The 50-Year Shift with Martha Jones Lang

How things changed

I guess to really appreciate how far the program has come, you need to understand where things were before Title IX.

There obviously weren’t as many tournaments back in those days in comparison to the number of events athletes get to compete in today.

The same opportunities just weren’t there at the time.

We might have played in a few college tournaments when I was coming along, but female golfers these days probably compete in eight to 10 collegiate tournaments per year, along with conference championships, regionals and NCAAs.

That’s probably why you see the strength of the professional tour.

It’s all due to the changes brought along by Title IX. That’s the reason why all of these opportunities even exist in the first place.

And it didn’t all just happen overnight, either.

I remember being excited about getting a golf bag one year, and then the next year, we got golf shoes and a golf bag. It has been a slow and steady climb towards supporting more trips for competitions, improving the facilities, and upgrading the equipment.

And that’s only scratching the surface.

Athletes today are given the tools to go on and follow their passions after college, whether it’s in golf or some outside profession. The door is open for a lot of people to use these opportunities, which certainly wasn’t always the case.

It really is incredible how far things have come.

Take it from someone who was there in the beginning.