Culture Club
By William I. Dawason
With so many African-American celebs embracing the game of golf, it’s officially no longer a moment. It’s a movement.
Hip-hop artist Quincy Matthew Hanley, also known as Schoolboy Q, was exposed to the sport of baseball when growing up in his South Central Los Angeles neighborhood and, after practicing, became really good at it. He was also an academic standout (thus the rap moniker), finding school easy to navigate. So when his friend bet him that he couldn’t teach himself to make a golf birdie—one of the toughest shots in the sport—within two years, of course Hanley accepted the challenge. “He bet me, and in less than ten rounds I made a birdie, sank a 70-foot putt, and it was over.” That challenge ignited a love affair for the game for Q, and he hasn’t looked back since. He will admit that he was never familiar with the game, recalling only the names Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Arnold Palmer (“and that’s just because of the drink.”) Now he plays regularly, and even though the game is humbling, he won’t stop until he excels at it. And until he’s able to help youth from inner cities like South Central become exposed to the game as well. “Growing up, I never even seen a golf course in my life until I made some money,” he recalls. “So that’s one of my goals now, as an artist. It costs so much money to play and I’m looking for help to try and get kids some golf clubs, whether they use them or not, so they know that they can play.” His story is similar to that of so many other African American celebrities who took up the game of golf in recent years. What started for most as an homage to Tiger Woods, who burst upon the PGA Tour in 1997 and, as a rookie won his first Masters Tournament, has now become a platform for them to hone their skills on the greens and promote the game to the next generation.
22 www.uptownmagazine.com
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