Maria Stackhouse knew she was witnessing something special. The final round of the first annual Curry Cup for NBA superstar Stephen Curry was at TPC Stadium Harding Park in San Francisco, site of the 2020 PGA Championship, in September 2022. “It was amazing to see what Stephen and his team did with an event for kids,” Stackhouse says of the program. Underrated Golf. “I could see how much they liked it. It was great to see so many promising black golfers in one place already competing on great golf courses.”
In the spring of 2022, four-time NBA champion Curry founded Underrated Golf, an all-expenses-paid junior tour to help underrepresented players across the country catch up on the game. “We are driven to open more doors for diverse players and balance participation in sports to truly reflect our community,” Curry noted in a press release. In addition, Warriors PG has pledged financial support and assistance in establishing a Division I men’s and women’s golf program at the historic Black College, Howard UniversityFor the 2020-2021 school year after 50 years without a team.
Stackhouse, a KPMG ambassador since her rookie season in 2017, knew just hours after watching Carey’s event that she wanted to get involved and support the show.
By March 2023, Stackhouse helped secure KPMG as Underrated Golf’s title sponsorTo help the organization expand mentoring and leadership development programs for players. Stackhouse will attend the second annual Curry Cup in September 2023 and provide career lessons and advice to participating junior golfers.
Despite her recent struggles on the golf course (in 2022 she’s only made 3 cuts on the LPGA Tour), Stackhouse wanted to leverage her platform beyond her score. As the seventh black player to achieve LPGA ranking, Stackhouse understands the impact of visibility in the world of golf and the importance of accessibility to the sport. (There are no black golfers with full-time status on the LPGA Tour.)
Stackhouse, who this week competes in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, spoke to ESPN about the importance of participating in Underrated Golf, why she wants to continue developing the game and her hopes of influencing the sport beyond her playing career.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
ESPN: Do you think the underrated golf game fills a gap in the world of golf?
Ms: Yes. Many great projects aim to give minority golfers a more competitive experience. This program has the same focus, but Steph powers it up. And so there are resources ready to take them and say, “Hey, let’s not just make this one event, let’s do a tour. Let’s go to different parts of the country. We’re funding the kid’s travel. We’re taking care of that experience so they can play.” And the parents are free from the burden.
The target age group, 12 to 18, is really special because those are the years when it’s important to start learning how to travel, play golf, play higher level and challenging courses and build your game that way and have a schedule. And if you end up at the top, you’ll now have some prestige and a chance to compete in the American Junior Golf Association [AJGA] events. It provides a starting point and a platform. Nothing else is done exactly this way.
ESPN: How important is it for young children and families to have programs like golf that have been taken out?
Ms:
Incredibly important. [As a young player]I used to play in a lot of these youth organizations. I was already playing competitive local and regional tours. My dad still wanted me in these programs because he wanted me to enjoy the game and get good at playing with the other young kids in my area. That was very important to him. Not just my competitive development but my social evolution in the world of golf. When I was a black golfer, it mattered more.
Create and ensure that your children get into an environment where they are surrounded by people who also, subconsciously, look like them and this provides them with an experience they may not know they need.
ESPN: What role will you play within the golf game that has been taken out?
Ms: I will be at the tournament event in September. After the championship round, there will be a golf development and leadership training day. The golf part will be in the morning. Steve will be there with me. I will do an experimental work. I’ll straighten it out. I’m going to give them some advice and go on a golf demo. Then we’ll talk to them about the journey through athletics, both mentally and physically, and just talk to them about the sport.
Then, in the second half of the day, we’ll move on to a few different driving exercises. I run one by myself and a couple of different people in the area. And then we’ll talk about affirmations. I will share mine. I have an affirmation that I have said since I was young. I will help children create their affirmations.
ESPN: What’s your assertion?
Ms: Actually I never shared it. It is about four paragraphs long. My parents wrote it for me when I was younger to repeat it to myself. It is a page dedicated to me, myself and my well-being. They wrote all of it. And I still repeat it to myself today. And I will share my affirmation with the children that day.
ESPN: Why is it important to get involved in Underrated Golf, especially when your golf isn’t where you want it to be to be professional?
Ms: I think the struggles I’ve been through over the past two years have thrown everything into perspective. It showed me that a career as an athlete is not foolproof. I’m in a very unique place right now. I have the platform. I have the situation. What can I do to be more influential while I’m still playing? This is not to say that if I don’t play golf professionally, I lose my influence. I don’t think this is the case.
But all you have now is in reality. right? I’m lucky because I’m in good shape physically and I feel empowered now. So I probably felt like last year, when am I going to get this back? But I feel confident again.
But before that, I felt like it gave me a little sense of urgency to do everything with my platform. I think that’s why. I’ve been here on tour. This is my seventh year [on the LPGA Tour]and I keep getting questions about different interviews and things like that, talking about what it’s like to be the only black player on this tour.
There’s a young black golfer at USC right now named Amari Avery, and he’s really good. I have no doubt that Amari will be on tour. I want Amari not to have the “just one” experience so she isn’t the one who has to carry X, Y, and Z on her shoulders when she’s there. This is what I want for the next generation of golfers. It will probably take a long time for large numbers of black women and men to become on tour. I want it to become less about the representation they have and about the game they appear to be.
ESPN: How do you feel about that?
Ms: We had a tiger wave and then a few people popped up. It just goes to show that it takes more than just someone to show up and be the face. Something has to be done on a deliberate level to fuel this pipeline. There are a lot of initiatives going on right now. Whether it’s something I create myself or a Steph’s Underrated golf course. I want to support efforts to grow the game.
ESPN: Why is it important to have players like Steve at the forefront of making golf a “cool” sport for the next generation?
Ms: Traditionally, golf is not seen as a great sport. But when you see soccer players, basketball players and baseball players the second it’s off season, they want to run and play a bunch of golf with friends. And they always post on social media that they are having a good time. I think that will improve the concept of golf culture. To this day, I’ll meet people or hang out with new groups I don’t know, I never mention golf stuff offhand, but eventually, as soon as it comes up, they’re like, ‘Oh, you play golf?’ And they say, ‘Wow, that’s really cool. I wasn’t expecting that!”
And what they say is you don’t look like a golfer. I think the more we can remove ourselves from that perception, the faster we can make people want to go out and have a casual ride on their local public trail with friends and see how the game is played.