Niall Horan is steering young golfers in One Direction! Ryder Cup winner Tyrrell Hatton and young Scots Connor Syme and Ewen Ferguson are all under the pop star’s wing as he looks to change the sport

• Niall Horan was a member of One Direction, one of the biggest boybands ever 
• The pop star is a keen golfer and has his own golf management company 
• Tyrrell Hatton is one of the golfers under Horan’s wing 

As someone who was thrust into the spotlight from a young age, Niall Horan knows what it feels like to become a global superstar almost overnight.

A few months after auditioning for The X Factor as a 16-year-old in 2010, he was part of the biggest boyband in the world when One Direction were formed.

He went from a quiet life as a schoolboy in Ireland to becoming one of the most famous people on the planet.

And yet, away from all the fame and fortune that came with the No 1 hits and chart successes, there was a sporting passion within Horan that always burned brightly.

Truth be told, he was a mad-keen golfer long before he was a pop star. It’s that passion which has led Horan down the path of starting his own golf management company.

Former One Direction star Niall Horan has started his own golf management company

Modest Golf was formed in 2016 and already boasts an impressive array of talent, with Ryder Cup star Tyrrell Hatton and Scottish duo Connor Syme and Ewen Ferguson all on board.

Horan knows only too well the pressures and demands that come with life in the public eye and trying to reach the top of your chosen field.

If he can pass even just an ounce of that wisdom and experience on to some of the company’s young talents, then it will only be beneficial.

Explaining that he wanted to change how young golfers were looked after and protected by agents, Horan said: ‘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.

Ryder Cup star Tyrrell Hatton is one of the golfers signed up to Horan’s Modest Golf

Hatton (middle) won the Ryder Cup with Team Europe in Rome last month 

‘A lot of mates of mine were golfers and I was spending a lot of time around the tour socially.

‘What I noticed pretty quickly was that a lot of young guys, particularly those just below the DP World Tour, didn’t know where they were going to be 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.’

Scottish duo Syme and Ferguson are just two of the players who look to be thriving under the guidance of Horan’s management company.

Ferguson won twice in the space of five months on the DP World Tour in 2022 and both he and Syme are inside the top 50 of this season’s Race to Dubai rankings.

Syme’s decision to sign up with Modest Golf in 2017 also threw up an interesting encounter with a well-known friend of Horan’s at St Andrews, none other than Rory McIlroy.

Mark McDonnell, who co-founded the company with Horan, explained: ‘To this day, I still get people saying to me: “Is Niall really involved”?

‘Of course he is! Obviously, he can’t be at every single event and in every single meeting but, throughout all the major decisions and moments in our company’s history, he’s been there.

‘We signed Connor Syme when he turned pro after the Walker Cup and the Dunhill was one of his first events.

Scottish young duo Ewen Ferguson (left) and Connor Syme (right) are both signed up to Horan’s management company

Horan has over 70million followers across his social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram

‘Niall made a point of being there. Rory McIlroy was playing that week and Niall personally asked him if he’d play some holes with Connor.

‘How’s that for a start to your career? A few holes with Rory McIlroy on the Old Course!’

With over 70million followers across his social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram, Horan’s influence extends far and wide.

It’s that sort of platform which makes him such an asset to golf, a sport which he clearly wants to help develop and grow.

Explaining his love of the game from an early age, the former One Direction star said: ‘It was all about watching Tiger on a Sunday night.

‘Plus we had [Darren] Clarke, [Paul] McGinley and [Padraig] Harrington smashing it at that time. And the thing about golf in Ireland, it’s everywhere you look.

‘Once the band got going and we were travelling the world, I brought the bats [golf clubs] everywhere I went. Honestly, they’ve been more places than my guitar.

‘I always say this but, you know, I’ve got 40m Twitter followers and a few more on Instagram. If me posting about golf here and there makes just one per cent of my followers take an interest in golf, well, look, I’m no mathematician, but it’s a lot!

‘Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of them will be like: “Oh great, he’s talking about golf again”! But I guarantee there’s quite a few who’ll read that tweet and go to the driving range, or go to Topgolf, or even just try to get involved in some shape or form.

‘It’s just about letting them know the sport exists really. You never know how many will go: “Well, if Niall thinks it’s cool, it might be cool”.’

The new venture has not been without its challenges. Particularly from those inside the game, Horan sensed an air of cynicism in the early days when the company first started.

Horan (left) is an ambassador of the R&A and in June took part in the R&A’s launch of Golf.Golf, a pilot in Scotland to encourage people to learn to play golf at a diverse range of golf facilities

‘To be honest, I kind of expected the cynicism,’ he said. ‘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”?

‘We heard bits and pieces here and there but that just gave us more drive – a healthy drive – to prove them wrong. Not in a “we’ll show them” kind of a way. More, “we really want to do this”.’

It’s a new venture and a new direction which continues to go from strength to strength. After his own career in the music industry, Horan is determined to help more young golfers hit the high notes.

NIALL HORAN was speaking in the new edition of bunkered, out on Wednesday. For more great golf content, visit www.bunkered.co.uk

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