Sports Series: Hitting the links a continued passion for pro golfer Tooshkenig
By Sam Laskaris
BKEJWANONG TERRITORY – There was a time when Steve Tooshkenig was hoping to be one of the world’s premier golfers.
And though he did become a pro, Tooshkenig, an Anishinaabe golfer with Ojibwe, Delaware and Potawatomi ancestry, is now not envious of those who made it to the lucrative PGA Tour.
“They’re spending 300 days of the year living in a hotel,” Tooshkenig said of those who are regulars on the world’s most prestigious golf circuit.
Only a select few, however, have what it takes to get to the PGA Tour level.
“What I learned the most is that it takes a lot of discipline and a lot of talent,” he said.
Tooshkenig, a member of Bkejwanong Territory (Walpole Island First Nation), is still technically a golf pro.
If there were no pandemic, in all likelihood, he would have been participating in some PGA of Ontario tournaments in 2020; instead, he spent the early part of the year focused on serving his community.
Tooshkenig finished his term as a Bkejwanong Territory council member in the fall.
As for his future, Tooshkening is looking ahead in 2021, where he will operate his Focus on the Fairway Series, where he will visit seven First Nations to host clinics and camps for golfers of all ages. Tooshkening also continues to offer golf lessons through his own golf company, ST Golf Inc., which incorporates his initials in its moniker. He founded the company in 2009.
Tooshkening also continues to be a professional ambassador for the MontHill Golf and Country Club, located in Caledonia, Ont.
“I do a lot of clinics at the MontHill club,” he said. “They’ve supported me throughout my career.”
Tooshkening, who started golfing at the age of six, eventually worked his way up and cracked the roster of the men’s team at St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Mich.
After finishing a two-year Criminology Justice program at the college, Tooshkening turned pro.
He became a regular on the Ontario-based Great Lakes Tour.
“It was good because it was a stepping stone for Ontario-based professionals,” he said. “It’s still around. It’s a developmental tour where young touring pros can play some events.”
Tooshkening went on to compete in several Canadian Tour events. And he also took great pride in taking part in an Indigenous-only pro circuit. That tour, organized by the First Nations Golf Association (FNGA), is no longer around.
“It needed to have more support,” he said. “You had only about the 40 top players taking part. You needed about 70 players for what it wanted to produce.”
Tooshkening still has fond memories of that circuit.
“I probably played in 15-20 events in total,” he said. “It was all over North America.”
One of Tooshkening’s career highlights was winning an FNGA event, the 2009 Oneida Open in Wisconsin.
He also competed in tour stops in California, Florida, Arizona and Oregon and registered numerous Top 10 finishes.
Tooshkening’s golf involvement also saw him become an agent for his younger sister Cheryl Mitchell, who also became a golf pro. Mitchell spent the majority of her pro career on the Symetra Tour, a circuit one step below the LPGA Tour.
As his sister’s agent, Tooshkening handled Mitchell’s contract negotiations and her appearances.
This story is part of an Anishinabek News series, written by Sam Laskaris, profiling former athletes with Anishinabek ties.