June 2024 - #MakeGolfCool

Social media star from Austin neighborhood striving to make golf more inclusive
Photographs by Charles Cherney

This article appeared in the June 2024 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
To read more Chicago District Golfer stories, head to our article archive.

Roger Steele would be the funniest guy in your foursome. The social media star carries a 1 Handicap Index® and a +5 wit. As we debated hitting the practice range on a chilly morning, he rationalized: “If you skip the warmup you can say: ‘Hey, none of this is my fault. I’m a victim of circumstance!’”

When I showed him an unfamiliar stamp on my golf balls – BABSON COLLEGE – he shot back: “Clearly, you stole them.”

After he unloaded on a drive that rolled forever, our group stood in awe.

I asked, “Do you always hit it 400 yards?”

“No,” he replied, “just when you’re around.”

Steele, 36, vows to #MakeGolfCool in his Instagram profile, but his followers tie him to another hashtag – #NoGimmeGang. It kinda-sorta channels his father, a retired Chicago police officer.

Steele plays bad cop on the greens, imploring players to putt out those snarky 2-footers. Doesn’t matter if it’s for a triple.

“In what world,” Steele asked, “does it make sense to skip over the stuff you actually need to do to score the points?”

Steele’s social media even features his own spin on the LL Cool J Classic. Steele’s version: Mama Said Putt It Out!

“It’s a way of life,” he declared.

And with that, a healthy debate erupted on the walk to the first tee at Shoreacres.

Roger Steele and golf superstar Rory McIlroy played together in the pro-am at the 2023 BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club in south suburban Olympia Fields.

Josh Lesnik, the erstwhile KemperSports executive currently pouring his heart into the Canal Shores renovation project, is in the “good good” crowd. He’s a match play devotee who countered Steele’s viewpoint with: “Speed of play is the most important thing in golf and the No. 1 reason people stop playing.”

That decision to bypass the range left us hacking away on the first hole. By the time we approached the flag for our second putts, the next group was in the fairway. Lesnik conceded Steele’s par to win the hole.

Steele scooped up his shortie, saying, “You’ve got to respect the home rules.”

Then he whispered to me, “Not a willing amendment, though.”

It’s fitting. Steele straddles the line of being a traditionalist, having learned the game from Roger Sr., who could break par at Columbus Park in the city’s Austin neighborhood on the West Side. His #TwirlTheory calls for people to resist the urge to twirl irons after mediocre shots. But his vibe is chill, his voice colorful. He favors hoodies and, sometimes, untucked shirts.

“You can be yourself as long as you respect the game of golf,” he says. “And there’s room for us, room for everybody.”

Steele (@roger_steele on Instagram) represents so many brands and golf organizations, Travis Kelce’s agent might be envious. Callaway sponsors his YouTube series, Range Talk. (Stephen Curry was featured first, and when the guest arrived and someone yelled, “STEPH IS HERE!” a star-struck Steele spilled coffee on his shirt.)

Steele scores at Topgolf and practices on Five Iron Golf sims. He sips Dewars with his dad. When not tending to his newborn daughter Reign, he stocks up on apparel at a PGA Tour Superstore.

But most of his content is commercial-free, and his takes are novel. Newcomers to the game “are gonna be trash … like Paul George in the playoffs trash. Like Mitch Trubisky trash.”

A golfer who takes hideous, unpatterned divots at the range, he mused, cannot be trusted. “I assume you have commitment issues at the crib. Ladies if yo’ man hit balls like this, go through his phone (LOL).”

He collabs with the USGA, PGA Tour, PGA of America and – shhh – might be talking to the Green Coats at Augusta National.

Roger Steele left a secure career as a University of Illinois-trained civil engineer for the uncertain world of golf-specific video storytelling in which he has amassed some 120,000 Instagram followers and has a
clientele that includes major golf-related brands and institutions, including the USGA, PGA Tour and PGA of America.

He formed a partnership with KemperSports in 2022 with the shared goals of highlighting the company’s Chicago-area courses and stimulating youth interest.

“How do we make the game more approachable and more inclusive?” he asked. “Not just talking about it, but from a programming perspective how do we actually welcome people into the game?”

One example: Steele hosted a youth golf day at Harborside with Chicago Public School students. He gave them lessons and shared his story – as a civil engineer from the University of Illinois in his early 20s, his golf prowess gave him an identity at his firm. Colleagues chatted him up and invited him to corporate outings.

“I’m used to Columbus Park and now all of a sudden I’m playing Butler National,” he recalled. “Crazy.”

Roger Sr. was proud to have a stable engineer in the family, but Steele’s career left him unfulfilled. Hustling to the driving range after work and playing on weekends was not enough. He took his father to a Brazilian steakhouse to tell him of the career change: “I’m starting over.”

“Probably the angriest I’ve ever seen him,” the younger Steele said.

His forays into golf nutrition and apparel didn’t stick, but friends would laud his creativity and storytelling in swing and fitness vids. He produced some content for the Gretzky family in L.A. He caddied for NFL vet Larry Fitzgerald at the annual celebrity event in Tahoe and used his charisma and interviewing skills to beef up his contacts.

He recalibrated during the lean months of the pandemic and emerged more genuine. Now his Instagram following surpasses 120,000 and half the game’s brands, it seems, are pushing for an association.

“Everybody's getting more progressive,” he said, “with how they're trying to approach golf.”

A few days after our round, Steele posted several beautifully shot stories to his Instagram to the Maze R&B classic: “Happy Feelin’s.”

He displayed a picture of Lesnik’s yellow ball hanging on the edge of a cup: “In case y’all wondering how the #NoGimmes movement goin … this me making the Executive VP of @kempersports putt it out … might get fired for this but my morals forever employed.”

Barry Cronin, who happens to edit this magazine, nearly aced the 127-yard 12th hole. From the tee, it looked like a tap-in. On a simulator, it would have been a gimme. But four feet separated Cronin from a birdie.

And at the risk of having this paragraph edited out, we’ll give Steele the final word on what transpired: “Thinking your putts are good at any point in time makes you more susceptible to miss at every point in time. Or summ like that.” #NoGimmes. l

Former Chicago Tribune golf writer Teddy Greenstein left daily journalism in 2020 for the righteous world of online sports betting.