Women and Golf Magazine conclude 2018 with a round-up of women and girls getting into golf and the notable rise across Great Britain and Ireland this past year.
If Georgia Hall’s winning smile upon lifting the Women’s British Open trophy was one of the endearing photographs of 2018, so were the fun-filled images of women and girls getting into golf across Great Britain and Ireland this past year.
By Ed Hodge
The last 12 months saw a notable rise in the number of dedicated participation initiatives and coaching activities delivered by leading golfing bodies to encourage more women, girls and families into the sport.
Through the work in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and the launch of initiatives such as The R&A’s Women in Golf Charter, early signs of progress are promising. Hall’s success at Royal Lytham & St Annes can only have helped awareness too, acting as a great role model to emulate.
Inspired by England Golf, this year’s Women & Girls Week was a great success from the home bodies across social media, reaching more than 2.5m people on Twitter and generating 12m impressions.
“Our aim was to raise awareness of the fabulous female side of the game and, with the support and collaboration of the other home countries, we succeeded beyond our expectations,” said Lauren Spray, Women and Girls’ Manager, England Golf.
On the course, there are examples of numbers beginning to trend upward. In Ireland, junior girls’ membership as a whole is up nearly 1% this year, as is overall female membership – the first time the Irish Ladies’ Golf Union (ILGU) has seen an overall growth in membership since 2008.
Building on this, the ILGU recently hosted five Festivals of Golf across the country, as part of the Golf4Girls4Life Programme (in aid of Play in Pink – Breast Cancer Research), and were attended by 130 girls – all with no handicap or minimum 35/36 handicap.
In England, participation among women and girls has increased from 15 to 17%, while the Girls Golf Rocks programme has grown from 15 counties and 72 clubs in 2017 to 21 counties and 98 clubs for 2018.
Across GB&I, over 25,000 women and girls from over 1,100 clubs also played in The R&A’s 2018 Coronation Foursomes to further illustrate appetite for the sport.
With increased participation in golf by women, girls and families identified as a tremendous growth opportunity for the sport, other initiatives are also making a difference.
With the popular GolfSixes League format growing this year across England, and expanding into Wales and Scotland, 30% of GolfSixes participants this year were girls. There was also a 20% increase in reach with the Golf Foundation’s Girls Golf Rocks ambassador mentoring programme.
On the same theme, 55% of the participants in Wales in their New2Golf Back2Golf Beginner Scheme were female.
In Scotland, This Girl Golf hubs have proved popular, while the inaugural Kingsbarns Girls Classic saw girls come together from counties across the country to experience competition and camaraderie.
Ross Duncan, Development Director at Scottish Golf, said: “We need to encourage clubs to change and become a more attractive proposition for women, girls and families."
"A culture shift is required and that will take time, but next year’s Solheim Cup at Gleneagles gives us a great platform to raise the profile of what we are doing around women’s and girls’ golf.”
Although, you could argue it's been a tale of two steps forward, one step back for women's golf this year. Months of positive discussions about growing the game, all culminated in what can only be described as a total kick in the teeth at Sports Personality Of The Year as Georgia Hall was omitted from the shortlist, raising questions about the state of women’s golf.
Francesco Molinari, Tiger Woods, Europe's Ryder Cup team and Georgia Hall were all in the frame for recognition at this year's Sports Personality of the Year awards, arguably the biggest award ceremony in sport. But whilst Molinari walked away with the BBC's World Sports Star of the Year trophy after a public ballot, Georgia Hall got nothing more than a 10-second mention.
At 22, Bournemouth star Georgia Hall became Britain’s youngest-ever female major winner after her spectacular victory at the Ricoh Women's British Open this year. Even still, Hall was deemed unworthy of a shortlist place for the main award.
Despite SPOTY being a low point in the progression of women’s golf, 2018 has still been a great year for golfing achievements across Great Britain and Ireland, as well as the growth in young people joining the game.
What will 2019 bring?
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