I’m very grateful for the amazing round of ladies from CAWC International who I’m on this journey with and our highly skilled, Golf Professional, Martin Heys from Wexham Park Golf Centre.

It’s been my personal goal to reach this point. I was curious about golf and have wanted to give it a go for a while. My husband plays and we now live in England, where it’s more accessible than for example in Germany or Poland, where I grew up. Additionally, I wanted to have a family sport for the summer, like skiing in the winter.

The combination of a nice group of likeminded people, a good coach, a relaxed atmosphere and just an hour a week training has made the game of golf accessible and fun.

However, it has been difficult to get to this point. In terms of finding the right setting and developing the love for the game. My first attempts at Golf started in 2017:

I asked my husband to book me (and the children) a lesson with the Golf Professional at his club. I had probably 2 or 3 sessions, it was fun, challenging, the Golf Pro was nice and attested me some sort of talent. BUT… I found the stage to be ready to hit the course itself a distant target. I was frustrated that I would probably need to invest a LOT of time and money to reach the appropriate level of competence and confidence to tread the holy turf. With two small children to look after, I didn’t think it was realistic. It meant the end of my first real attempt to golf.

Two years after my first attempt, I joined a women’s social club and discovered that they had a golf group for all levels, so I gave it another go. This time, it worked! The setting is more relaxed, it’s a public course with many beginners and golfers at different levels of the sport and it’s definitely more diverse with age and gender. Also, having a group of ladies with a similar experience, made it so much easier to access the game. I learned that there are shorter game variations and how the game can be adapted to make it fun for beginners and families. Golf became accessible and the outlook to be able to play “proper golf” no longer seemed too far away.

And it worked! After meeting up weekly for an hour, when possible, we played our first 9 holes last week and it’s only the beginning. Golf is a fun game and there are ways to make it enjoyable and social and in a time frame that fits into a busy life schedule. My children are playing golf too and it might turn into our family sport after all!

I often wondered why golf is not as popular with women as it is with men. Yes, traditionally it has been a sport for men only but this applies for most sports in modern culture. And surely, we are past those times…

According to Statista 2019, 84% of registered golf players in England are adult male, 13% adult female and 3% are registered as juniors. I find those results shocking! There are good ideas out there and there are manifestos created and clubs subscribe to them, like this one:

The R&A unveiled a new Women in Golf Charter in 2018 as part of the organisation’s global drive to increase the number of women and girls participating in golf and to encourage more opportunities for women to work within the golf industry.

Sounds great but clearly it’s not enough. Once more: only 13% of registered golf players are women (17% according to England Golf but still pretty low)! There are 1,888 registered golf courses in England (Statista 2018) and according to England Golf, only 27 Golf Clubs had signed up to the Charter by October 2020. That’s 1.43% of all English Golf Clubs, who commit to increase “the proportion of females playing golf in England from 17% to 20% by 2021”.

Let’s take a look at the Decision Making Process and break down the overarching marketing of golf, specifically Women’s Golf.

If we take a look at golf and the target group of women, a good proportion of women will have the “need for / interest in” health, lifestyle, leisure, community, to draw a wider spectrum, where playing golf could apply. Within this wide bracket, golf competes with other sports and leisure activities, like gyms, tennis clubs, spas, running, hiking etc. This means, the core target group drastically drops to a very specific group of women, who have golf at the top of their minds, as golf is not the obvious option to get fit or to have quick and easy access to.

Here’s the first “LOSS” of target group: golf does not make it to top of mind when it comes to planning and deciding on a woman’s free time. The message of golf as an approachable options for women of all ages and kids for that matter, is not apparent. All the benefits of playing golf are not common knowledge.

I was curious to understand more about this process and therefore, created a short questionnaire and asked a circle of mums in the Chiltern Area, that I knew had a similar link to golf, sport and leisure as me.

The survey was conducted among women in their 30’s and 40’s, who are either married or in a partnership; with children, have a higher education and an above average household income. Those women live in the Chiltern Area, north west from London with easy access to a variety of golf courses, clubs and have at least one touchpoint to golf and or are engaged another prestigious sport, such as tennis, skiing or horse riding. In theory, they should be ideal candidates for golf.

I selected those ladies to take part in our anecdotal, online survey to gain some understanding of why golf has such problems to attract women to take an active part. The online survey took place in October 2018 and 10 women took part. The main questions and topics within the survey have been: Why do so few women actively play golf? What are the main reasons they do/don’t and how to change their minds and interest them in joining a golf club and starting to play?

The decision-making process for choosing one activity over another is complex and differs from person to person and from group to group. Let’s take a look at one particular group of women and try to understand what their motives and arguments are.

The first finding is that the perception of golf remains “challenging” or “old fashioned” and not at all “approachable”. It really takes time to break down the old image of golf and create a new, fresh perspective: with young people playing, women involved and a healthy, diversity of culture.

Returning to our group of ladies with an affiliation to golf, reasons for not playing golf are: time and social aspects. Golf is perceived to be a time consuming game and in addition, it appears to take too long to learn golf. Equally valid is the fact, that we want to spend time with friends and/or our family, leaving the entry obstacle too arduous and intimidating. Asking for the main reason out of all those mentioned, the number one reason on why a woman in her 30’s / 40’s with an affiliation to golf would choose NOT to give it a go, is TIME. It’s too much effort, time and headache to get started with golf.

At this stage, the net has reduced considerably to the ladies, who really want to play golf… such as myself. And even then, it’s a challenge! I took a look at golf courses near me, ran a quick analysis and found that only ¼ of the Golf Clubs specifically promote / mention their provision for Ladies on their website. All of which were private courses!! Even the golf course, I ended up succeeding on my golf journey with, does not specifically promote ladies golf on their webpage.

In my case, it’s purely down to CAWC International, the social club for women that I came across this offer and opportunity! It was a combination of me really wanting it and pure coincidence! This means, we are relying on “Word of Mouth” type promotion and “luck” to reach the game, even among those who ought to be so-called low-hanging fruit for the sport.

Arriving at golf by accident, cannot be the future strategy… the offer is out there already, there are great ideas and manifestos written and events taking place. South Bucks is home to the Ladies European Tour, which should serve as an inspiration. But it’s not common knowledge either…

Asking the Chiltern Ladies, what would make them give golf a go, the majority asked for a shorter form of a game. And there IS a shorter form of game but we don’t get to find out about it until we are already up and running. Also, women’s beginner groups… they do exist!

Looks like, the factor IMAGE and COMMUNICATION are still to be worked on.

The game of golf is a great “Product”, the challenge is to get the right offer to the right target group with the right distribution channels and promotions. Get your marketing basics working! And please, design some nicer ladies golf clothes! Hire more female golf pros, we need more role models for young girls. Call me if you want to take it further. Over and out.