3 minute read
Raining Tees
NBA STAR STEPH CURRY IS AN ACTIVE GOLF AMBASSADOR
By Ron Kroichick
All these years later, after 13 seasons in the NBA and countless golf experiences, Stephen Curry still remembers the moment he first heard of the American Century Championship.
He was about 12 years old, an athletic if undersized kid in Charlotte, N.C. Curry was starting to become interested in golf, thanks to occasional outings with his dad, Dell. So when Dell packed up his clubs for a summertime trip, young Steph asked where he was going.
The answer: Lake Tahoe.
“I had no idea where that was, growing up in North Carolina,” Curry says. “He said he was playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. I said, ‘That sounds amazing.’ ”
Curry tells the story in a hallway at Chase Center in San Francisco, during the Warriors’ recent playoff run. He’s 34 now, a two-time Most Valuable Player, eight-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer. He’s also an increasingly active ambassador for golf, using his game and wealth to try to grow the game.
This stretches beyond his two playing appearances in Korn Ferry Tour events in the Bay Area. And beyond his charitable foundation’s involvement in The Memorial Tournament, an annual PGA Tour event in Dublin, Ohio.
Most notably, in 2019, Curry funded the golf program at Howard University, one of the nation’s most prestigious historically black colleges (in Washington, D.C.) His donation of more than $1 million allowed the school to essentially create a Division I program from scratch, paving a fresh path for minority players.
That’s his abiding mission. Curry wants to create opportunities in golf for minorities, and specifically African Americans. This goal became even more evident in April, when Curry’s “Underrated” brand announced it was expanding to include golf and would launch a junior tour to give underrepresented players more access to the game.
Curry had eyed an initiative along those lines for several years.
“It’s big for a lot of reasons,” he says. “We’re trying to continue to build representation in the game. So we should have a pretty cool opportunity to provide perspective and resources for these kids to hopefully set them up for success within golf, as an athlete, but also in the business of golf.
“Just preparing them to be as well-rounded as possible, as student athletes with different leadership skills, getting them workforce-ready. Obviously, we want to get professional golfers on the tour, but there’s more to it than that.”
Curry seems intrigued by the impact he’s having in his “secondary” sport. He’s always kept one foot in golf circles, a byproduct of his deep passion for the game. He’s a scratch player who sneaks in rounds when he can during the NBA season, and then plays often in the offseason.
Even so, Curry realizes his most lasting influence will happen without a club in hand. That’s why he’s pouring his energy (and money) into efforts to diversify the game, most recently with the Underrated Tour.
“That’s where I can hopefully have the biggest impact,” Curry says. “I’m a basketball player coming into the golf space, trying to bring a different voice to it. This is definitely a great way to maximize the impact, to start at the age where it makes the most difference in terms of the pipeline and college scholarships.
“A lot of kids get left behind at this 8-to-16 age range, where it takes coaching, equipment and resources to join these (junior) tours. The fact we can provide travel and all these amenities for free is huge. We’ll see where it goes from there and see how much we can elevate minority representation in golf.”
In the meantime, Curry will keep showing up in Stateline, Nev., every July, with clubs very much in hand. He’s played alongside his dad in the ACC the past four years, and his brother Seth made his debut in last year’s tournament.
As Steph Curry put it, they enjoy a family vacation until Friday … then it morphs into competition through the weekend … and then they have a party. Not a bad tradition, all in all.
“It’s just fun,” Curry says of his Tahoe visits. “Beautiful scenery, the venue is amazing, they put on a great tournament. It gives us the space to interact with fans, play golf, compete and bring our families. … It’s my favorite week of the summer.”
(Ron Kroichick covers golf for The San Francisco Chronicle.)
