Levelling the Fairways: Survey reveals major challenges facing female golfers

A few weeks ago, we launched our new feature series, Levelling the Fairways, to shine a light on what it’s really like to be a female playing and working in golf. By providing a platform for insight, discussion and ultimately growth, the series aims to incite meaningful conversations that force positive change in the future.

So the first thing we did was to launch our Levelling the Fairways survey.

Almost 400 women completed the survey and, honestly, I think you’ll be surprised by the results.

For me, at least, this has been such an eye-opener into the experience of women golfers, the challenges they face and the opportunities we have as an industry to really drive growth in female participation.

Levelling the Fairways survey results

18% of women surveyed have a handicap of 30 or higher

370 women completed our Levelling the Fairways survey. Of those, 89% were aged 45 or older, 69% have been playing golf for over 10 years, and 94% were members of a golf club. Almost everyone had a handicap, with 18% having a handicap of 30 or higher, and over half of the women surveyed play golf during both the weekends and the week.

In England, the average age of a female club golfer is 64, and more than 20% of women have a handicap over 36. It therefore feels fairly safe to say that the demographics of people who completed our survey are pretty reflective of the current landscape of women's club golf.

70% have experienced misogyny

Of the women we surveyed, 70% told us they had experienced misogyny in golf. This is an area I would like to do a bit more digging into, not because I want to drag up any negativity but because I really feel that this is more a reflection on society in general than it is on golf.

But, either way, it shouldn't be the case, and clubs need to make sure there are action plans in place to prevent it in the future.

Main challenges facing female golfers: Time, toilets, cost and course design

This might surprise you, but according to our survey, the biggest challenges facing female golfers are time, toilets, cost and course design:

• A massive 48% of women we surveyed told us that time is a major hurdle to golf participation. Interestingly, a lot of answers also mentioned "flexibility", "nine holes" and "family", which could also be a further indication of the time constraints of golf.
• Lack of on-course toilets was something that came up a lot. Unless you're happy to pee behind a tree, access to toilets is an issue for women more so than for men (for obvious reasons), and it could go some way to explaining the drop in participation rates amongst period-age girls.
• 24% of women said that the financial cost of golf was a significant challenge. A few answers mentioned "equipment" too. You could perhaps infer that the cost of equipment is also an issue, though that needs a bit more digging!
• 11% of responses to this question mentioned course design, and answers ranged from "courses too long" and "too far to carry rough", to "little consideration given to women in course set up". Golf courses being designed by men, for men, is something I've talked a lot about in the past. There is some work being done in this space (more to come on that!), but clearly not enough.

Culture change critical to attract women and girls

Overwhelmingly, what came up in so many of the responses was that a change in culture and attitudes overall is critical to making golf more attractive to women and girls. That obviously comes with one huge caveat: Changing culture in any setting is a difficult and slow process.

But whilst there isn't any one thing we can do within the golf industry to magically transform the culture of the sport, the survey interestingly showed some key areas we can improve that would really help to move the needle when it comes to how the sport is perceived.

• 15% of women said that shorter formats and more nine-hole options would significantly improve golf's appeal to females.
• 9% said that relaxing rules and the dress code would also help.
• 6% commented that improving media coverage of women's golf would make golf more attractive to women and girls.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts on our survey results. Email me at [email protected] and keep your eyes peeled for my next articles which will start to explore the results in more detail!