Head to the links and you’re as likely to follow a lanky girl with a bouncing pony-tail as a cigar-chomper with an attitude.
The world of golf has never been so young or estrogen-packed. Players raised on Britney Spears, text-messaging and TiVo are stepping on-to golf courses in record numbers thanks in part to the advances brought by Title IX and the media attention that comes with sensations like Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie. Woods was a fun-loving college student when he burst onto the amateur scene eight years ago before dominating the pros, and Wie is a 6-foot-tall 14-year-old whose powerful swing has produced 300-yard drives, rare for a woman, much less a teenager.
“A lot of girls look up to these players. They’ve seen them on TV and got hooked. Or maybe their parents saw them and got motivated to get their kids interested,” said Sherry Greene, who runs the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program, which is reaching out to junior players by offering programs attractive to girls, such as more group play.
Greene says the Girls Golf program has seen participation rates increase by an average of 30 percent every year for the past five years.
Increases are similar for the American Junior Golf Association, which promotes training for girls and boys who are aiming to obtain college scholarships in golf. About 20 percent of the group’s 5,000 members are girls. AJGA says female membership has risen steadily since 1996, when Woods first came on the scene and 691 girls were part of the organization. In 2000, membership was at 848 and so far this year membership is 863.
During last month’s U.S. Women’s Open, nine competitors were younger than 17 and many more were in their late teens and early 20s. And private and public courses say they are seeing an increase in women players.
“There’s been at least a 10 percent increase in all the parks–North Side, West Side, South Side. It’s across the board,” Stella Nanos, of Kemper Golf Management, which runs Chicago Park District courses, said of girls under 18 who are playing throughout the city.
The experts–golfers who run clubs, teach kids and study the game–are thrilled with the interest but hard-pressed to pinpoint a single reason why more girls are golfing.
“It’s an accumulation of things,” says Ed Oldfield Sr., a 71-year-old golf pro at Glen Club and a member of the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame. “TV is an amazing thing. You see a Michelle Wie or [fellow amateur phenom] Paula Creamer out there and you relate to them. You say, `I want to do that. I can do that.'”
That’s how Annika Welander, 18, got excited about the game.
“Seeing Annika Sorenstam playing with guys [on the PGA tour] is empowering,” Welander said of the top women’s golfer in the game.
“Or seeing Tiger Woods dominate the tour was inspiring. He wasn’t some old-fashioned guy. He’s young. I could relate,” said Welander who led New Trier High School to its fourth girls golf title and recently won two tournaments sponsored by the Chicago District Golf Association for women and girls.
Parental influence
Golfers say many girls wouldn’t be out there at all, though, if it weren’t for parents who have grown up seeing girls play sports.
“More people are playing it in general–men and women,” says Deborah Graham, a counseling and sports psychologist in Boerne, Texas, who specializes in golf, adding that women players she sees started playing because of their parents. “Mostly, it’s because of a dad. Dads are seen to have the greatest influence.”
Nina Gazanfari, 18, who played alongside Welander at New Trier, credits her dad for getting her into the game.
“I started when I went on a driving range with my dad and my brother,” she said. “It changed me. I used to be really shy. But I practiced a lot … and I could always turn to my dad. That was important.”
Leigh Anderson, a 23-year-old Chicago-area instructor originally from Ohio, echoes that.
“I was 3 when my dad took me out. And I haven’t stopped,” says Anderson, who had to play on the boys junior high team because her school didn’t yet have a girls club.
Anderson is passionate when she talks about her love of the game and playing alongside her dad. But she says she’s realistic, too, and recognized in high school that playing golf could bring other opportunities, including scholarship money made available through provisions of Title IX.
The three-decades-old federal law bars discrimination on the basis of gender in federally funded education programs and requires universities to add opportunities for girls and college women to play sports. In trying to meet those rules, universities nationwide have added sports programs and offered up scholarships. Lots of them.
The NCAA doles out nearly 1,900 golf scholarships to women in Division I and II schools (men get about 2,000), and many more scholarships are available from junior and community colleges. And though hundreds of scholarships still go unclaimed, that number is shrinking, say USGA officials and recruiters who try to link players with schools.
“Several schools have started programs in the past five years to attract female players. And it’s working,” said David Shefter, a spokesman for the USGA.
Anderson received numerous offers to play at the collegiate level but decided to stay close to home, where she played on a scholarship for Ohio University and majored in sports psychology.
Welander, the New Trier star, is opting to attend Princeton University in the fall, where she was recruited to play for the women’s team. Princeton does not offer sports scholarships, but Welander had her share of scholarship offers from other schools. “Golf got me in. There wasn’t a scholarship but the educational opportunity is incredible,” she said.
It’s an opportunity that comes from a changing society, say some golf pros.
It’s a new generation of fathers and parents, says Joe Bosco, who trains players with Anderson and Gazanfari at the Green to Tee Golf Academy in Northbrook.
“Families are busy. Parents want to spend time with kids. Golf is something that you can do together. It’s not like football, some guylike sport,” says Bosco, who also brings his two young daughters to the links. “Everyone can play. And everyone can be good at it. Girls are good at it.”
So good, in fact, that ESPN extended its coverage of the U.S. Women’s Open to cover Wie, and Sports Illustrated recently credited the Honolulu resident with elevating attendance records at the Women’s Open. A record 118,458 fans attended the four-day event in July, breaking the 1998 record of 116,000 in attendance over five days. That’s good news for golf organizations whose future depends on those girls staying in the game.
“The struggle is keeping them interested,” says the USGA’s Shefter. “Girls like to do things socially and golf can be a very solitary game. … You’ve got to attract groups of girls to get them excited.”
A father’s discovery
Steve Gavin, 44, a Chicago businessman and golf lover says he’s now realizing that golf can be a part of his daughters’ lives.
“Look, I’ve gone to the American Girl store and that’s not something I want to do much,” he said, adding he only had a “vague awareness” that his girls, ages 8, 11 and 13, had started taking golf lessons.
Then, a few weeks ago, he went out with Emily, the 13-year-old, and everything changed. It wasn’t just about driving the golf cart, “because all kids love that,” he said. She knew the game, too.
“I hit a wedge and I heard her say `get up, get up.’ She knew what it meant. And she knew about the fringe and the green. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Gavin grew up with four brothers who used to play golf and pretend they were Tom Watson or Jack Nicklaus.
“They are my fondest memories,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to share that with my daughters. And that was OK. But playing the other day [with Emily], those memories came back. It was great to be out there and be with your buddy. It was cool.”
