Historically, golf has been a male dominated sport, providing a space for business and networking described as a “boys club”. Businessmen would gather for a casual round of 18 holes and leave the course with new contacts, deals, and shared ideas to help them when they return to their 9-5 the following Monday.
Golf comes with its fair share of obstacles and is known to be incredibly expensive and time-consuming. A simple round of golf takes around 4-5 hours. The equipment only adds to this barrier, with a set of clubs costing $300-$1,500 and fees required to play at public courses costing around $40-$50. These factors make golf inaccessible to participate in this sport and can intimidate newcomers.
For women, golf holds so much more value than just the sport itself. The ability to play golf gives the environment for business deals being made, networking, and opportunities. Additionally, participating in golf helps improve a variety of skills and contributes to one’s athleticism.
Golf is famously described as one of the most mental sports in the world. The player is required to stay focused for long periods of time, and the game can only be played through detailed and precise strategic decisions for every shot. Many must overcome the ego vs probability decisions where every single factor (weather, condition of the course, abilities of each club, distance, and time) must be taken into consideration. Ultimately, with complex sport having the goal as simple as getting the ball from the tee box into the hole.
The playing field in golf for women is incredibly unbalanced. In 2024, the best female golfer in the world, Nelly Korda, won $4.4 million dollars from her tournaments, whereas Scottie Schelffer, the best male player, won $27 million dollars.
This amount of money earned by both players is a huge discrepancy, and helps highlight one of the many examples of golf being a more male-dominatedmale dominated sport.
Yet, this is not the future. Since 2019 the number of female golfers has grown to 60% of total players, and continues to increase every year . These statistics show the true irony, and old-fashioned, out-of-dateold fashioned out of date idea that golf is “run by men”. In the last seven7 years, the golf industry has been run primarily by women. As the years go on, the demographic continue, the demographic of growth of the next generation in golf is expected to lean more and more towards women.
The patience and strategy that golf teaches not only helps in the growth of the player, but also creates a well-roundedwell rounded person. AThis skill will pave the way for women, giving them a voice in business, networking, and deals, along with having a seat in conversations that they were once excluded from.
It is extremely important for as many girls as possible in future generations to learn to play the upcoming generations to learn how to golf, because golf is so much more than a simple 18-hole round. It is an opportunity for women. It is the ability to change the space and community, shifting the rhetoric to make golfan ability to change the space and community, shifting the rhetoric to golf being a sport for all.
