We Love Golf

If you thought golf wasn’t for you, then think again, there has been a real swing over the past year towards making the game more accessible and appealing to women.

We Love Golf is all about encouraging more women to get involved and as much as it’s about picking up the clubs it’s also about ensuring women feel part of a ‘club’ – a social club that is, where they can make friends and be part of a community coming together to enjoy themselves through the game.

The PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association) is helping this drive with the use of social media encouraging women to share their experiences and success stories.

We Love Golf is about friendship, health and fitness and providing support for women to develop, stimulate interest in the game, connect to others and offering basic information so don’t worry if you don’t know the difference between an iron and a wood or don’t know your eagle from your albatross – none of that matters.

The campaign will help find a PGA Professional who can help you learn to play and teach you the finer points of the game. Starting with an often free taster session you don’t need any equipment or the ‘right clothes’, all that’s needed is a sense of fun and enthusiasm to learn.

After the initial session, many women go on to join a group coaching session and will then progress further to take advantage of offers for reduced priced rounds and relaxed memberships.

Two pilot schemes were launched last year, one at Reigate Heath attracted 10 women who then all signed up to group coaching and have since signed up to the next programme. Head pro Cliff Gough was so pleased with the success of that he now’s running a new programme in tandem with the first one.

This year the campaign plans to expand the scheme and host events all over the country, creating a real sense of community, including a campaign around the Women’s British Open at the beginning of  August.

Nicole Wheatley, is helping to tee off the We Love Golf campaign and hopes the social aspect of it will help its appeal. She says: “We want women to view it as a leisure activity they do with friends, come along and enjoy the game and have a good chat and laugh at the same time.

“We’ve found the women who have come along so far have celebrated the small successes such as getting out of a bunker and have been very encouraging towards each other, often through social media and this is what we are trying to promote.”