By Janina Parrott Jacobs
After all, it's basic biology, male and female. One cannot exist without the other, yet the battle of the sexes has been going on since Adam blamed Eve for the fall. With golf, it has taken centuries for men to accept women into the game, but even now, where women control boardrooms and vast fortunes, they still fight to be heard on the fairways.
Going back to the age-old question, ‘what do women want?’, surprisingly it isn’t as much as one would think, not in a material sense. More so, it’s the universal need to be recognized and seen as important, and in this case, as a real customer.
Golf facilities and governing organizations will say they’ve taken steps to address the women’s market. Protests ‘of course we welcome women!’ echo off the links and as a whole, one cannot say the industry isn’t trying. But implementing large scale programs the industry doesn’t seem to grasp that women don’t work that way, instead preferring smaller, more intimate and personal groupings with friends and colleagues. Some women even make comments such as ‘Oh, I don’t really want a pro to see my swing. I’m embarrassed.’
Where is the disconnect? In golf, like life, it’s the little things that matter. Deep down, golf operators may sense this but perhaps aren’t ready or willing to take the steps necessary to change because most have never taken a hard look through a woman’s eyes. They accept the supposition that women represent a small subset of the real business of catering to core male golfers but in essence, they are virtually ignoring women in a manner not readily apparent. And this is exactly what the golf industry has not been successful at doing: studying the golf experience from a woman’s perspective. If they did, they wouldn’t like it. Just as restaurant patrons suffer through bad meals or poor service and don’t notify management, they walk, unlikely to return. Women golfers are silently doing the same, thinking their input matters not and little will change.
This is nothing new. Traveling back in time, what do we truly know about the past? Almost all written history - from ancient times on through the Renaissance, Industrial Revolution and into the 20th century - was penned by men. Input from over 50% of the population has been virtually non-existent – or ignored - for millennia. Today the golf industry is still dominated by men who govern most aspects of the game and unless some of them will advocate for women’s issues and force change, there is little perception of what women face.
Some good things have come along to help equalize gender gaps. Title IX was passed in 1972, in part, allowing women to compete on men’s sports teams where no comparable opportunity existed but also to encourage creation of women’s programs. I broke the gender barrier in Michigan, and lettered on men’s golf teams both in high school (1972-73) and at Wayne State University in 1974-1977, yet it took over 40 years for WSU to field its inaugural women’s golf team.
Apparently, some things just take time.
When altering social mores and traditions, delays are expected. More traditional than most sports, change within golf arrives slowly – if at all. The conservative nature of the game has been lauded and admired but is it also intrinsic to the previously drooping numbers in a society where, now, almost anything goes.
Despite earlier grow-the-game efforts over the years, following 2008, participation continued to dwindle in America, with women’s numbers – at one point - down to 21-22% from 25-28%. For decades, women made up almost 50% of all new golfers. If these numbers still hold true, we ask why have overall percentages of women golfers remained at barely over 25%? We do note however, in the last few years, the numbers are rising with more varied offerings like the social setting at TopGolf and similar golf simulator facilities, short courses (less than 18 holes), Par-3 and putting courses like those at Big Cedar in Branson, Pebble Beach, Pinehurst – plus Boyne and St. John’s Resorts in Michigan.
We are LOSING the women who tip-toed into the first and hardest step simply taking up the game, then discovered they weren’t as welcome as they thought. This is a Marketing 101 failure. However, things are changing. Women are flocking to golf – both on and off course - as never before and are now the fastest growing market segment in the game. Our work is nowhere near complete. It’s one thing to compel women to play but quite another to make them feel comfortable and to know their business matters.
What do we do to keep women in the game?
First, we need to examine what’s going on. Courses all across the U.S. are committing major faux-pas and they probably don’t even know it. If your resort or company owns or operates golf courses, or designs them, here are some examples:
Forward tees that are ill-planned, ill-designed, and virtually unplayable for average women golfers to reach in regulation. According to the late female architect Alice Dye, plentiful irrigation drastically compromised playability for women. With little roll, par-4’s require multiple woods and par-5’s are……exhausting. Mrs. Dye said, “By creating tee placements that are appropriate to the average woman’s game, courses will be more user friendly….and they’ll have the same thrill of making par or birdie that men have.”
