We've had a look through the Women & Golf website stats to bring you the top stories that you read in 2024.
Throughout 2024 we've brought you a mix of news, reviews and views on many topics across the golf world. From good news stories to product launches, industry insights to golf course reviews and everything in between. Whether it's tour news or tackling the inequalities at golf clubs in our Levelling the Fairways series, we cover everything and anything to do with women and girls' golf. We really hope you have enjoyed the variety of content we have produced.
Here we run down the Top stories from the Women & Golf website in 2024.
Baby News
Last year, one of our top news stories was that Jessica Korda was expecting a baby, so it comes as no surprise that the news that she welcomed Greyson John DelPrete in February garnered a lot of attention from our readers this year.
Read the full story here - Jessica Korda welcomes baby boy.
Charley Hull
Charley Hull's star continued to rise in 2024, making headlines from both on and off the golf course. For you, it was her appearance as a cover star of Sky Sports Editions that generated the most interest. The series showcases original stories from leading women across sport, as told by the athletes themselves and crossing the worlds of sport and fashion as they design their own magazine cover.
As well as talking about her love of fashion and creating her style, the English golfer discussed being considered 'rebellious', why fitness is important and being underestimated by her male counterparts and fans.
Read the full interview here - Sky Sports Editions: Charley Hull
Hull also caught the headlines at the U.S. Women's Open, but it wasn't about her golf. Charlotte discussed her conflicting thoughts on THAT viral video of Charley Hull smoking at the U.S. Women's Open - read here. Plus, there was a lot of love for her partnership with best friend Georgia Hall at the Dow Championship, this pre-event press conference Q&A was also popular - Georgia Hall and Charley Hull: A friendship forged in golf.
Rose Ladies Series
After launching during the pandemic in 2020, the Rose Ladies Series has been a popular addition to women's professional golf scene in the UK.
Every year since there has been speculation about whether it will return, so it came as no surprise that the announcement of the 2024 Rose Ladies Series was one of our most well-read articles.
Like in 2023, this year there were five events with £10,000 first prize, giving playing opportunities to a number of professional golfers when the tour schedule was quieter. Whilst five events had been planned, the British weather had other ideas and the first event at West Lancs had to be cancelled.
The other four events went ahead smoothly. Here's a look back at what happened this year - Rose Ladies Series 2024.
Will it return in 2025? Nothing is confirmed, so watch this space.
Why can't women's golf grab the headlines?
Back in February when the women's professional golf should have been grabbing ahead of the Aramco Saudi Ladies International, it was met with relative silence.
For all the rhetoric that surrounds LIV Golf and Saudi Arabia’s involvement in men’s professional golf, it’s deemed that the best plan of attack in the women’s game is to not talk about it at all. How is it possible to have an issue with the source of the money when it’s $600 million for Jon Rahm but not when it's a mere $5 million for a women’s golf event? What’s the monetary value that we have to hit for media and fans to throw their hands in the air and tap away on their keyboards to talk about sports washing and greed?
This article generated a lot of discussion on our Facebook page and came in as our fourth top story of 2024. Read the full article here.
World Handicap System
The World Handicap System continues to divide opinion, and none more so than at the higher end of it. The 54 debate continued into 2024.
Towards the end of January Charlotte wrote - The debate continues: Is the World Handicap System's 54-handicap limit a good thing or do we need to go back to the drawing board? This article, related to an email we received from a W&G reader.
A few weeks later in response to this article Charlotte shared the other side of the 54 debate story - read it here. Plus, Charlotte also looked at handicap divisions in golf club competitions - find out more.
We're far from finding an equilibrium on this topic and we're sure this will continue into 2025 and beyond.
Transgender debate
After a reasonably quiet couple of years, the transgender debate rolled back into golf when transgender golfer Hailey Davidson won an American mini-tour competition in January.
This prompted us to revisit the issue and give our stance on the whole topic. Opening up the transgender debate in golf was a difficult article to write but it was fair to say that this really resonated with a lot of golfers. Whilst comments on social media weren't that many, our inbox filled with comments for us to consider.
We also took this article to a meeting of Hampshire Ladies Golf, to open up discussion there in April.
Fast forward to December and the LPGA, USGA and The R&A have all now updated their gender policies from 2025 onwards. This will mean that any male-born athlete who has gone through puberty will not be able to compete in tournaments run by any of these organisations.
Read the full details here and Emma's response LPGA finally takes a stance in the transgender debate.
Do women use headcovers?
One of the more bizarre but most talked about articles of 2024 revolved around the fact that the new Cobra Golf DARKSPEED women's edition driver had been specifically made with a gloss coating on the head (rather than the matt for the other drivers) due to the brand finding that from their research, the majority of women did not use headcovers.
If you missed it, read the full article here. Interestingly the majority of you, our readers, disagreed.
This product launch also through up a couple of other interesting areas to discuss, namely, Are women's specific golf clubs right for your game? and Do we need women's specific golf equipment?
One final article that was popular in the women's equipment space was - An advert from PING during the Solheim Cup which raised a few eyebrows but was there more to it than meets the eye? Read it here.
Levelling the Fairways
In July we launched Levelling the Fairways, a series to shine a light on what it’s really like to be a female playing and working in golf. Providing a platform for insight, discussion and ultimately growth, the series aimed to incite meaningful conversations that force positive change in the future.
After you, our readers, were asked to fill in a survey, we found that the main challenges facing female golfers were time, toilets, cost and course design.
Of all the articles across this series, so far, it was the one on toilets that really got people talking - No on-course toilets a load of s**t. This prompted Cavendish Golf Club to get in touch and tell us about their toilet fundraising attempts.
Other popular articles in the series included: Busting the myth of slow play and women, Ladies vs Women and Should golf courses be designed better for women?
You can read the full Levelling the Fairways series here.
So there you have it, not quite a whistle-stop tour, but plenty for you to re-read and digest over the festive period. We're looking forward to tackling the biggest topics and sharing the latest news again with you all in 2025.
As always, please drop us an email with any news, reviews or views from the world of golf.
