“EVERY GREAT GOLF STORY STARTS FAR FROM THE FAIRWAY.”
Our new series, People of Urban Golf, is about uncovering those stories, one player at a time. From cracked sidewalks to hidden fairways, these are the people shaping the culture of the game outside the country club gates.
For our second interview, we sat down with Luke Oberto, an urban golf legend whose mind builds as much as his swing creates. By day, he’s an engineer, breaking down problems and designing solutions. By night (and often mid-day), he’s carving new lines through the city with a golf club in hand.
Golf, like engineering, is about precision and imagination… and Luke embodies both.”
THIS ISN’T JUST ABOUT GOLF.
IT’S ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO PLAY IT THEIR WAY.
Tell us a little about yourself...
My name is Luke. Um, you can find me on my socials at @bogeysuck I am an engineer. I went to school for software egineering. Right now I am a test engineer for a power company.
How long have you been playing golf?
I would say I've been playing golf for about 5 years now. I play a little growing up. It was really when I graduated college and needed something to fill the void of competitiveness, I picked up golf and that was about 5 years ago and I got the golf bug and I've had it ever since! It's never going away!
How and when did you find out about Urban Golf?
So, I moved to Portland about 4 years ago and I had seen one or two instagram reels of a famous putt on hole 9 at Tour Fairways, but after swiping through that on my instagram reels, I never really thought of it again. And then one day I was playing a course in Beaverton, it's a city in Oregon, and I happened to be driving through on a Thursday evening right at the intersection that hole 9 takes place. I saw everyone doing the putt. They invited me out to do the putt and ever since then I fell in love with Urban Golf. It's kind of funny!
What's your favorite part of the meetups?
My favorite part of the meetups by far has to be, one the people, and two, the competitiveness. First off, it's an Urban Golf family. We know everybody by name. It doesn't matter if it's your first time or your hundredth time going to Urban Golf. I remember my first time. I was welcomed with hugs and love and it was the type of environment that everyone wants to be in and I've made a lot of good friendships and a lot of connections through golf and my career just from the Portland Urban Golf. So, definitely the people and two competitiveness. As I said, I grew up playing college soccer and I have a massive competitive side to me and when there's days that I want to be competitive, I can come out here and play against some of the best golfers that I'll ever play against in my life in Urban Golf and it's always fun to be able to do that, but you know, it can also be casual if I need to. Definitely the people though.
Any favorite memories?
There's a lot of favorite memories at Urban Golf. I feel like every single night something crazy happens! But one that comes to mind is someone stepped up to the tee on hole 8 and hit a hole-in-one and it was awesome! Everyone was going nuts and I was fighting for a skin that night I just couldn't get one and I was feeling really competitive. So as soon as the celebration stopped from the hole-in-one, I stood up there and my shot and I also hit a hole-in-one and it was the first ever back-to-back aces in Urban Golf history and it was also the first person to hit the ace was one my good friends. So it made for an awesome moment and the vibes were awesome and it's just a memory that I'll never forget and everyone was just so hyped and it was awesome! I can't describe the feeling!
What's it mean to be a Muni Kid to you?
What it means to be a Muni Kid to me is... The first word that comes to my mind is family. As I've mentioned the people are awesome. But I've really dove down into what Muni Kids are and what the brand means and it's a lot bigger than that. It's about growing the game of golf. No matter who you are or what kind of person you are, what skill level you are and that anybody can play golf. You can go to Goodwill and grab a club and find any sort of ball that rolls and learn how to play golf through that. You don't need to beat a country club spending thousands of dollars getting lessons. Like, if you're dedicated, the game is so fun that anyone can learn ho to golf and also, it shouldn't matter what you look like, how you dress, how much money you make, or where you come from. It's golf and it's a beautiful game and Muni Kids really displays that in their branding and they invite people in and I'm very proud to be able to wear that and support the brand and do that as much possible because it's truly an amazing thing and there's no other brand like that!
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