Teeing up change at Petersfield GC

Karen Neville

Activities & Events, Hampshire, Round and About

Heidi Oliver is the driving force in the women’s game at Petersfield Golf Club. She’s aiming to put women (not ladies) on a par with the men

Heidi has been the Ladies’ Captain at the club since March and six months into her tenure she has been working to fulfil her vision ‘to ensure all lady members feel welcome and are accepted no matter what age or handicap, and to inject some fun into the game for everyone’s entertainment’.

Putting skills developed through a lengthy career in the police force to good use, has, she believes, helped her to achieve this. The former Detective Inspector who ended her time with Hampshire Constabulary working on Major Crime says: “As a police officer developed many skills including managing people, leading criminal investigations communicating to all people at different levels and leading from the front.”

Leading from the front is what she is now doing Petersfield GC after slowly falling in love with the game after accompanying her husband Terry, a keen golfer, out on the course. Although initially sceptical, asking him: ” ‘How can you go and play the same course every week and not be bored?’ Obviously, I had no idea what the real game entailed”, she was soon hooked and went from hacking the ball around to hitting a decent shot. She started playing more, introduced some ex-colleagues to the game and found it could be very socialable too, playing a round before a trip to the local pub.

She was playing at South Petersfield course but a welcome afternoon at the main Petersfield GC was where the ‘penny finally dropped’.

“I found it difficult to embrace the traditional stuffiness surrounding the game and felt I had to supress the real me. Slowly over the passage of time and with my golf improving I started to win a few competitions, and I finally felt more at home in the Ladies’ section.”

After becoming Vice Captain in 2023, she took the helm this year and has to date arranged a ladies’ two-day trip to East Dorset Golf Club, a spring meeting with a Mediterranean twist, the Captain’s Charity Day with a cops and robbers theme which included her patrolling the course in a ‘police’ buggy, making arrests and issuing fines for charity. With half her year to go there are more away days and fun planned to support her chosen charity Sands (still born and neo natal death in babies), a cause close to her heart.

Heidi says: “I believe I am slowly making a difference to the ladies’ section and moving away from some of the golf traditions that really aren’t as important as they used to be, reflecting the changes in society and modern-day thinking.”

She would like to see the game open up more to younger women, the average age of a female golfer is 64, adding: “One day, we’ll be ‘women’ golfers perhaps and not ‘lady’ golfers in line with other sports, and on a level par with the men.”

For more information about the club, course and membership visit Home (petersfieldgolfclub.co.uk)