Celebrating Women’s Golf Month

June is Women’s Golf Month. Launched in 2005 by the PGA of America with the support of the LPGA and the National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA), it’s a monthlong celebration and promotion of women in golf.

The month started with Women’s Golf Day founder Elisa Gaudet, along with Callaway Golf and Topgolf, ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

This year, Women’s Golf Day saw close to 1,000 golf facilities around the world hosting a variety of golf events involving tens of thousands of women who play the game or want to. The National Golf Foundation (NGF) spoke to Gaudet as she was preparing for a round of golf at Pebble Beach, a reward she decided to provide herself after their most successful Women’s Golf Day ever.

Just seven years ago, in 2014, the proportion of all golf participants (on/off-course combined) who were women was 27 percent. Since then, the volume of female participants has grown by 43 percent as it has moved from 8 million on and off-course to now almost 11.5 million. Despite this, most of that growth has happened away from the course. The number of females (age 6-plus) playing on course is up only 300,000 over that same seven-year time frame (plus 5 percent).

he female/male balance on course seems certain to shift in the future, as more than a third of 6- to 17-year-old players are now female, up from 14 percent back in 1986, when NFG first began measuring golf participation on an annual basis. That’s a better representation than every other age group by a significant margin. Among the 17 million Americans who express the highest level of interest in taking up the “green grass” game, 37 percent are women, more than 50 percent higher than their actual proportion on course today.

That’s six million prospective women golfers who promotions like Women’s Golf Month and Women’s Golf Day aim to activate. NGF’s research has repeatedly shown that unless there is an improved beginning golfer experience, the conversion rate from “trial” to “commitment” will remain far below what it could be.

Beginners generally walk away from golf for two main reasons. One, because they never get comfortable around the golf course or other golfers. And two, because they don’t feel they play well enough to enjoy the game, nor do they experience enough “shot euphoria.”