(hip-hop beats) - I want to get some air.

- You want to get some air?

Okay.

Your left foot is going to line up with the tee.

- Right.

- A little bit of a wider stance.

- Okay.

- Keep those knees bent.

There we go.

- Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

I could definitely do this all day.

Like I get it.

I get it.

- The thing about golf is that whatever you're feeling inside is going to translate in your swing.

If you're angry and you don't know it, or there's noise in your head, and you go to the golf course, or you go to the driving range, it's going to show in your swing.

Golf has surprisingly built a mind-body connection for me.

It's kind of a, dare I say, spiritual practice.

It's a lot of things.

(upbeat music) - Key Buckner started playing golf five years ago during the pandemic.

Initially hesitant, he grew to love the sport and has found it to be meditative and a great way to connect with friends.

Key started the group, Back Nine Crew, alongside his friend, Jillian Igarashi, as a way to introduce more Black queer people to the sport.

Today I'm here at the Bill Wright Golf Complex, where he'll teach me how to play.

Hi.

- Hello.

Are you ready for today?

- I am so ready.

- Let's go get some clubs rented for you.

- Cool.

- Let's just do a quick overview of what some of these clubs are.

Every club has a purpose.

The biggest one is like your powerhouse.

It's the one that's going to make you go the furthest, give you the most distance.

These are called wedges.

Irons.

This last one is my favorite.

It's the putter.

It's when we're close to the hole and you just got to tap it right in.

- Got it.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) Generally you want to find the spot that you think you're going to hit best from.

Because this one is relatively close, I'm going to tee off with a pitching wedge.

Put your thumb facing down towards the club.

You've got your knees slightly bent.

End of the club towards the belly button.

Your natural inclination is going to want to be to follow the clubhead with your eyes, but you don't want to do that.

- Okay.

- Imagine the ball is right in front of that club face, and you want to keep your eye on the ball as you turn your body as far as it'll go.

- Ah, okay.

- And then just slowly come back down to the spot that we were at.

That's essentially a golf swing.

- Okay.

- Are you ready?

(laughs) - I'm ready.

I'm telling my brain.

Don't move your eyes.

- Don't move your eyes.

Yes.

Great.

- Look out everybody.

- It's okay.

It's okay.

That's okay.

- It's like I want to come down so hard.

- You want to come down so hard.

Your brain wants to smash it.

- Yeah.

- But you can't do that yet.

- Okay.

- Up and hit.

- There, you hit it!

You hit it.

(laughs) My name is Key, and I am a golfer.

And I live in Seattle, where there's just not a lot of people that look like me in golf.

- Yeah.

What is it about golf?

Because when I think of golf, I... I mean, until playing with you, I thought it was so slow and boring and old and white.

- Exactly.

No, same.

I mean, you know, in the pandemic, things were shut down and a friend of mine decided to invite me out to golf.

It was one of the few things around here that was open.

I laughed at the idea.

I didn't want to go.

I said no many times.

Finally, somehow, she convinced me.

I think she said something about she's going to buy me a beer.

And I said, okay, well, I'll do it.

From that day, I still remember the very first time I like, hit the ball.

The dopamine hit, the rush.

And I haven't stopped since.

Early on as a Black man, and in Seattle specifically, it was really hard to navigate a golf course and not have like a community in it.

But I was lucky enough to find the Bill Wright Complex.

Bill Wright is a Black man who grew up in Seattle.

The first African-American to win the USGA championship.

They actually just changed the name a few years ago, trying to pay homage to the fact that it is a predominantly Asian and Black neighborhood.

And it wasn't always given that credit.

And so when I found that spot, I knew I had found my home course.

For this hole, the distance is a little further and it's uphill.

We're going to need more power, so we're going to try a driver.

The biggest club in your bag.

- Okay.

- And also the hardest one to hit.

(laughs) - Wonderful.

- Yeah.

- Ooh.

I don't even see it.

- There it is.

- Whoa!

- Nope.

- That's okay.

(laughs) - There we go.

Now, that is a hit.

Oh, no.

Chunked it.

That's what they call a chunk.

See that?

There we go!

- Oh shoot.

- Alison, you're a better golfer than me.

You're a better golfer than me!

- It's in the blood baby!

(laughs) - Whoa.

Jillian Igarashi, she's the one who took me out that day for my first golf swing.

We started a club.

It's called Back Nine Crew.

We just wanted to share the joy that we were having in the middle of the pandemic with more people, and we wanted it to be BIPOC-centered.

I decided to transition about four years ago, and that was kind of right at the same time that I was golfing a lot.

And one of the things I used Back Nine Crew club for was to find a way to safely navigate golf courses with my friends.

If you can imagine, you go to a golf course, one is, you might be the only person of color on the whole course, but two is they may not have bathrooms that are inclusive.

All those intersections kind of combine in that really vulnerable space.

So what I started to do is I created a document that named all the courses that I was going to, how friendly they appeared to be, which ones had like family restrooms or gender neutral restrooms, if any.

And I started to map it out for myself so that I could then revisit it on my own if I didn't have my friend group with me.

If we step outside of Bill Wright and think about golf in a more general way, it is predominantly white.

It tends to attract a more wealthy person.

So learning how to be comfortable in my masculinity and walk into a space that I'm assuming sometimes I'm not welcome in, has given me a level of confidence and belief in myself.

Putting is, some people hate it, some people love it.

I happen to love it.

That line is showing you where that ball's going to go.

If I turn it this way, or if I turn it this way.

And you're going to want to do more of, like a pendulum swing with your shoulders.

There we go, there we go, there we go!

- Oh!

- Oh my god!

(sighs) - Okay.

- Okay, a little tap in.

- This is, yeah, little baby tap.

Just a tappy tap.

- Boom.

- Okay, nice.

- Congratulations.

- That would've been really bad.

- You completed golf.

(laughs) - Nailed it.

And done!

- In a world where everything is teaching us how to dehumanize and put space between each other, for me, golf was a way to, like, bring people in.

Do you want to be outside, in a day full of sunshine with me?

Maybe with a drink in hand and some music?

If you say yes to that, then you can be a golfer.