The first LPGA Leadership Academy held outside the United States took place at The Belfry last month, with Charley Hull among the speakers. What the 41 participants took home went well beyond golf.
Charley Hull was the headline name, but the academy at The Belfry last month was not really about Charley Hull. It was about 41 girls, aged 12 to 17, spending two days in an environment most of them had not encountered before: one where every coach, every speaker and every person running the sessions was a woman.
The Girls Leadership Academy, organised by the Golf Foundation in partnership with the LPGA Foundation, made its first appearance outside the United States.
The two-day programme combined golf coaching with workshops on confidence, communication, resilience and goal-setting. Hull, a Golf Foundation ambassador, joined a panel on the second day and spoke about managing pressure and social media.
“It was a pleasure to see so many young female golfers in one room and to share my own insights on staying resilient and managing social media. The Girls Leadership Academy is a great initiative for developing girls’ confidence.”
A different kind of environment
Several participants mentioned, during and after the event, that they had never been in a room where women were the majority. The coaching team was all-female. So was the videography crew. For girls used to being the only, or one of very few, female juniors at their clubs, the effect was noticeable.
The programme covered topics including confidence, goal-setting, resilience and career pathways, with practical sessions that encouraged participants to reflect on their own strengths and ambitions. One session involved creating vision boards focused on future goals, which led to broader conversations about what routes are open to young women in and around golf.
Two participants summed up the experience in their own words.
Abby said:
“I will walk away with advice I’ve been seeking for years to use in everyday life, but most importantly golf. I’ve never been more inspired by such an amazing group of coaches and mentors.”
Eleanor added:
“This has been one of the best experiences of my life. From learning how to deal with mental stress and gain confidence, to setting goals and meeting Charley Hull, it has been everything I wanted this experience to be and more.”
Part of a wider push
The Academy is part of the Golf Foundation’s partnership with the LPGA Foundation, announced earlier this year, to expand female-focused development programmes across Great Britain and Ireland. The Belfry event is the first to come out of that agreement.
The LPGA Foundation has been running Leadership Academies in the United States for a decade. Bringing the format to England is a straightforward case of applying something that works to a market where the need is clear. Girls are underrepresented in junior golf, and structured programmes that combine the game with broader personal development are still relatively rare.
Whether that changes depends on how well events like this one are supported and whether they can be scaled. On the evidence from The Belfry, there is no shortage of enthusiasm among the girls who attend.
Click the link for more information on the LPGA Leadership Academy
Read more about Charley Hull – Here
