Abu Dhabi
Steve Outlaw plays from scratch and is as adept with words as he his with golf clubs. The 28-year-old is a rising star in the golf industry, having come to the UAE through the First Tee Programme in the USA which is all about teaching young people positive values like integrity, respect and perseverance through the game of golf. He helped found the First Tee Scholar’s Program, following a remarkable speech at the First Tee National Conference back in 2001.
It has been a long and winding road for Outlaw. It began in the US midwest in a working family, moved to the southeast for his education, continued on to the southwest where he earned his stripes in the golf industry before jumping half way around the world to the middle-east. From being a PGA member, working for Troon Golf, making his way to Abu Dhabi, being a professional and a role model, it’s a journey he wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.
He now works with local kids at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, teaching them the all-important values and skills he picked up as a junior and told XPRESS why he would recommend fellow professionals to travel to this part of the world.
“It has been a great two years so far for me in Abu Dhabi. I have loved every moment of my stay here, even the weather, which is quite like back home in Arizona,” he said.
Besides handling day-to-day golf operations, Outlaw is also here to help develop the next generation of UAE golfers. He believes that there is a strong pool of talent in the UAE that would benefit from a local/regional scholarship programme such as the First Tee, which gave him such a great start to his own career in golf.
“There’s a lot of talent in these parts. I have been impressed by the expat kids and a few Emirati kids as well. While they are still too young to think about turning professional, a golf scholarship to a US college is something that can definitely be arranged later,” he said.
Being an African-American in the predominantly whites dominated sport hasn’t been without its share of pitfalls. “For the most part, I’ve been lucky to never experience any racism within the industry or from our customers. But I did in my playing days as a junior,” he said.
The instructor is now looking ahead to a couple of tournaments he is hoping to take part in the UAE. “I intend to play more now. The UAE PGA Summer Series and the Troon Inter-Club events are coming up, so I am really looking forward to that,” he said.
