Hope you had a great week.
This last Sunday Evening, I was fortunate to be invited to the Annual Northern Texas PGA Section, Awards dinner held at the Four Seasons. As with all the other years I’ve attended (last year of course being the most fun because I received an award), the evening was full of great stories and terrific information about golf in our home town.
As I left the hotel to head home, a question kept entering my mind. A question that many of you who listen to my show or read these columns know might arise in my feeble brain. The question, “Where are all the women.” I am not talking about wives or girlfriends, but about participants or honorees in our section. With the LPGA starting their tour this weekend and the excitement about Annika chasing Lorena (see weekly poll question) and because of my constant search to get more people involved with our great game, over the last four days the question has become more encompassing.
“Where are the women?” Let’s start with some facts. Of the 28,000,000 golfers in the USA, the NGF (National Golf Foundation) reports between 22 and 24% are women or about 6,300,000. Of that number, 17% are avid golfers or about 1.1 million. A very important fact about this 17%, avid golfing women spend more money on their game, on average, than every category of golfer but one. Another very important factor with women golfers…they are younger. The highest percentage of avid golfer woman is between 30 and 39; the average avid golfing male is much older. Finally fact, and I put this in bold because it is the most concerning to me, Texas is not in the Top 20 of highest percentage of Avid Women Golfers. Not in the Top 20. How stupid is that. We have the best courses; we have one of the highest percentages of Tour players; we have great weather, and yet, we can’t get our women to play more golf.
What becomes incredibly clear to me is that the environment has to change before we can expect the players to change.
The PGA of America, the national body of our NTPGA reports that there are approximately 27,500 members in good standing and of that number, 926 is women. In checking with the NTPGA office, I found that there are currently 763 members and 26 are women. That works out, in both cases to 3%. These are facts, not indictments. But it is so disheartening to hear. What makes these numbers even more concerning to me is that they represent a 44% increase from ten years previous. I think we get into a trap when it comes to some of these issues. I often wonder how “the groups feels.” What groups? The groups included in the statement, “We are trying to improve our growth with women, minorities and youth.” Perhaps these are three separate questions that when raised separately can more easily be answered.
We talk so much about the growth of the game. About the creation of this program or that program for the junior golfer, perhaps we need to start with the hiring of our apprentices and interns. Imagine, in this town, the NTPGA reports of the 26 women in the Association, there are 2 women Head PGA Professional’s and only 1 Assistant Professional, almost 40% of the women are apprentices.
“The Northern Texas Section and The PGA of America is committed to addressing diversity issues, including women in golf. Our national alliance with the Executive Women’s Golf Association coupled with a new college recruiting program and an ongoing commitment to hire women and people of color as interns paves the way for a more diverse organization,” stated Darrell Crall, executive director of the Northern Texas PGA and The PGA Foundation. “But clearly this is not a project but an important cultural objective; more work must be done to attract women to the business of golf.”
Sitting in that room with some of golf’s smartest minds, Randy Smith, Ronny Glanton, Mac Spikes and so many more, I would like to call on the Associations new President, Mark Viskozki and his board to enter into new programs and begin to open this great profession to more women. Heck, with such great women’s college teams as TCU, SMU and North Texas in our backyard, let alone all the women high school golfers, perhaps we need to create some funding for special intern positions for women in golf management.
One last point about the NGF 2005 study concerning women and why 3.7 million women left the game. There number one reason was “entry barriers being too high.” The study came to the conclusion that this was not a money issue. The barrier women were describing was: attitude, awareness and most important, a comfortable environment.
I think that says it all… bring more women into the professional and they will bring more women into the game. Not in a patronizing, “women only want to be with women” kind of way, but by helping the 737 men become more aware of what women want and need and most importantly, help create a comfortable environment for women to enter and just as important enjoy and thereby stay in the game.
It’s beginning to be a tough year for the best players on the tour, except Tiger. Imagine this… in the first six weeks of the PGA Tour, 3 Top 10 players and a former Top 10 have managed to lose tournaments that we would normally consider slam dunks for these guys and they have all done this to players outside the Top 100. Sudden Death losers include: Phil Mickelson, VJ Singh and Steve Stricker (maybe Steve did it so we can name later in the year he can win a couple of times and then be named the come-back player of the year for the third straight season). Justin Leonard let his slip away within the normal or not so normal 90 holes.
This reminds me of my picks for the majors in 2008. If you remember, I stated earlier that this would be the year of only repeat winners. That these for major courses were most conducive to players that have been there before. If these guys don’t start finishing their events, I could really be wrong. Oh, wait… Tiger is two for two.
