losses in last week’s elections but would fight on.

As Cabinet members left 10 Downing Street, some voiced their support for the embattled prime minister.

Works and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said nobody publicly challenged Starmer at the meeting, while Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the prime minister was showing “really steadfast leadership.”

Later, Starmer’s deputy David Lammy warned Labour lawmakers that the only beneficiary of the party’s “navel-gazing” is the populist right and the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, in particular.

“He has my full support, and what I say to colleagues is, look, let’s just step back,” he said. “Take a breath.”

On Tuesday, several junior ministers, some of whom were elected for the first time in Labour’s landslide election victory in July 2024, resigned and urged Starmer to do the same.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, minister of housing, communities and local government, was the first to quit, urging Starmer “to do the right thing for the country.”

She was followed by Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister and a prominent member of the Labour Party. In her resignation letter, she described Starmer as a “good man fundamentally” but unable to make bold changes.

Despite the party’s dominant win driving out the Conservatives after 14 years in power, Labour’s popularity has plunged and Starmer is getting much of the blame.

The reasons include a series of policy missteps, a perceived lack of vision on the prime minister’s part, a struggling British economy and questions over his judgment. Starmer’s choice of Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to Washington despite ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has continued to haunt him.

Starmer insisted Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning as calls grew louder within his Labour Party for him to step down and some junior members of his government quit in protest.

Starmer’s future has become a hot topic over the past few feverish days following historic losses for the Labour Party in local elections last week, which if repeated in a national election that has to be held by 2029, would see it overwhelmingly ejected from power.

Though no Cabinet member has quit or publicly stated the prime minister should step aside for a change in leader, there’s growing speculation that the ambitious health secretary, Wes Streeting, will inform Starmer that his days are numbered when they meet on Wednesday.

Streeting has many supporters within the parliamentary party, including some of those who resigned from Starmer’s government on Tuesday, which stoked speculation that Starmer could suffer the fate of Boris Johnson in 2022 when dozens of ministers quit en masse and forced his departure.

The King’s Speech is part of the state opening of Parliament, a traditional set piece of the political calendar. Many of the expected proposals have been announced previously, raising questions over Starmer’s capacity to win over his doubters.

The speech is expected to include proposals to address the cost of living crisis, create a national wealth fund to stimulate private investment in public infrastructure and tighten rules for asylum seekers.

It may also include the government’s controversial proposal to abolish jury trials for some cases in England and Wales, lower the voting age to 16 and introduce a “duty of candor” for public officials, requiring them to tell the truth and cooperate with investigations.

Larry the cat, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office leaves 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting in London, Tuesday, May 12, 2026 as Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing the biggest threat yet to his authority after a growing number of disaffected lawmakers called for him to step down.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

FILE - King Charles III looks up as he reads the King's Speech, during the State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords in London on July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool, File)

Britain's Health Secretary Wes Streeting arrives in Downing Street for a meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London, Wednesday, May 13, 2026.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets construction apprentices during a visit to London South Bank Technical College in London, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP)