Tips for attracting women to join your golf club

Europe’s largest ever survey of sport and active recreation rates golf the seventh most popular sport in England.

The survey revealed that 6 per cent (11,265) of men polled had played golf in the last month, compared to only 0.9 per cent (1,754) of women. Comparative figures are not available to track trends in the numbers of women and men playing the game but according to the Ladies’ Golf Union, fewer women are striding out on to the fairways of Britain. Although the decline is slow, it is steady.

“Everyone is vying for our attention and our money, not just golf clubs,” said an LGU spokeswoman.

“If clubs are putting barriers in the way of women by imposing a dress code that forbids trainers to be worn, for example, then they will look somewhere else. It’s time to relax the dress rules.

“Why shouldn’t women wear a round neck t-shirt on the course. If we are looking to make golf more appealing for youngsters, clubs should be making it easier for them to play the game by allowing them to wear the gear they like.

“The Ladies’ British Open, our biggest event, draws players from all over the world. Young players want to wear clothes as much as a fashion statement and to look cool on the course as for playing golf.”

Concerns over perceived overly traditional and rigid codes in the game, together with the lack of a level playing field for women golfers, come at a time when clubs are having to take a long look at how best to maintain their financial viability in the face of what some say is a mounting membership crisis.

If the game is made more accessible for women, couldn’t this aid clubs in winning new members? The LGU and other bodies think so. “While we cannot influence clubs directly, we believe that this is a good moment for them to look at their own facilities and rules to see how they can attract more members,” said the spokeswoman. “There are so many opportunities to bring more women into the game.”

But can those opportunities be capitalised on? The Women’s Sports Foundation, for example, has identified various practical barriers that women and girls face when entering into golf.

“Lack of time, childcare, money, transport, personal safety, funding, and access to facilities are the most prominent,” a spokesman told Golf Club Management.

“Women who work during the week will want to play at weekends,” added the LGU spokeswoman. To be denied access at such times can only drive them away from the game, she argued.

“With young mums in mind, making clubs a little more child friendly is important. As is changing the dress code to take account of what women want to wear.

“However, things are changing. In the old days, women looked after the tea and biscuits: now they are serving on greens and general management committees.”

That optimistic note is not sounded by golf entrepreneur Vivien Saunders however. “Male players outnumber female golfers by six or seven to one so how can we expect to gain equal representation?” she asked.

Saunders, a former British champion and chairman of the Women’s PGA, who was awarded the OBE in 1997 for her services to golf, is a longstanding advocate for the introduction of sweeping changes in the game but sounds a warning over the future prosperity of a sport that she believes is locked in a timewarp.

“Golf is in serious trouble and is in danger of crashing around our ears,” believed Saunders, who owns Abbotsley and Cambridge Meridian clubs and The Cromwell Club. “Proprietary clubs, many of which are one-man bands, are struggling and we are not far away from returning some sites to farmland.”

Bringing young women players into the game is a major priority, Saunders believed, but the method of doing this is critical. “Too few younger women players are entering golf – the average age is currently 64 or 65. Women need far more support than men when they first start playing and can be put off the game pretty quickly.”

There’s another issue to address, Saunders said. “More than a century ago a book was published that advocated more women teaching golf. We must improve dramatically the numbers of women teaching the game in clubs. There are probably only about 80 at the moment – not nearly enough.”

Saunders’ determination to attract younger players generally perhaps explains the profile at her own clubs, where male and female captains are typically in their 30s.

Ploughing time and money into developing a juniors’ programme can prove deeply frustrating though. “Abbotsley has put a huge amount into coaching juniors, but the problem is that as soon as golfers are old enough to drive, they are lured away by those who say to them: ‘if you want to play for your county, move to another club’.”

A host of problems plague golf, Saunders believed, not least an oversupply of facilities. In Cambridge, the numbers of clubs has risen from 10 to 29 over the last 20 years. “The number of golfers hasn’t trebled and funding for improvements usually only goes to private members’ clubs.”

Modernisation throughout the game is required urgently, she said, including greater access at weekends for working women, easing of dress codes, changes to the handicap system and competition structure and an end to amateur / professional anomalies, but she is not confident of change on the scale needed.

“The average golfer does not want modernisation. The vast majority play off handicaps at their own club and the structure of golf differs from sports such as hockey where clubs play each other to win and need to take on talented players to help them do that.”

Despite all her efforts over more than 25 years, Saunders confessed that even in her own clubs, the proportion of women to men golfers remains dispiritingly low.

The mounting membership crisis may propel change far quicker than many expect though.