This club has nearly 130 female members – and wants to grow this much further

A club in Lancashire that already has well above the average number of female members for a UK golf club has signed up to The R&A’s Women in Golf Charter as part of a drive to go even further.

Pleasington Golf Club has made a series of pledges to encourage more women, girls and families to play and work in golf. It also wants to create even better community links and wider understanding of its aims.

It has appointed two members, Jacquie Banister and Andrew Buxton as its ‘charter champions’ to monitor progress and to support and help new players and members.

Jacquie commented: “We have a strong belief that our club should reflect the modern world and uphold standards of equality in everything we do.

“We’ve moved away from the old stereotypes of gents and ladies to golfers and we want to inspire more families to enjoy golf as a leisure activity.”

Jacquie Banister and Andrew Buxton

Andrew added: “A vibrant, forward looking club like ours should be aiming for 20 to 30 per cent female membership. However, we realise that extra effort is needed to achieve this and that a culture change has been necessary to make the progress we have. Full equality needs to be embedded in everything we do.”

Pleasington has almost 130 women and girl members, of whom over half are active golfers. The club is working hard to grow their numbers and to attract more families, with children under 14 able to join free through Get into Golf.

The club has extended playing opportunities for women and girls and runs a popular women’s Get into Golf programme. This includes a 12-month membership, supported by buddies to help their integration, and 22 women have recently taken this up.

The Women in Golf Charter was launched last year to increase the number of women and girls playing golf and to encourage more opportunities for women to work. England Golf was one of the first signatories and, it was recently announced, over 100 organisations have committed to it.

Now, the drive to get more clubs to sign up is set to gather pace.

Lauren Spray, England Golf Women and Girls manager, commented: “Pleasington have been excellent to work with and I’m delighted that they have adopted the charter. I am sure this will help to encourage many more clubs to pledge their commitments to the charter and support the continued growth of women and girls’ golf.”