Women and Golf: What are the Barriers and Solutions?

Article by Herb Rubenstein, PGA and MK Marsden

Introduction

Women face many unique challenges in learning how to play golf. In the comprehensive research study by McGuinnis, McQuinlin, and Chappel, titled, “I Just Want to Play Golf: Women, Sexism, and Persistence in Golf , the authors conclude that there are “institutional (e.g., societal level) and interactional barriers to women’s golf participation…” The male co-author of this article resigned from country club in 2017 because it refused to move its ecellent golf library from the men’s locker room to a place at the club that was accessible to women and girls.

This article summarizes some of the real barriers to women participating equally in golf, in addition to blatant discrimination against women and girls of not allowing them to use or even look at the vast and excellent golf library of the country club as recently as late 2017. Other barriers including language, which matters are:

1. “People often frame golf as masculine” in that a golfer is usually considered a “male term” and “lady golfer” is used to designate a female golfer. One never hears a man referred to as a “male golfer.”

2. Women golfers are treated by male golfers as an anomaly and as tokens when they are included.

3. Many golf clubs of great significance either do not even allow women to join or limit their numbers severely.

4. Most golf teachers are men and many publicly state that they do not want to teach women golfers and girls who want to learn the game of golf.

5. Men’s locker rooms are located in more prestigious and more convenient locations even in clubs that encourage women to join.

6. Many public courses work diligently to have a Men’s Club, but put in very little effort to have a “Women’s Club,” or a club that is not based on gender. Even when there is both a “Men’s Club” and a “Women’s Club” this is gender segregation and is clearly perceived by women that they are being excluded from the mainstream of activities at the public golf course.

7. The fact that many women face “time poverty,” compared to men due to their extra household, family, and disproportionate intergenerational responsibilities for taking care of parents, grandparents, grandchildren, and other relatives, plus have full time jobs, often takes this time-consuming game of golf out of their reach because they do not have the time to become proficient at the game. Golf has failed to create may three, four, or six-hole golf courses to accommodate our increasingly time starved population of women.

8. Women experience an “extra sense of scrutiny of their ability” when playing on a golf course dominated by men playing and working there. This scrutiny they feel creates in many women’s minds not only a sense of “performance pressure,” and being uncomfortable, but rises to the level of being for them to a psychologically hostile environment, similar to what many members of minority populations experience. And golf is supposed to be fun.

9. One woman told us that she would just like to play golf one day when “the clock is not on her and her group.”

In other articles we have described the barriers women encounter in having the opportunity to play golf, and they are substantial, and they are global. In this article we discuss how a significant innovation in golf – the golf simulator or indoor golf – helps address many of these barriers and opens the door to many more busy women quickly learning the fundamentals of this great game.

Indoor golf is the use of a golf simulator where one hits a golf ball off a mat into a screen. There is a machine that analyzes the impact of the clubhead with the ball.and projects on the screen how far th ball would go, how high it would go, how the ball will curve, and the direction of the ball in its flight. This information provides excellent feedback to the person hitting the ball and her instructor as to how well the ball was hit. The good news is that when a golf lesson is given in a golf simulator, it can be very quick and efficient, very private, is immune from the weather, and can be done at a very convenient location when provided by Golf Pro Delivered.

Some Innovation

While golf simulators have been around for decades, it was not until 2017 that the first inflatable, mobile golf simulator was brought to the market by Golf Pro Delivered. Now, with some simulators weighing only 75 pounds and can be carried on one’s back, or with our largest simulator a small van carrying the 350 pound inflatable, computers, projectors, cameras, and excellent golf hitting mats, the simulator can be brought quickly and efficiently to any location. Why is this important for women?

At the PGA School, one of the authors recommended that golf courses start offering childcare to reduce a barrier for women to play golf. The suggestion was not well received until two days later when another PGA Associate taking the PGA course said that his club on Wednesdays started to offer childcare from 3-6pm and many women and some additional men were now able to play golf. He called the program a great success and benefit for those who played golf at the club where he worked.

Women and Golf

Since a golf simulator can be brought to a women’s group, or assist women in a company who want to learn golf, or can be a significant part of a professional woman’s business development effort, a new vista has been opened up where women can quickly and in the company of other women can gain the full benefit of a golf professional teaching them the key aspects of hitting a good golf shot, a good chip, and a good putt without any of the barriers of going to a golf course.

For women lawyers or salespeople who want to have a “business development” event, or a women’s social, professional, civic or religious group who want valuable entertainment at an event, the mobile golf simulator gives every female attendee in as little as ten minutes the opportunity to hit golf balls and learn how to play golf quickly and competently without fear, embarrassment, reticence, and getting out of her comfort zone. The privacy, the ability to hit shot right after shot and see the quick improvement that is virtually guaranteed by an excellent ten-minute lesson will help any women get over her mental, her time, and her emotional barriers to “trying” to learn the game of golf.

Conclusion

In other articles we have described many of the benefits in business, in life, in self-confidence, and in health for women to learn how to play golf. In addition to all of these, in just one or two or three sessions in a golf simulator, when a women is asked if “she plays golf,” she can proudly say yes and can speak with a reservoir of pride from her seeing her ability to hit a golf ball well in less than one hour of golf simulator time. More importantly, she can bring other women into the game easily, at a reasonable financial cost, and at great time savings than taking women to a golf course.

Certainly, it is hoped that all women who hit golf balls in a golf simulator make it to a golf course and begin to play nine or even eighteen-hole someday. But, getting to that point is a long stretch for every new golfer.

Finally, there is path to enhance and make positive the experience of golf for women, and it is the mobile golf simulator. For more information of this new innovation in the game of golf, please contact Golf Pro Delivered, the friend of women in the game of golf.