Inside the hip L.A. golf gathering for those 'who were never invited — but always belonged'

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It’s 7 p.m. connected a Thursday astatine the driving scope astatine the Westside’s Rancho Park Golf Course.

At 1 extremity of the raised platform, the stalls are mostly occupied by polo shirt-wearing men softly practicing their swings. But astatine the different end, a assemblage gathers. People of each backgrounds are vibing to hip-hop and Afrobeats playing implicit 2 portable speakers and socializing implicit brew and snacks from the nutrient stand. They’re dressed successful streetwear and stylish sports apparel — Jordan 1s, fitted caps, tennis skirts and baggy pants. One pistillate is wearing gangly level boots and a patterned skirt and hugging friends. When idiosyncratic steps up to instrumentality a swing, others ticker and connection enactment and pointers.

“Remember to breathe,” idiosyncratic says.

“Relax your grip,” advises another.

Aspiring play pro Rob Perea, right, teaches opening golfers during a Swang play event.

Not your emblematic play meetup, this is Swang, an L.A. play corporate that hosts a regular gathering called “Free Range,” wherever attendees tin person casual guidance from longtime golfers — and conscionable bent out. With the welcoming motto “pull up, pat in,” laminitis Modi Oyewole created Swang to supply a abstraction for the golf-curious and those who’ve been searching for like-minded folks to play with successful the historically white- and male-dominated sport. He says that for generations, entering the satellite of play has been some financially and culturally difficult.

“When I inquire radical however they recovered retired astir us, a batch of the stories are the same,” says Oyewole, 38. “People ne'er felt similar this was a happening they could do. But with this, we are rather virtually saying, f— each that. We tin bash this too. You tin deterioration what you want. You tin beryllium you and inactive travel play.”

Swang play corporate laminitis Modi Oyewole, left, with Juliet Udeochu.

A tiny camera unit follows Oyewole, who is wearing a Toro y Moi T-shirt, cargos and Adidas sneakers, capturing contented for Swang’s societal media accounts. He takes a almighty swing, sending the shot flying onto the field. You’d deliberation that he’s been playing for years, but play is simply a caller passionateness for the multifaceted originative who’s worked astatine assorted grounds labels and for brands similar Nike and Redbull.

Oyewole’s begetter introduced him to the athletics astir 20 years agone during the tallness of Tiger Woods’ career. “I deliberation seeing a Black idiosyncratic successful this athletics that’s predominantly achromatic and him dominating it decidedly got my dada like, ‘Alright, we tin bash this now. We person representation,’” Oyewole recalls. His dada began taking him and his younger member to a nationalist driving scope successful their District of Columbia vicinity until it unopen down.

Oyewole didn’t deliberation astir play again until respective years later, erstwhile 1 of his friends invited him to the Hypegolf Invitational hosted by Hypebeast successful Santa Clarita — an invitation helium accepted begrudgingly, helium says. But what helium saw amazed him.

“This was my archetypal clip experiencing play successful it’s entirety, ever. I’d ne'er been to a play course, fto unsocial a precise fancy state club, and I’d besides ne'er seen play presented successful this way,” helium recalls.

One of the archetypal radical helium saw astatine Hypegolf was rapper Macklemore, who was rocking a covering collaboration betwixt his play enactment Bogey Boys and Adidas. Every spread connected the people was sponsored by a antithetic brand. DJs were spinning upbeat music, and each of the attendees were, successful Oyewole’s words, “swaggy.”

Blaise Butler of Los Angeles sets up a play shot connected the tee.

He was besides amazed to tally into respective radical wrong his orbit who helium didn’t cognize played golf. “It was conscionable 1 of those moments wherever I was like, ‘Wait, I consciousness similar they figured retired a mode to marque this digestible to a idiosyncratic similar me,’” says Oyewole. “It was eye-opening due to the fact that it taught maine that the crippled was cool, and it wasn’t the crippled that I was upset at. It was the discourse surrounding the game.”

A fewer weeks later, Oyewole discontinue his occupation arsenic the vice president of creative, experiential and contented improvement astatine Def Jam Recording. With his newfound escaped time, helium started playing play astatine the Maggie Hathaway Golf Course successful South Central — named aft a longtime civilian rights activistic who helped interruption the colour obstruction connected L.A.’s nationalist play courses — with a person who talented him hand-me-down clubs. Before long, helium was hooked.

He hosted the archetypal Swang lawsuit successful August 2023 astatine the Rancho Park driving range. Oyewole and 2 of his friends brought a talker to play music, on with play clubs and balls for attendees to signifier with. About 25 radical showed up, including a fewer play influencers similar Jacques Slade and Loulou Gonzalez — immoderate of whom had ne'er played play earlier and others who’ve been playing their full lives.

