International pop star Niall Horan is the cover star of golf magazine bunkered for its November edition.
The 10-page feature by bunkered’s deputy editor Michael McEwan reveals Niall’s motivations for starting a golf management company.
In the feature, Niall says he’s using his experience of being a pop star in One Direction to help nurture young sports people and change the way the sport is run for the better.
A lifelong golfer, Niall was motivated to start his boutique golf management company Modest! Golf in 2016 to use what he’d learned being in one of the most successful bands of all time to protect young talent from the pitfalls of fame.
Speaking in the latest edition of bunkered magazine, he says: “What we’re noticing in sport and music is that everyone is so much younger nowadays. The best players in the world are starting to become really good, very early. So, it’s important to have good people around you from the start who have your best interests at heart.
“Suddenly you’re out in the big bad world and you’ve got to go around sussing out agents and stuff like that. Even though the range is a small place and you think you know everyone, I can’t imagine it’s very easy to make that decision. That’s what we set out to fix.
“What I noticed was that a lot of young guys, particularly those just below the DP World Tour, didn’t know where they were going to playing the next week, or seemed a bit unsure about this, that or the other. I was just like, ‘I love golf and I’d love to see the next generation come through, be protected, and be supported.’ That’s where it began.”
He also opens up on the cynicism he faced when he started his golf company, saying how it fueled him to make a success of the business. The boutique firm was dismissed by many naysayers as a non-credible ‘plaything’ for the star. “To be honest, I kind of expected the cynicism,” he explains. “There are agents on the range who have been there for a long time. They know the tour inside out and they’ve had their pick of the players for a long time. When they saw me turn up and try to get involved, they were bound to be a bit like, ‘Who’s he?’
Michael McEwan, deputy editor at bunkered who wrote the piece, says: “If you take away the international fame, tens of millions of social media followers and chart success, Niall is not that different to any other golfer: passionate about the game, fanatical about playing it better, and invested in its success. The golf industry has long acknowledged a need to reach new audiences and in Niall Horan it has the perfect advocate so it’s our pleasure to share the unvarnished story of Modest! Golf Management’s successes, struggles and aspirations for the game in bunkered this month.”