Wirral woman’s key role to help stave off a ‘crisis’

Jan 22 2008 by Harold Brough, Liverpool Daily Post

THE FUTURE for women’s golf is worrying. The average age of women at golf clubs is too old and among the young ones there are too few girls coming into the game. And if they do, they do not stay.

Carolyn Baker of Wirral, now among the leaders in the drive for a better future for women’s golf, says: “The situation may not be a crisis now but it will be very shortly if we do not attract new blood. I think it is becoming a crisis.”

The challenge is huge. Somehow, golf in general and women’s golf in particular, has to find a way of attracting – and keeping – newcomers to the game.

The circle of too few members – which means a loss of income which then leads to higher subscriptions which then stops potential members joining golf clubs - needs to be broken.

Golf clubs may have to surrender some old, loved traditions, such as its rigid dress code and the restriction on the times women can play.

Great progress has been made on the equal rights front but in some clubs the battle is far from finished. The familiar arrangement of arranging club competition and reserving tee times for men at the weekends was fixed long ago.

Now it excludes women, who are also working during the week and also only have weekends to play.

Also, there are clubs where the snooker room is still not available to women. Against the background of golf’s problems, particularly financial, this barrier will not be top of the agenda for action on behalf of women in golf. But it is perhaps just one part of the golf club scene, which explains why so many women, including those with a general interest in sport, find golf has little attraction.

Whatever the reasons, Ms Baker says there is a “gaping black hole in golf,” meaning the absence of young people generally and particularly girls and young women.

She is now part of the campaign by the English Women’s Golf Association to get more women coaches and volunteers and to offer more opportunities for women and girls to improve. But its key task is simply to get more women and particularly girls into golf and golf clubs.

EWGA came into being on January 1 2008 and replaced the English Ladies Golf Association. The substitution of the word “women” for “ladies” in the title is part of the new, business-like approach to tackling the problems ahead. The word ‘women’ is seen as less old-fashioned.

EWGA is a company limited by guarantee and will be run by the management board which now includes Ms Baker who, like others, has been brought in for her business skills to bring a more professional approach to driving forward women’s golf. She is one of four non-executive directors.She is an expert in human resources and employment law and a non-executive director and chair of UIA Insurance Ltd, a not-for-profit insurance company. She is also a non-executive director of Wirral Partnership Homes, a registered social landlord. Now she will use her business skills in an effort to get more women into golf.

She was born at Bromborough and had her first experience of golf while working at Eastbourne and, watching some friends play, found herself “itching to have a go.”

Back home on Merseyside, a friend took her to the nine-hole Warren and, as she recalls, she was immediately hooked on the game.

She started playing 30 years ago and it is a sign of those times that she was rejected in her first attempt to join a local golf club. Her sponsor told her that she would not be accepted for membership because she did not have a husband who played there, an insurmountable problem because not only did she not have a golfing husband but also she was not then married.

The experience has not influenced her determination to get more women in the game but she does admit it left her both angry and annoyed.

But she went to Bidston, which had more modern attitudes. She joined there and then Bromborough, where she became the first woman to be elected to the club’s council and was chair of greens for five years. She has been ladies secretary and runs the section’s A team in the West Cheshire Shield. She has a golf handicap of 14.

She served on the executive committee of the Cheshire County Ladies Golf Association and then when last year EWGA were advertising for people with business experience, Bromborough’s lady captain El Rob, encouraged her to apply.

Ms Baker talks of her motivation in no-nonsense terms, saying: “I believe things in golf are going nowhere, particularly in women’s golf. The ladies sections are getting older and we are not able to keep teenagers and young women. The average age of ladies sections of golf clubs in Wirral is probably about 55-60.

“I think, with girls, that unless they have relatives or members of their family in the club they do not join or they do not stay. We lose perhaps 95% of those who do join.

“Some, of course, go to university but for others when they get to around 18 it is expensive for them to play and particularly if they are not going to play every week.”

She says that clubs will have to do more to advertise that girls are welcome.

As an example of the efforts which are being made she refers to the Golf Foundation’s works with the Brownies movement. But she says there is no connection between the groups and local golf clubs and also that links need to be improved between the schools and golf clubs.

She thinks clubs must appear friendlier which will mean some relaxation in the dress code, which for young people is seen as outdated.

Golf must be made more accessible to young women, which will mean efforts to help busy working women who simply do not have the time to play a round of golf and who find that they can only play at weekends when men then have priority.

CONGU – the Council Of National Golf Unions – have taken steps to deal with the first problem by ruling that nine-hole club competitions can count for handicap purposes. As a way of dealing with the problems of weekend golf, when both men and increasingly women want to play, Ms Baker backs the idea of two medals, one in the week, one at weekends, with men and women playing together.

She believes that if the clubs are to keep girls who join and then leave in their later teens as subscriptions rise, clubs must examine their finances.

Some clubs have waived the joining fee.

Then there are clubs where there is the joining fee and a low annual subscription and then members pay something when they go to play.

English golf may have lessons to learn from abroad. Ms Baker refers to the success of Sweden, and indeed the Scandinavia countries generally, in getting women playing golf. But then they do not have the long traditions which are part of the English game and club scene and which are often also the barriers to encouraging young people into golf.

“Women golfers themselves need to realise the importance of attracting new and younger members into the clubs – otherwise the ladies’ sections will be dying on their feet,” she says.

“Persuading people we need to do something about this is very, very difficult. What is so sad is that our predecessors had lots of vision. They took action to make the game possible, they built golf courses and looked to the future, knowing they would not see the improvements. Now, it is our turn.

“But I am optimistic things will change, that we will act together to get more girls, young women, into golf.

“But, yes, it is the greatest challenge in English women’s golf for decades.”