Charley Hull: This Girl Golfs! (Video)

Teen English golf star Charley Hull is leading a national UK campaign to bring women and girls to the game of golf! Check out this video!

In the UK, call in Charley Hull if you want to attract women and young girls to the game! It just makes sense. Or Lydia Ko if your looking to engage girls in New Zealand, or Lexi Thompson, or Minjee Lee, or In Gee Chun! But the UK thought of this one first! When UK amateur golf organizations realized that there were more women recreational golfers in the Netherlands than in the UK that’s exactly what happened. And this video is the result!

Research reported by Sports Marketing Surveys found that only one in 25 female golf club members in the UK are juniors, that women represent just 15% of golf club members in the UK. That same research found that some 640,000 females were interested in taking up golf.

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I wonder what’s stopping those women from following their dream, picking up a set of sticks, and taking a few lessons? Could it be the frosty receptions they receive at those golf clubs where men dominate? Frosty receptions, you ask, surely not!

Could it be the lack of proper locker room facilities for women golfers, who are often reduced to crouching in the women’s toilet facilities or propping their backsides against the bumpers of their cars to change into their golf shoes? Could it be the failure of men to invite faster-playing women’s groups to play through? Could it be all that cigar smoke at the 19th hole?

Sky Sports reported that the Professional Golfers Association (PGA), the amateur golf governing bodies England Golf and the Scottish Golf Union and Sports Publications’ National Club Golfer have launched a national campaign designed to bridge golf’s gender gap.

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We won’t know for a while if the campaign will do what it’s designed to do, but the USGA and the LPGA might want to take note of this coordinated PR campaign. And the PGA, England Golf and the Scottish Golf Union may want to consider on-site sensitivity workshops at local golf clubs where the women who are recruited will go to swing their sticks because it’s going to take more than a hot video and a coordinated promotional campaign to keep women and girls on the links once they get there.

While I suspect that the list could be much longer, let me suggest some features that will help keep women engaged in the game:

Pro Shops that stock as much girls and women’s golf clothing and equipment as they do men’s wear and equipment
Equitable tee times for women’s leagues and junior golfers
Equivalent locker room facilities for women
Availability of gender and age-appropriate club fitting
Availability of gender and age-appropriate instruction

Whether we have Pounds or Euros or US Dollars in our pockets, women aren’t going to spend their money where they don’t feel welcome.

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Teen English golf star Charley Hull is leading a national UK campaign to bring women and girls to the game of golf! Check out this video!

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