Absolute lack of women’s senior tees while men’s senior tees are plentiful – and the comment ‘well, you’ve always gotten to play more forward!’ doesn’t cut it. Women get older just as men do and need to move up….but often, there is nowhere to move up to.
One-size-fits-all tees: men have multiple sets of tees sloped and rated; women often only have one, maybe two. Don’t think it matters? Then assume all men must play the back tees at 7,000 yards. Would that change horsetrading and handicap manipulating at the first tee?
Ball washers, benches, and signage are often absent from most forward tees. If these amenities were located only at forward tee boxes, what response might this generate?
Lack of on-course restroom facilities. Women do not do trees. At the 2012 national EWGA (Now, the LPGA Women’s Amateur Association) convention, this was the #1 complaint ‘If women ruled the golf world’. They surmised ‘If trees were lacking, and urinating on the course was prohibited, what would men do?’ Easy: build bathrooms. But for the comfort of women? Nope. However, with a somewhat aging men’s golf demographic and a need for more frequent ‘rest stops’ for men with urinary issues, this too could change.
Hole-by-hole handicaps on scorecards that are identical for both men and women and reflect only men’s difficulty, which is totally different for women’s play.
‘Suggested’ handicaps directed to play certain tees. Obviously, men’s handicap ranges are used. What single digit woman would play the 7200-7500-yard back tees, as indicated? Or, for the single digit woman or senior woman (with the exception of high school and collegiate women, who are primarily single digits and play at 6000+ yards) her normal forward tee might be 5000-5400 yards, and this suggestion is for……a 26-handicap? Nope. Totally aimed at men only.
Tee boxes that are just wrong: they’re minuscule, not level, have bushes in the backswing, are aimed improperly at the rough or at trees with overhanging branches impeding ball flight. Gentlemen, take a look at the Forward Tees sometime and you’ll see what we mean.
Websites that do not feature women or women’s programs, or only list the course as a challenging ‘7500-yard championship layout!’, which in reality only represents a very small percentage of play. Where do the other 97-99% go? And that includes most men, too, who often play from tees farther back than they should.
Course yardage guides providing playing Tips from the Pros’ or course overviews geared only toward men’s tees and playability. How many golfers really need to know how to hit the par-5’s in two? Or how to cut the corner on that long dogleg par-4?
Do you host Charity Scramble events? Do you move up the tees men play - to try and speed things up - but leave the women where they have always been, which takes away any fairness in teeing areas there might have been previously?
Also in Charity Events: Hole-in-One insurance companies designating minimum yardages for all golfers based on …….what? Or charging premiums when yardage is reduced to a number most women still cannot reach. Gentlemen, let’s reverse the tables: how about a 300-yard par-3? Unfair? Of course, this hole rarely exists, but relatively for women, it does. The average woman’s drive is maybe 120-140 yards, despite what some statistics read. When insurance companies mandate a 165-190 yard minimum distance, most women – and many men - don’t have a chance.
Courses improving or renovating their layouts and neither 1) ask women for their input on tee and hazard placement, or, 2) ignore their requests. One club’s women members gave specific directions to move a tee, it was agreed to, then disregarded them when the tee didn’t ‘look good and was in the way’ from the back men’s tee.
Pro shops that have little to offer women in terms of merchandise or service and forget that women buy for family members and friends as well as themselves. How much in pro shop sales have been lost when women get discouraged because at first look, there is nothing appealing for them? Many pro shops have gotten better, using female buyers to map out a plan. Plus, there are many more companies now offering more attractive choices for women to buy, and this includes companies solely dedicated to women’s golf wear.
The lack of women golf professionals or men who snub them. One aspiring young woman golf professional admitted, “Men just don’t want to take a lesson from me….and I don’t know why”. OK, gentlemen…why? You can emulate the swings of women golf professionals more easily than you can a top male professional’s swing or ball speed.
We’d like to hear from you: If your resort, club, or course has taken on any of these ideas in order to be more welcoming, we’d like to celebrate you. Send us your stories at golfsheplays@gmail.com.
On another note, if you find other problems not addressed here that are hampering women’s enjoyment at the golf course, we’d like to hear that too! Same place: golfsheplays@gmail.com