“Just seeing that was magical, but I deliberation what was much magical than that was proceeding these longtime golfers say, “Man, I’ve been golfing everlastingly and I’ve ne'er seen thing similar this,” Oyewole says. “You’re not going to spot this constitution of radical successful this size astatine the driving range. It doesn’t happen. Golf doesn’t look similar this.”

Swang arrives successful L.A. astatine a clip erstwhile play is booming successful popularity post-pandemic, peculiarly among women and young people. Although play has agelong been perceived arsenic a athletics that “older” radical play, the National Golf Foundation revealed that successful 2024, the largest radical of on-course golfers — astir 6.3 cardinal players — were betwixt the ages of 18 to 34. Since 2019, there’s been a 41% summation of pistillate golfers, the NGF reports, and each twelvemonth since 2020, astir 3.3 cardinal radical person deed the people for the archetypal time. The surge tin beryllium credited to contented creators and YouTubers amplifying the athletics online, trendy apparel brands, shows similar “Full Swing” connected Netflix, nightlife-adjacent establishments similar TopGolf and collectives similar Swang who are introducing the athletics to a caller demographic.

A assemblage fills the apical level of the driving scope during a Swang play event.

Swang attracts astir 75 to 100 regular attendees astatine each Free Range session. Among them are creatives, musicians, entrepreneurs, tech professionals, actors, marketers and more.

Although immoderate radical bring their ain play cogwheel to the meetups, nary is required. It’s besides “a harmless spot to suck,” Oyewole says.

Prior to discovering Swang, Adil Kadir’s lone acquisition with the athletics was going to TopGolf, but it was thing helium wanted to get amended at. As idiosyncratic who worked successful the tech industry, helium viewed golfing arsenic a “language” oregon introduction constituent that could amended his “ability to integrate into the satellite of business.”

But done Swang, helium discovered that golfing was besides fun. “Nothing tin truly stimulate the magnitude of dopamine you get from really hitting the shot the close way,” helium says.

Beginning golfers get idiosyncratic instruction.

Stacey Esteban was tense astir attending Free Range for the archetypal clip due to the fact that of antagonistic experiences she had astatine different play ranges successful L.A.

“I’ll perceive broadside comments from different radical who don’t look similar me, and they’re trying to springiness maine lessons that I ne'er asked for, and it doesn’t consciousness harmless for me. But here, I was like, ‘It’s safe,’ ” says Esteban, who started playing play during the pandemic. “These are radical I’d privation to speech to and bent retired with.”

Josh Hubberman, 43, has been playing play connected and disconnected since helium was a child, but helium didn’t get backmost into the athletics until helium went to a Swang meetup past year. “Driving ranges are often quiescent [with] 2 radical successful a bay, and you’re benignant of conscionable politely waiting for a bay to open,” says Hubbeman, who is the co-founder of the originative task workplace Cthdrl. “Then erstwhile you amusement up astatine Swang, we person euphony playing. We instrumentality implicit 10-plus bays, and it’s a large societal lawsuit arsenic well, truthful there’s an vigor that immediately, you get connected tract and it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s got to beryllium Swang!’ ” About a twelvemonth later, Hubberman reached retired to Oyewole astir teaming up with Cthdrl and moving unneurotic to crook Swang into a viable business.

Swang is already making an interaction connected the play manufacture successful L.A. and beyond. In August, the corporate programmed the euphony astatine an exclusive TopGolf lawsuit featuring rapper Larry June. Earlier this year, Swang partnered with the Rolling Loud euphony festival to co-produce a play invitational and merchandise a capsule collection. Swang besides hosted a tourney successful L.A. called Spicoli’s Scramble — successful grant of Oyewole’s precocious champion person — and raised $20,000 for the Grammy Museum and Recording Academy’s Quinn Coleman scholarship.

The larger imaginativeness for Swang, Oyewole says, is to proceed hosting the Free Range sessions and yet adhd a rank constituent that would let members to entree exclusive events and experiences specified arsenic radical trips to play tournaments astir the globe. The corporate precocious started creating short- and long-form societal media content, and they volition debut their archetypal Swang apparel portion astatine Paris Fashion Week aboriginal this month.

Back astatine the driving range, chill R&B euphony is playing, and a fistful of attendees are taking their last swings for the nighttime earlier the overhead lights astatine the scope unopen off.

Reni Somoye, 32, was astir to leave, but she decides to enactment aft different attendee encourages her to deed the shot 1 past time. She’s been watching different radical passim the nighttime and realized that she needed to plaything much powerfully. When it’s her turn, she walks toward the borderline of the stall, pauss, swings and past strikes the shot truthful hard it flies retired onto the field. The radical that was mingling adjacent begins to cheer.

She turns around, smiling from receptor to ear, and daps up the coach.

“Alright,” she says. “Alright, that was good!”