by Karen Moraghan
USGA Consultant

For Women To Grow Up Loving And Playing The Game Of Golf, They Have To Get Involved At A Young Age. And That's Where LPGA-USGA Girls' Golf Is Making A Difference

“Simple, successful and fun is the formula for engaging girls in golf, for what we hope will be a lifetime,” said Dr. Betsy Clark, Vice President of Professional Development for the Ladies Professional Golf Association.  “To fuel the pipeline for the future of girls and women’s golf you have to start by giving as many girls as possible the opportunity to learn and play the game.”

Just as growing the game of golf for women starts at the grassroots level, making programs available for girls to learn the game of golf means engaging them at a young age.  This is no small feat given the myriad of athletic and social activities available to girls today. Yet, through sound programs, the future of the game can be secured. 

There are competitive golf programs for more advanced junior girl golfers, such as Michelle Wie, the teenage phenomenon who shot a 66 at the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship for the lowest 18-hole round score of the weekend among both professionals and amateurs. But, there is nothing of the magnitude and scope of LPGA-USGA Girls Golf, which was created specifically for girls to learn to play the game in a supportive, positive and fun learning environment.  This is the only national initiative of its kind just for girls and serves as a developmental junior golf program providing the opportunity for girls to achieve success, progress in golf and learn life skills inherent in the game of golf, such as patience, respect, perseverance and honesty.  

Through an organized partnership between the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), the world’s longest-running women’s professional sports association, and the United States Golf Association (USGA), the national governing body of golf, the effects of this program are starting to be felt.  Today, more than 3000 girls, ages 7-17, participate in LPGA-USGA Girls Golf programs at over 120 sites around the United States. Not surprisingly, it’s also a family affair - last year 535 sisters participated at 75 (more than half) LPGA-USGA Girls Golf sites nationwide, including threesomes and foursomes and 23 sets of twins!

To increase the number of girls involved, the program has expanded to include other civic, golf and youth-oriented organizations, including Girl Scouts of the USA and Hook a Kid on Golf.

LPGA-USGA Girls Golf provides a valuable package of benefits for young girls, including membership in the USGA and complimentary access to select USGA and LPGA events. In addition, over 40 LPGA Tour players volunteer their time to LPGA-USGA Girls Golf programs in their local communities, with Jen Hanna, Terry-Jo Myers, Dottie Pepper and Nancy Lopez serving as national spokeswomen for LPGA-USGA Girls Golf and Patti Berg serving as its “Distinguished Champion.” 

LPGA-USGA Girls Golf is also unique by virtue of the strong and committed local champions of the program - its site directors. Five former LPGA Tour players, including Suzy Whaley, the first woman to qualify for a PGA Championship, USGA national champions, moms, dads, golf lovers and Executive Women’s Golf Association (EWGA) members have all embraced the program. 

“For young girls, golf can be a valuable tool in developing their personalities and self esteem,” said Shelly French, an LPGA-USGA Girls Golf site director and EWGA member in Seattle.  “After experiencing the positive and life changing effects golf has had on my life, I felt compelled to provide these same opportunities to the girls in my community.  Watching them grow into grounded and self assured young women keeps me coming back year after year.”  She added, “Getting a hug when you run into them unexpectedly at Safeway is a pretty good motivation, too!”

Three past USGA national champions who are giving back to the game and securing its future are Mary Lou Dill Crocker, 1967 Women’s Amateur Champion, a site director in Texas; Kay Cornelius Jeanquartier, 1981 Girls Junior Champion, directs the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf Future Stars program in Arizona; and Dana Lofland Dormann, 1985 Girls Junior Champion, leads the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program in Northern California, near San Francisco.  Crocker and Dormann are also former LPGA Tour players.

Caddie Scholarship

Amy Lillibridge, director of marketing for Heron Glen Golf Club in Flemington, N.J., went to college on a caddie scholarship and grew up playing the game in Ohio.  Now 25 years old, she formed and is closely nurturing an LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program in North Central New Jersey.

“It is very important to develop relationships with the girls and learn about their interests and lives,” Lillibridge observes.  “It is also important to provide as much one-on-one attention as you possibly can in order to do this.”

Shari Rudd, a school principal from Duluth, Minn., is a site director in her “spare” time. “I have always been a staunch supporter of girl's sports. I have seen the increasingly important benefits of exercise, good health, and opportunities grow in our country for young women.  When I was growing up, previous to Title IX enactment, there were no ‘equal opportunities’ for girls to play on teams like the boys had access to on a regular basis.  So I choose to lend my support to introducing young girls to a game that I love – golf, and to the girls who have not always had the opportunity to play any sport.”

To Rudd it has become increasingly apparent that much business has and will be conducted on the golf course.  “Women need to be able to feel confident to participate just as some men do now. More and more women are required to be versatile in the office, in the home, and out on the golf course.  It is an advantage to be able to participate in all realms of the business community,” Rudd remarked.