American Golf’s fight for equality in Golf

Many of you will have noticed that American Golf, Europe’s largest golf retailer, has been popping up all over the place over the last year. 

After sponsoring the Order of Merit at the Rose Ladies Series (one of the best things to happen to women’s golf EVER), they’ve also partnered with the gender-equal ISPS Handa World Invitational. 

Not only that, they've caused ripples by putting Mel Reid’s lovely face in their shop windows.

So, I decided to catch up with the brand’s Head of Marketing, Iember, to find out where these extra efforts to promote and support women’s golf have come from, and what else is in the pipeline...

American Golf seem to have made extra efforts to support the women’s game lately, or am I imagining it?  

We really have! There have been a lot of changes at American Golf over the last two years, and we are really seeing the fruits of that now.  

Words like equality, diversity and inclusivity are often thrown around as sort of buzz words that just sound good, but we are actually putting them into action, driving some change and causing disruption along the way.  

We’re investing a lot of time into things that we know will make a difference and grow women’s golf and golf as a whole. It’s really exciting.

Is that why you’ve started sponsoring professional events? 

Yes, when we got a call from Justin about the Rose Ladies we knew straight away that we wanted to be part of it. Him and Kate worked so hard to pull it together and it really was a game changer for women’s golf. 

For us it was also a great way of demonstrating that we are passionate about growing women’s golf. Our support will be ongoing too, not just a one-time thing. We want to keep nurturing partnerships and relationships like the one we have with the Justin and the Rose Ladies Series.  

We’re also so excited about the ISPS Handa World Invitational – it's got equal prize money and it’s very much about putting men and women on even par. We can’t wait to work with Modest! Golf and we'll have access to the players and loads of competitions and things coming out around it too. 

Are you pushing to improve your women’s range in stores too?  

To be honest, I don’t think many women see us as the first destination for them and we don’t make as much money from the women’s products. But we’re on a gradual journey to try and change that and make women more aware of what we can offer them. It would be great to see more women in our stores. 

ellesse will be a big part of our women’s story again this year. Last year Mel Reid was the face of their new range and it will be phenomenal to work alongside her again.

Mel initiated the posters of her in stores didn’t she? 

Yes, she commented that women weren’t at the forefront of many campaigns and you know what? She was right. It was so great that she was bold enough and confident enough to speak out and say that. 

I’m also so proud to be part of a company who actually listened and put her on the posters in our windows and in stores. It was a bold step and I don’t think many other golf retailers would have done that as it’s such a very male dominated domain. She was so happy when we sent her the photos of her up there and we got great feedback from her.

Did you start this push for equality?  

Equality is part of the DNA of the brand and it all comes from the top with our CEO Gary Favell. He knows if you don’t actively try and change things then equality just becomes a talking point. 

We have quite a few women in senior and leadership positions too, which is great.  

What else is happening this year?  

We open our flagship store at the Trafford Centre on April 12^th and it’s a really exciting store. It’s got  the UK’s first digitally-controlled ‘Zen Green Stage’, which simulates green slopes and is currently used in the Sky Sports TV studio. 

We also have another range store opening at Rossendale too, that’s got F&B, a driving range and a shop, so when everything is able to open again golfers can have a full day out and experience. It will be very family friendly too. 

For more about American Golf visit www.americangolf.co.uk.