Women's Golf Day - A Global Success
By All Accounts International Women's Golf Day Was A Great Success As Evidenced By The Turnout At Venues Like Langara GC Shown Here - Image Credit Gino Cutri
By Gino Cutri, British Columbia Golf
All it takes is a search of #womensgolfday on social media to see that the inarguable event was a global success. Women’s Golf Day was founded on three core principles: engage, empower, and support.
Through these principles the event was designed to allow a simple and accessible platform to build a foundation and create a network to support the continuation of golf no matter the skill or interest level.
Engagement is the first principle of encouraging females to play the game of golf. I was fortunate enough to spend some time at Richmond Country Club, one of the host courses for Women’s Golf Day in the lower mainland, and had the pleasure of speaking with LPGA life member Toni Taylor.
Taylor believes there’s still a certain expectation with many women and girls who remain hesitant to take up the game. “There’s this great amount of pressure for performance, golf isn’t about performance, golf is about being creative, and using your imagination, and really finding things that you didn’t know you could do," she said.
"We all know golf is based on a score, but a lot of times how excited do we get when we hit these silly little shots that have nothing to do with score…so if you can go more to the creative and imaginative side, and take away outcomes and expectations and scoring I think all of a sudden you can grow the joy and grow the love for the game.”
Empowerment is the next step where the founder and organizers of Women’s Golf Day want to see as many new and experienced golfers out playing the game, and enjoying each other’s company, as possible.
History was made at Richmond Country Club where for the first time in the club's 58 years of operation there were no men on the golf course. Taylor couldn’t hide her emotion on how much this meant to the female members of the club.
“This is a very, very special day, this is all dedicated to women, and to having their guests come out to be a part of this and part of the event. Just to enjoy and socialize and come together just like the whole world networking was supposed to be about, so it’s a great day for Richmond Country Club,” she said.
The final core principle is support. Through supporting one another the growing network of female golfers are joining together to support each other and enjoy all the benefits of golf.
Langara Golf Course, the other lower mainland host, had an excellent set-up where the clubhouse had an area for the women to introduce themselves, mingle, and have a chance to get to know other female golfers.
Taylor knows that this is a great way to grow the game, “The more women you get, it’s like anything, you have one person that enjoys what they do, they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on and so on. So you may start small but if you really make the environment one of joy and authenticity, and heart-mindedness it can’t help but expand.”
Women’s Golf Day brought global awareness to the golf community displaying the foundation and network of female golfers from around the world. Together the organizers and participants hope to build on this year’s event with even more women playing next year on more golf courses.