The PGA of America is working on an initiative to get more women involved in the game:
The PGA of America announced a busy schedule of women’s golf initiatives ranging from grassroots player development, an online video series, an alliance with the WNBA, Play Golf America Days and special events in conjunction with major spectator championships to help grow this influential segment of golfers and bring more women to the game.
PGA of America research revealed that women accounted for 63 percent of all the new players to the game of golf through 2006, while the National Golf Foundation reported in 2007 that the total women players in the U.S. grew to 6.4 million, an eight percent growth since 2002, including 926,000 junior girls ages 6 to 17 and 5.5 million women ages 18-and-older.
“The PGA of America recognizes the key role that women players have in the growth of the game of golf,” said PGA of America President Brian Whitcomb. “Our Association is engaging our membership to reach out to their local communities; to encourage facilities to participate in American Express Women’s Golf Month, to take advantage of Play Golf America Days and market to this influential segment of the game.
It makes sense. More players can only increase the overall health of the game. And in spite of complaints about slow female play, I haven’t found that to be the case. I was nearly run over last week by a couple of female players in a cart. They played as fast as any pair of guys I’ve seen.
If there’s any species of golfer that plays extraordinarily slow, it’s a foursome of guys on a Saturday morning with money on the line. Then, each swing and putt becomes an excruciatingly slow series of preswing rituals, practice strokes and plumb bobbing of putts.
The second slowest species is the guy playing with his wife or girlfriend. Typically, he’s so invested in making himself look good that his play slows to a crawl.
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I disagree on the slow play foursomes. My group plays either 2 fivesomes, or 3 foursomes in a row on Saturdays and Sundays and finish in generally 3:15-3:30 if nobody blocks us. And we generally have north of $5 on the line every round! ($6 to be exact). There is a group of about 30 guys which take the first set of tee times at our club and I think they are normally done in about 3:30 as well.
We have a bunch of asians at our club, and the men play SLOW—it is excruciating to play a 5 hour round on a Wednesday behind a group of these guys. But, their wives are fast, fast, fast. I can be playing by myself at a pace faster than 3 hours and can find myself in a few holes actually holding them up.