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New #inviteHER initiative aims to get more women into golf

August 29, 2018
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The LPGA Women’s Network and the industry consortium We Are Golf have launched a new campaign to get more women playing golf, called #inviteHER. They've partnered with the PGA Tour, the USGA, PGA of America, Topgolf and others to help with this latest grow the game program.

The goal of the campaign is to get current golfers to invite women to come play golf with them. Pretty straight forward message, right? But the reasoning as to why it will work is surprising.

Research by the National Golf Foundation (NGF) shows that only 24 percent of golfers who play on a course are women. A much more encouraging statistic is that women account for 41 percent of off-course golfers. While still a long way from having equal numbers of men and women participating in golf at golf courses, the split is surprisingly close to hitting that 50/50 statistic off-course. This stat suggests that places like Topgolf are increasing the sport's exposure to females and in turn helping the health of the sport.

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Gabriel Roux

“Women want to be invited to the game, and it’s our duty to give them that opportunity at one of our nation’s 15,000 local facilities,” says Jane Geddes, Executive Director of the LPGA Amateur Golf Association and chair of the We Are Golf Women’s Task Force. “We are committed to promoting an environment that makes all females feel more comfortable on the course so they develop into lifetime golfers.”

The natural next step is getting all women participating off-course to convert to the golf course. That’s where the #inviteHER campaign hopes to shine. By creating a welcoming environment for women at the golf course, it’s more likely that women will actually want to be at the golf course. And it’s not just about the women who are playing golf off-course—it’s also about women who don’t play golf at all. The NGF’s study also found that 29 percent of women who don’t play golf are interested in playing. In trying to figure out how to get these interested females into the game, it might be just as simple as inviting the women you know to come play golf.