Many a question is asked as to why junior girls drop off when they hit their teens. It could be down to a number of barriers. Other interests, pressures of exams and friendship groups, and the ever pressing issue surrounding golf and periods.
The less obvious hurdles simmer under the surface at some golf clubs and could be the reason why some talented players simply disappear. As a junior golfer I was often the only girl at the clubs where I played. When competing in opens and club competitions, I’d often find myself at the prize table simply because I had turned up.
Let’s face it, I was a rare breed back in the 90’s. Even when I turned professional in 1999 I was one of a handful of female PGA trainees in the UK. It didn’t stop us taking three of the top five places in the PGA Titleist Graduate Order of Merit in our final year. That really was a level playing field.
But winning the girls’ prize playing off the reds in junior opens often felt as though I wasn’t being acknowledged and competing with the boys in the same competition. I preferred the club competitions at Bramshaw and Dunwood, where I played with and against the boys and was a solid part of the team.
Sofia, one of the junior members at Hamptworth Golf Club, questioned this when I asked her “What is your perfect type of golf to play?” She retorted back that she just wanted to play fair golf. When I questioned what she meant, she said:
“Why should the boys who I hit it past have to go off the yellow tees and I play off the reds, it isn’t fair for them and makes me feel like I’m being given an unfair advantage. It shouldn’t be boys and girls tees, there should be a level playing field and I think this would make the whole game more valued and relevant.”
How much more prepared would junior golfers in their late teens be when they hit the lengthier courses of the LET and LPGA tours? Perhaps some junior boys would continue their path into golf if they were allowed to progress more gradually from shorter tees rather than be stretched off the yellows/whites too soon.
Looking back on their junior amateur days many of the talented players I interviewed echoed Sofia’s feelings. The girls off the reds, boys off the yellows issue was a sore point!
Former AIG Women’s Open winner Georgia Hall recalls, “When I wanted to play off the white tee markers at my club, I just did it. I got complained about a couple of times because as a girl I shouldn’t have been off the whites….
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