Advancing Gender Equity in Golf
Expanding Opportunities and Accessibility to Sustain Golfer Participation
(By Katie Veasey)
As a volunteer coach for The First Tee in high school, part of my job was to integrate The First Tee’s nine core values into instruction. As an early teenager, I didn’t appreciate how much golf had taught me since I picked up my first club – a Snoopy driver – at age 5. The First Tee helped me realize that golf taught me mental toughness, honesty, how to be a good sport and take responsibility for my own actions. Being a talented player also gave me confidence, which can be scarce in a teenage girl.
Golf has so many benefits for those who play. Not only does golf teach us key life lessons, but it also gets us outside and helps us stay active into our older years. We can play with people of any ability level, opening the door to socialize with folks we may not share many other activities or interests with.
Wouldn’t it be great if more people could benefit from playing golf? In the U.S., still only 25% of on-course golfers are women.
Golf can seem unapproachable for anyone who is not the “typical” golfer. I’ll give an anecdote to demonstrate this. At sixteen years old, I started playing from what are traditionally known as the “men’s tees.” It was not uncommon for me to be met with skepticism when I teed up my ball on the same tee box from which my father was playing. It was nerve-wracking and frustrating to have to prove myself in these situations. But it was also wildly satisfying to bomb it 250 yards down the middle and watch my dad turn to the starter with his “told you so” smile.
Of course, women find playing golf intimidating when this is the attitude we are met with on a golf course. If it weren’t for my parents, brothers, and golf coaches along the way who gave me the confidence to believe I belonged on a golf course, I would have stopped playing as a kid. I can imagine this is what happens with many female golfers, if they even give this sport a shot.
Last June was the 50th anniversary of Title IX being signed into law. Title IX mandated gender equity in school activities, which expanded women’s athletics opportunities across the nation. 50 years later, the U.S. has made great progress in evolving women’s sports, but we certainly haven’t reached the goal of gender equity yet.
Golf is widely known as a male-dominated sport. The barriers for women are quite high and one can see the inequities at all levels of the sport. Just last year, the total prize money on the PGA Tour was five times that of the LPGA. That difference makes it very challenging financially for women to pursue playing golf as a career. This gender imbalance is also seen in the breakdown of golf professionals. I spent a year after graduating college interviewing folks who work in the golf industry, mostly greenskeepers, architects, and leadership of golf-focused organizations. I conducted hundreds of interviews, and I can count on one hand the number of these professionals who were women.
Empowering Women to Grow the Game
In the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in female golfers in the U.S. The pandemic years yielded a wave of new golfers, many of them women. The net gain in female golfers has increased 14% since 2019. Girls accounted for a significant portion of this increase, comprising 35% of junior golfers in 2021 compared to only 15% in 2000. This is due in part to programs like LPGA*USGA Girls Golf, which has impacted one million girls through golf since it was founded in 1989.
The golf industry has also created more opportunities for female golf professionals recently. For the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, the Director of Maintenance at The Olympic Club, Troy Flangan, recruited a volunteer team of 29 women to prepare and maintain the golf course. This provided an opportunity for women in the industry to network and learn from each other. In 2022 at Pine Needles and in 2023 at Pebble Beach, 35 women volunteered on the greens crews.
Building a Culture of Inclusivity and Accessibility
With these tailwinds, the golf industry is positioned well to continue to expand opportunities for more people and grow the game. Lowering the barrier to entry for folks is key to making golf more inclusive and accessible. One way to accomplish this is by offering a less formal practice facility. For example, playing on a short course can help people learn how to navigate a golf hole without the pressure of golfers waiting on them. Gamified driving ranges such as Topgolf and Five Iron have played a huge role in making golf more fun and social for people just starting out.
As we think about “sustainability” in golf, we must support and encourage the next generation of golfers. Golf can and should be more accessible. Considering the land use and resource consumption that golf demands, the industry has an obligation to share the benefits of the game with a wider population than the one it currently serves. We need the whole golfing community to have a welcoming attitude towards women and other underrepresented groups so they feel confident and are motivated to keep coming back.
