Bayer’s Jackie Applegate speaks about Women in Golf

By Clara McHugh| October 8, 2019 1 Comments

The Women in Golf event brought together 50 female turf professionals from the United States and Canada for two and a half days of networking and education.

The event was hosted by Bayer and is the second event of its kind to be held in North America. Last year, Women in Golf was held in Canada, while this year the company welcomed attendees to its facilities in Clayton and Cary, N.C.

“(This event) gives us the opportunity to bring together women from across the industry,” said Jackie Applegate, president of global vegetable seeds and environmental science for the Crop Science division of Bayer. “Really what we’ve done is, we have top-notch, high-quality participants. This year we had such an overwhelming group of people and they had to write a short essay on inclusion and diversity.”

Jackie Applegate (Photo: Bayer)

The attendees focused on professional development, personal development and the agronomics of doing business during the course of the event. They also had the opportunity to hear from speakers across the industry and got to learn about themselves and engage with and learn from other female professionals in the industry.

“It allows them to bring their experience, because they have their own stories to tell, of course,” Applegate said. “It allows them to share what they’re learning and about themselves and that creates a transformational event.”

According to Applegate, the main goal of the event was to help women understand where they are in their career and help them think effectively about how they can manage their careers. It also allowed them to get the perspectives from other women in the industry. Learning about other people’s careers can help spark self-reflection, which could lead to growing in your career, she said.

The overall outcome of the Women in Golf event, for Applegate, was to ask women to network, to promote and to support inclusion and diversity and go out and exemplify and be supportive of the industry they want to see in golf.

One of the main goals of the event was professional development and many of the sessions focused on how attendees could better prepare for the job they may want in the future. According to Applegate, professional development is important for the industry, but it’s also important overall, for any professional. It gives individuals a chance to stop, reflect and invest in themselves. Women in Golf gave attendees this opportunity, and it gave them the chance to do it in a space where they could work with colleagues in the same industry, Applegate said.

There are many ways to attract more women to the golf turf industry, but one of the ways Applegate sees an opportunity is to talk about the industry differently so as to highlight all of the various ways women can be employed within the industry.

“I always say that when we go into university settings we don’t talk about all the competencies and functions that we need to run a successful business. That’s something we need to do more of,” she said. “Explain what type of opportunities there are so it’s not just about if you’re a golf course superintendent … There is someone working at the golf course to talk about the events being planned or the accounts being managed.”

She also advises women in the industry to be passionate about their careers and to go all in. When they make a decision about something and the pressure is on, be all in and go above and beyond, she said.