Quinta do Lago in Portugal’s Algarve is firmly established as one of the most prestigious golf and real estate developments in Europe, and last month the sense of community was enhanced with the official opening of The Campus.

The campus boasts a unique €10 million training, fitness and wellness facility, adding to the six tennis courts, four padel courts and The Bike Shed that opened last summer.

Judy Murray, who has been appointed to host a series of tennis camps at the luxurious resort, was delighted to keep media representatives on their toes by teaching them the basics of the game, and having swapped her golf clubs for a racquet, this gave Women & Golf’s Editor, Alison Root, an opportunity to discuss tennis and golf with the famous coach.

Golf and tennis face similar challenges including attracting women and girls to the sport. How do you believe we can help this problem?

Judy: I’m a huge believer in building the female workforce. Like tennis, I gather that in golf there are fewer female coaches and there’s a correlation between this fact and the number of girls dropping out of sport. Female coaches understand what girls are going through, particularly through their high school years when everything is changing physically and emotionally. They know that girls like being close together with their friends, they need more praise and encouragement than perhaps boys do, and competition needs to be paired or teamed rather than individual. If we had more women in the workforce I think we would retain girls in sport for longer.

There is also a need for more female decision-makers and I spoke about this at a recent Women in Sport conference. Every governing body should have a female-focused strand to their development strategy that is led by a woman because women understand what women want. Nearly always the decision makers are men and that’s why we’re so slow to make progress.

How is the tennis industry trying to build a bigger female workforce that will ultimately attract more female players?

Judy: We won’t quickly build a bigger female workforce by putting women through qualifications because there are no jobs coaching tennis. You have to be self-employed so for that reason the role doesn’t often attract women anyway.

Almost two years ago I created a programme for the Lawn Tennis Association called ‘She Rallies’. I began with an all-female coaching conference with seven speakers and 120 coaches in attendance. Generally, you don’t find egos in female coaches, so there was a willingness to network and share ideas. It was a simple concept, but genius. We then appointed 26 part-time female ambassadors who had been nominated by their region. I trained them up over a weekend to deliver four different courses – 5-8 year-olds, tennis for teenagers, how to run a fun day and how to run recreational competitions. They go out to their areas and create their network of activators around them, like mums, teachers, students, club members, so it’s a great way to help grow numbers.

Eight months after we started, and due to demand, we appointed another 30 ambassadors. Due to their sense of belonging and a common passion, they go above and beyond their duties, and I’m sure a programme like this could be replicated for other sports.

Do you believe in all-girl teaching programmes and activities?

Judy: Not always, but we need to have options because boys are naturally more robust, noisy, physical and competitive than girls. If you have mixed groups from a young age, without meaning to do so, the boys put the girls off. Research in tennis showed that girls stopped playing because they didn’t like the boys.

Following this research, what action was taken?

Judy: Having considered all the barriers that were preventing girls from either entering or staying in the game, or women coming into coaching, an activity called Mishits was created for 5-8 year-olds. It’s a fun programme in an all-girl environment in which they can thrive. It’s all about developing the skills required to be able to play tennis and because they are young you can do that with balloons, chiffon squares, beanbags etc. You don’t even need an indoor tennis court. This programme also lends itself perfectly to more women getting involved because it’s a non-technical course.

"It’s no longer a case of “I can’t play tennis, it’s too difficult,” or “I tried it at school and wasn’t any good"."

When I was young I remember going to the church hall and the lady that took the tennis lesson was the curate’s wife. She couldn’t play for toffee but we didn’t care. She organised everything, taught us the rules and we learned for ourselves by playing.

You have been granted permission to build a new golf and tennis centre in Dunblane. Who is the brainchild of this project?

Judy: Several years ago I sat beside Jack Nicklaus in the Royal Box at Wimbledon. He told me about the beginner six-hole golf courses he was involved within the US and how the holes are made bigger to build confidence through success. That’s when I thought, “I’ll do that!” There will be a six-hole golf course; Himalayas putting, like St Andrews, a two-tier driving range and 9-hole crazy golf.

How will this complex differ to existing venues?

Judy: Whilst I don’t play golf, my younger brother is a golf pro and other family members play so I’m familiar with the sport. I’ve also done a lot of research into golf, as in it takes too long; people don’t have the time nowadays. Tennis and golf are perceived in a similar way - difficult to do, difficult to access and expensive. You’ve got to blow all of that out of the water.

As far as golf is concerned, to encourage kids to start early you need an environment to be welcoming, friendly and fun and so that’s clearly a challenge at traditional golf clubs because golf clubs don’t want six-year-old boys and girls running around or carving up the course either. That’s why I believe our new complex with a 6-hole course will be the perfect place for families to learn and enjoy the game. We’ve got to stay contemporary.

With any sport, environment and family are crucial to retain kids. They will remain in a sport if their family is involved too. That’s the great thing about Quinta do Lago as it’s a family-focused and community-driven resort.

Will you start playing golf?

Judy: I will when the complex is up and running, but that’s not likely to be until spring 2021. In the meantime, the more I read about the challenges of golf, the more I think I’ll have a stab at creating a new fun learning pack for kids with brightly coloured and bigger equipment etc. It would be quite easy for me to do something like that because of all the learning programmes I have been involved with. Watch this space…

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