Wales Golf are building on the success of their New2Golf and Back2Golf activities for women and girls by using this weekend’s International Women’s Day (Sunday 8 March) to launch exciting new campaigns for 2020.
Highlighting golf’s appeal for women and girls, the national governing body are once more placing an emphasis on social networking and the fun, friendly and family side of the sport to encourage females along to their local golf clubs for beginner sessions or for lapsed golfers to return.
A series of posters for clubs and targeted social media posts have been designed – highlighting the social appeal of golf on and off the course – to coincide with the spring season arriving and daylight hours becoming longer. Wales Golf’s new strategy ‘Everyone’s Game, Anywhere’ has placed a key focus on women and girls’ development, with Simon Lu appointed as Women and Girls Co-ordinator to help drive progress since 2018.
A record 2,149 participants took to New2Golf schemes in Wales in 2019, a 17% increase overall on the previous year’s then record numbers. The 2019 statistics feature a 14% increase in girls, while 50% of participants were female. Last year, overall club membership also increased in Wales for the first time in over 10 years (up 2.1%). This included a 2.7% increase in female adult members and 3.9% in female junior members. Now Wales Golf are looking to build on these achievements by continuing to work with clubs to encourage more women and girls to participate in the sport.
Lu said: “We are delighted to be using International Women’s Day to launch our New2Golf and Back2Golf campaigns for women and girls in 2020. We feel this is the ideal day to celebrate female golf and highlight how appealing it is for women, especially the social side.“We are really happy with the progress we are making regarding women and girls’ golf in Wales. Clubs are proactively addressing the gender gap, aided by fun and friendly New2Golf and Back2Golf sessions across the country.
“Together with a stronger drive throughout the golf industry to help make the sport more inclusive, helped by The R&A’s Women in Golf Charter, we are making significant strides in making golf everyone’s game, anywhere.”
Using fun social media visuals and eye-catching poster messaging, women and girls are encouraged to head to their local golf club to catch up with friends, meet new people in a relaxed and fun environment or eat and drink in the clubhouse – all while enjoying the low-cost group fun lessons.
Hannah McAllister, Director of Development at Wales Golf, added: “Building on our work in 2019, we are excited to be launching New2Golf and Back2Golf promotional resources for 2020 on International Women’s Day.“We have been pleased with the success of the programmes to date and our New2Golf focus groups have enabled us to gain insight from players over their three-year New2Golf journey. This has helped us to improve and adapt our women’s schemes based on their experiences.
“We are now keen to maintain our momentum, helping encourage females to head for their local golf club to enjoy beginner coaching sessions and enjoy the social side of the game as our digital and printed assets promote.”
The promotional resources, aided by support from The R&A, are available for clubs to use free of charge to promote beginner sessions. These are available in a hard copy format, as well as an editable email version which can be downloaded, and are also available in Welsh.
McAllister continued: “The sessions can consist of free tasters, low cost lessons and trial memberships. It’s all about fun and helping each player enjoy themselves, with the sessions available to all beginner and lapsed golfers wanting to take up the sport.
“We see many clubs across Wales offering flexible memberships and short forms of the game such as 9-hole golf, so there are great opportunities out there for women, girls and families.”
For all club beginner sessions, women and girls can simply wear comfortable clothing and all equipment is provided.
To find a club near you involved in New2Golf and Back2Golf, visit the link below. Participating clubs will be added throughout the year. www.walesgolf.org/find-beginners-session-2/
If a club in your area is not listed as yet, contact Wales Golf to register your interest.