The mission: Make golf ‘cool’ for all

ERICK LOTTARY VIA INSTAGRAM

Erick Lottary, an amateur golfer turned social media influencer with 306,000 Instagram followers, takes a swing in Charlotte’s urban core. Lottary believes golf would be more attractive to people from underrepresented groups if it shed its stuffiness.

Golf is for everyone — not just the white and wealthy. 

There are Charlotteans who aim to get more people into the game and on courses. Johnson C. Smith golf coach William Watkins, for example, has spent years developing a program with rosters made up primarily of Black Americans.

It isn’t easy.

“I believe the interest is there,” he said. “It is definitely not as popular as football or basketball per se with the African American community. I’ve read stuff in the past or heard that these sports that you can play with one piece of equipment are more popular. And yes, you can play football or basketball with just a ball, and you can even play in the street, but I think a lot of this has to do with exposure.” 

Watkins has worked to boost JCSU’s exposure in the golf community, and vice versa. The Golden Bulls were one of six historically Black college teams invited to play in the Charlie Sifford Centennial Cup at Quail Hollow Cup as part of the runup to Presidents Cup tournament.

In 2015, Watkins was invited by the U.S. Virgin Islands University Sports Federation to coach golfers at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea. One of Watkins’ JCSU golfers, Johanen Edmeade, earned a spot on the Virgin Islands squad.

A factor that deters participation is cost. Clubs, attire and facility fees can be expensive. Watkins said there are programs that make the game more accessible for kids — but they also often need transportation to and from the course.

“There are a lot of good things happening now with the First Tee,” a program for children interested in golf, Watkins said. “And, when you start getting kids of color in those programs, and as they get older, their children, I imagine that my golfers now, when they start having kids, they're going to expose their kids to the game. It may take half a generation or so before you start seeing the fruits of the labor, but it’s got to start with parents getting the kids into the game.”

Charlotte-based Greenwood Golf’s mission is to draw new people to the sport. Founder Chirs Word contends the game needs an iconic figure, similar to what hall of fame inductee Tiger Woods did to build unprecedented interest among people who previously ignored golf.

“I think another thing that's maybe talked about but not talked about is interest and excitement as well,” Word said. “When you think about your big sports, your football, basketball, even baseball and soccer, there are well-touted celebrities, heads of state when it comes to your LeBron James, Steph Curry or Michael Jordan — like the big names that youngsters follow and want to emulate. 

“Golf doesn't really have that to the degree if you're in the sport. You know about Tiger Woods, of course… but the PGA doesn't even have that one person that everyone follows.”
To Watkins' point about “one piece of equipment” sports, Word echoed that reality.

“A lot of young minorities are like, ‘I don't see that in my neighborhood. I don't have access to those courses or that in my neighborhood, versus I can pick up a basketball and dribble it down the street and get good at dribbling,’” he said. “When I was growing up, we shot at a milk crate and got good at shooting. So, golf is just not as accessible as it should be.”

Social media also plays a role. Younger consumers are more likely to emulate people they follow, and while professional golfers are on those platforms, most are not from minority groups. 

Erick Lottary, or @oglot on social media, is showing golf can be fun and accessible. What started as Lottary just filming his tee shots turned into caddying professional events and playing pro-am events.

“I would just film my drives, and I would just post them,” said Lottary, who has 306,000 Instagram followers. “And then when I got a little bit comfortable and I felt like I could make a bogey or a par or something like that, I started filming the whole holes and started posting them. I posted one with my older brother. It was during the playoffs at the beginning of 2023, and it spread like wildfire… at the end of the video, I was putting for a par and I missed it. 

“I ended the video by just saying ‘I hate this game,’ That video right there I think it did like 10,000 views in maybe a couple of hours. That was the most I'd ever gotten on a [video] and then I woke up the next morning and I had over a million views.”

Lottary feels that if golf shifted to where it felt more welcoming to play, the game would grow exponentially. That’s why Lottary champions municipal courses that have a more relaxed feel as opposed to country clubs that emphasize formality.

“It's kind of like the same thing with racism to me,” he said. “Racism is taught. It's not something that you're born with. These people are teaching the younger people who are coming into these clubs or whatever, that we don’t allow this or that, and you can back up a little bit and just allow people to have fun and be themselves as long as they're respecting the course. I feel like if your etiquette is good, then it shouldn’t matter how you're dressed.”

Lottary, who has never been one to tuck his shirt in to play, said his home course, Charles T. Myers, has never had an issue with that. He feels if more courses were like that it would help golf grow.

“A lot of people that sit behind that counter will just judge based on how they walk in,” he said. “You know, they could be the nicest person in the world, but they have dreadlocks and their shirts are a little baggy, or their pants a little bit baggy. … They automatically just get judged with just how they look. And I think that the problem with the country clubs is how they view people.”

Lottary said he wants to grow his brand and inspire people to get into golf by showing they don’t have to fit the country club mold to have fun.

“At the end of the day, we're just trying to make more people play it and just make it one of the bigger sports,” he said. “I want a lot of people to watch golf. A lot of people don't watch golf, and I think once you learn how golf works, and what good golf looks like, more would play. Five years ago, you would never catch golf on my TV, like ever. That’s what I want – to grow the game in that way, of just making it cool.”

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