NFL running back Dare Ogunbowale played four sports at his Milwaukee high school, but golf was not one of them.
He began playing golf while attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That was something he could do outside of football. Before college, “golf just wasn’t a thought.”
“Growing up, I didn’t even see golf as a sport, but as a way to experience competition,” he told Wisconsin Public Radio’s Central Time.
Ogunbowale and several other former Badgers are trying to change perceptions of the sport with their group, Vibez Golf Club. The group says it wants to “dispel many of the assumptions and misconceptions that are built around the sport and are deeply rooted in its elite history.”
Noe Vital Jr., the group’s CEO, became passionate about golf shortly after leaving UW-Madison. He has been friends with Ogunbowale and the other former football players since they were in college.
Vital said on Central Time that he didn’t really pick up a golf club until he was about 21. Vital, a Mexican-American, said that when he first started playing, he quickly noticed that many other players didn’t look like him.
“We have a really unique opportunity in this game that we’re starting to take advantage of to really make it more accessible to people like us, people who look like us, talk like us and, quite frankly, just feel like us us,” he said.
Many proposed golf diversification solutions aim to increase access, Vital said. There are many organizations trying to do this. But he said he would like Vibez to approach the issue from a different angle.
“Our position is that you can give access to everyone in the world, but if you don’t create demand or grow interest, you’re never really going to attract new people,” he said.
In July, Vibez and First Tee of Southeastern Wisconsin hosted an event at Noyes Park Golf Course in Milwaukee. At the event, Vibez members and children competed in a nine-hole competition. The next day, Vibez hosted another tournament at Fire Ridge Golf Club in Grafton. Vital said the group tries to host events in Wisconsin every year and has also expanded into Colorado and Ohio.
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Sometimes, he said, children would approach them in disbelief. “Wait, do you play golf?”
Vital said it has become an unofficial motto for the group to ask, “How can we get someone to walk on a golf course as themselves and leave as themselves?” No one should behave a certain way need to adapt, he added.
The group was formed just over two years ago. Within six months, Vital said, he was on the phone with the PGA Tour to find out how they could work together.
The group’s founders include several former Badgers players, including NFL running back Melvin Gordon.
Ogunbowale transferred from Gillette Stadium to Central Time just hours before a pre-season game in which his Houston Texans played the New England Patriots. He said that playing football gave him a good excuse to fall behind in his golf game, at least compared to some of his Vibez peers.
His drive is probably the weakest part of his game, he said.
“I’m working on it,” he said, laughing.
Ogunbowale said he wanted kids to start earlier than him. Hopefully he can show the next generation what golf has to offer.
“It’s huge for me,” he said. “It means a lot to me to teach kids something I didn’t get a chance to do when I was a little kid in Milwaukee.”
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