5 questions with Will Lowery on The Underrated Tour

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- As a golf personality and broadcaster, Will Lowery has his hands in a lot of cookie jars, so-to speak. How many in the golf industry can say they work with Steph Curry, Tiger Woods, cover PGA Tour events for PGA Tour Live and host a show for Golf Channel's Golf Pass, which given Rory McIlroy's investment in that business endeavor means he sort of works with him too.

There's a podcast he co-hosts too (Beyond the Fairway with Doug Smith) and other irons in the fire when he's not handling the social media for Tiger's TGL franchise, Jupiter Links, and doing Tiger's grunt work. "I do all the stuff he doesn't want to do," he said with a smile. But nothing gets the 40-year-old who calls Charlotte home more fired up than talking about the Underrated Tour, his brainchild that is backed by Curry, the Golden State Warriors star who has become one of golf's biggest supporters. Here at TPC Sawgrass, where 96 junior golfers competed on the famed Stadium and Valley courses Aug. 5-6, Lowery, whose title technically is tour ambassador, is enjoying the latest opportunity to see his version of "growing the game" come to fruition. It's already the fourth season of the Underrated Tour, which is "dedicated to enacting real change by creating lanes for youth from underserved communities to gain access to all of the opportunities the sport golf offers." The top 28 boys and girls on the Underrated Tour will advance to The Curry Cup at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey, Sept. 10-12. Shortly before the hardware was handed out to the winners of the event at the home of the Players Championship, Lowery took a break to chat with Golfweek about his role as a youth advocate.

GWK: How did you become involved in the Underrated Tour?

WL: I brought this to Steph in 2018. I was in his kitchen and I said I think you can change the way golf can be perceived. I think you can do more than helping kids get on the PGA Tour can. We can do find a specific space, not just an introduction, First Tee programs, they’ve got that. I told him he belongs in this sweet spot of the AAU portion of golf. But more importantly, how can we increase our participation rates? That was it. That's what we are. I had this idea of the tour and he's all in. He's been involved heavily ever since. 

GWK: What do you dream of the Underrated Tour becoming?

WL: We want to make sure that we reach those who don't have a voice in the game, those who come from a different clubhouse, those who have been underserved. I feel that at this movement that we have, we can understand what's going on in the hearts and minds of these kids. I want to help be the bridge. I feel like I can be a liaison, a gatekeeper in teaching this younger generation.

GWK: What's been your proudest moment with the Underrated Tour? 

WL: It's the education portion of Underrated. We have kids come to panel discussions with CEOs of every industry, everybody who is in Steph’s Rolodex. I think one of the moments that got me was at the end of our first session, you see the CEO is handing his card out. He's exchanging numbers with the kids. I don't care about how many birdies they make. But when I see the kids have the opportunities with the CEOs that are hard to get in touch with, that’s the moment for me.  

GWK: How were you able to find golf without something like the Underrated Tour?

WL: I played golf professionally for 10 years. I played PGA Tour Latinamerica, I was on the show Big Break 10-15 years ago (in 2011 and known for his cross-handed grip). I'm from the hood, the other side of the train tracks and at an early age, I had an understanding of what culture capital and connected capital meant. And so when I see a lot of these kids who come from the same neighborhood that I come from, I don't think they realize how powerful golf is and I, for one, for myself, I can speak personally and from experience that golf has taken me to the four corners of the world. Golf has done that. I want to somehow show these young men and women that golf is a means to upward social mobility. And I told Steph, I can deal with it if these kids don’t play golf professionally, but I need them to have golf in their life so it can help them in so many other ways. They can just be the beacon of those kids that want to do right in the world.

GWK: What's your best Steph story pertaining to golf? 

WL: He thinks he can beat me. That's one thing. You might want to call that a fictional story but he thinks he can beat me. But he’s somebody who loves the game and we're sitting one time in his office and the golf was on and I said, Mackenzie Hughes is in the top five. And while he's on the computer, he looks up and goes, “Oh, the Canadian.” And that's when I realized, he's different. I know everything there is to know about the game because I'm endemic to golf and it’s my job. I've got to know that stuff. I got to understand what's going on, when I go on the air or I'm talking about it on a podcast or whatever. But for him it's a passion. For him to say, oh, yeah, he's Canadian. That's when I realized, he's a student of the game. 

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: 5 questions with Will Lowery on The Underrated Tour