Roger Steele is more than a golfer; he advocates for and encourages Black people to get into the sport. Steele has worked with some of the top names in the golf world, and in so doing he has established important relationships. Steele is determined to what he knows to assist others interested in the sport.
Check out his interview with rolling out.
How would you describe Black representation in the golf space?
Black representation in golf is important because a lot of us won’t gravitate to the sport unless we see other people thriving in the space. Tiger Woods was dope because for once we got to see what dominance looked like from somebody who had the same complexion as us on the big screen, and it inspired a lot of us to pick up the game.
The reality is Tiger Woods was an anomaly. A generational talent like that is only going to happen once every century. I don’t know if we’ll ever see somebody that could outperform people at that level ever again in our existence.
I feel like the challenge now is that we don’t have a Tiger, and because he made the game so competitive and required a lot of White people to put so many resources into getting better, it widened the gap between Whites and Blacks. Tiger gave them a new way to go about developing in the game. Because Black people who play golf are typically under-resourced, it left us behind again.
I think that now the challenge is how do figures in golf that don’t just play professionally, but that exist and make money to golf step up and tell the story about Black people excelling in golf? It’s not just about being on TV playing on a PGA Tour, it’s about showing that there are a bunch of different ways for you to live and eat off of this game.
For me, golf is not just a passion. It’s not just a sport that I play. It’s the way that I give back. If a kid wanted to ask me for some game, I would tell them the only game that I need to give you is the game of golf, because if I give you this, and you take this game into all these other places.
I promise you’re going to come out a lot richer than you went in. A part of that is just us having Black figures that are willing to step up and show that they’re passionate about this space and that they love this space, and they win in this space. That’s not just on the course, that’s off the course as well.
There are a lot of people who get deals done on the golf course, it’s a lot of people that are developing relationships, helping them make career changes on the golf course. It’s a lot of sports figures cutting new contracts or figuring out what they’re gonna do post-career.
