The latest research about women's golf in England is a mixed bag; the good news is that more and more ladies and girls are showing an interest in the game, but the bad news is that we are short on members. Women & Golf ask the man in charge of England Golf what he plans on doing about it.


 Image: Andy Hiseman

The latest research about women's golf in England is a mixed bag. On the one hand the number of women showing an interest in golf is high and very encouraging, but the bad news is that getting them to join as members is hard work. Women & Golf ask Jeremy Tomlinson, CEO of England Golf, about what he plans on doing about it.

“It's woeful,” confessed Jeremy Tomlinson, as he considered the number of women holding golf club memberships in England.

As the head of the governing body which represents every club in England, we're here to quiz him about the fact that no matter how hard various clubs and authorities seem to try, only a mere 15 percent of golf club members in England are women.

To make things worse, this stat hasn't improved in recent years either. 

“It isn’t enough,” he admitted. "I don’t think that golf clubs have tried hard enough to appeal to women golfers in the past. But I do think slowly but surely the way we do things is starting to change, it has to if we want to see the numbers change."

When Jeremy took over the position in January he inherited a goal of achieving a 20 percent female membership throughout England Golf clubs by 2021. He freely admits that this target isn't realistic, but remains encouraged that this percentage will start to rise.

"To start with, we couldn’t be any more supportive of trying to get more women into the game of golf," he said.

"Pretty much everything and anything that we try to do is designed to promote equality."

He's worked in golf for pretty much his whole life, previously holding the position of VP and Managing Director of Acushnet, the parent company of Titleist and Footjoy. So he is well aware of the game's shortcomings.

"Golf is lagging behind so many other sports," he siad. "Even in my short tenure of some five months I’ve attended workshops and meetings and we’re put to shame by participation rates in other sports."

But this can be counteracted with the more positive news that women do seem to have an interest in participating.

“Of the eight million people who want to play for leisure, whether that be at the driving range, Top Golf or putting greens, 40 percent are women.

“The problem we have is that somewhere along the line as we move towards membership, many women and girls seem to get put off. Of course we want more women to participate and to just enjoy golf in any shape or form but we also want more members.”

It's a theory we've heard before, but what we really want to know is what England Golf are doing to solve this problem?

"We have to be careful," Jeremy explained. "With a sport such as ours, a wonderful sport we love, we have to acknowledge it is entrenched with tradition and it has not always been about equality.

"As we move forward we are looking to change many, many years of tradition and bring it up to date. And therefore we have to recognise there isn't going to be a magic wand which sorts everything out. We may have to do this club by club."

To be fair to him, we have already seen the introduction of different schemes like Girls Golf Rocks, aimed at teaching beginner girls under 18 how to play golf, taking place over the last few years. Jeremy thinks it's united ideas like this which will be the key to growing the numbers.

"I think the various bodies need to do more to unite golf clubs," he explained.

"For instance, last year Girl Golf Rocks had over 100 clubs involved and saw over 220 clubs apply to do it. So we know these initiatives work."

The R&A also released the Women in Golf Charter in 2018 with aim of bringing about a united effort to get more women and girls into the game. But many might argue that we are yet to see this argreement put into any kind of action...

Jeremy combatted this point by explaining that the processes have to be right before the country can start changing things.

"We are in a situation now where everybody agrees that we must change but different organisations are in different stages. But we are very much behind it, behind the Charter and behind Martin Slumbers," he said.

"Since I came in the R&A have reached out to us all to try and have a more unified front on many initiatives. We are going to start to make some headway."

He also suggested that we as members also have a part to play.

"We can all do more," he says. "Ask yourself who you could introduce to this game that has so many wonderful benefits, both mental and physical."

He's also dismissive of those who accuse golf of being a sport 'run by men for men'.

"Women have more of a say in golf than ever," he argued. "I disagree that golf is just run by men. It certainly isn’t from an England Golf perspective, our staff is about 50/50. With regards to golf clubs I can’t tell you how many chairwomen there are but what I can tell you is that there has been a big change in attitude about whether women can be a captain of a club. My own club, Marlborough in Wiltshire, was one of the first.”

In fact, he's quite definite about what he wants to achieve with England Golf:

"I want to bring about change in the areas of equality, safeguarding and diversity. I've been playing since I was seven and I want as many people as possible to experience this great game through golf clubs."

We wish him the best of luck.

You can find out more about England Golf by visiting www.englandgolf.org.

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 Image: Andy Hiseman

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