🌿 LONGEVITY & THE FUTURE OF WOMEN’S GOLF

A Major Pillar of the Women’s Golf History Project

1. Introduction: Why Longevity Matters to Golf

The world is living longer — dramatically longer — and women are at the heart of this global shift. Lifespans have increased by more than 30 years in just over a century, and women now spend more years in active adulthood than at any other point in history. These changes are reshaping every aspect of society: work, family, health, identity — and sport.

Golf, perhaps more than any other sport, sits at the crossroads of this transformation.

It is one of the few sports that women can begin in adolescence, return to in mid-life, deepen in their 50s and 60s, and continue into their 80s and beyond. As a result, golf has the power to become the leading sport for healthy ageing and lifelong wellbeing for women — if systems and structures evolve to meet today’s realities.

Longevity isn’t only a health story or a demographic story.
It’s a participation story.
A structural story.
A cultural story.
And above all, a futures story.

The New Reality

Global longevity research now shows:

A 70-year-old today has the cognitive ability of a 53-year-old in 2000 and the physical frailty of someone aged 56. Chronological age no longer describes capability.
Working lives in developed economies have already extended from 34 → 38 years since 2000, and the trend continues.
Women are spending longer in mid-life — with greater work and caregiving pressure — while also arriving at later life with more health, independence, and time than any previous generation.
Fertility has fallen globally, which stretches the mid-life band and concentrates pressure in the 25–49 age range.
Adults aged 60+ are the fastest-growing age group in every developed region.

This is the foundation of the Longevity Economy, which is reshaping participation patterns across all sports.
Women’s golf sits directly inside this transformation.

The Core Insight

Women over 50 are not the past of women’s golf.

They are the future growth market — the largest, fastest-expanding segment of the population, and the group most committed to staying in the game.

At the same time, the data reveals something equally important:

Senior women stay.
Mid-life women (25–49) leave — not because they lose interest, but because the system no longer fits their lives.

The historical “mid-life gap” is not a failure of women; it is a predictable outcome of longer working lives, shifting family patterns, and structures that still assume women are free on weekdays and absent from weekends.

Longevity exposes gaps in:

pathways
weekend access
representation
cultural understanding

— gaps that were invisible in earlier generations. Understanding longevity helps explain why injustices persist — and how they can finally be fixed.

Why Golf Is a Longevity Sport

Golf is uniquely aligned with the needs of a longevity society. It supports:

Mobility and low-impact movement
Balance and coordination
Mental wellbeing and cognitive challenge
Social connection and companionship
Outdoor time and nature immersion
Skill development that can deepen across a lifetime

It is one of the few sports where ageing can enhance elements of the experience — strategy, course management, camaraderie, presence, wisdom — and where a woman can expect to play meaningfully from her teens into her 80s or beyond.

In a 100-year life, golf is not just leisure.
It is infrastructure for healthy ageing, especially for women.

The Strategic Shift Golf Must Make

To thrive in the longevity era, golf must move from an outdated age model:

Junior → Adult → Senior

to a modern life-course model:

Junior → Early Career → Mid-Life → Senior → Super-Senior

Why?

Because a 70-year-old today is as capable as a 53-year-old in 2000.
Because mid-life now stretches across 25 years of intense work and caregiving.
Because senior women are entering a new golden period of activity, capability, and engagement.
Because clubs cannot afford to keep losing mid-life women and still expect to sustain participation and revenue.

This life-course model demands that golf:

✔ Supports and retains mid-life women
Weekend access, flexible formats, regional opportunities, and recognition pathways for 25–49-year-olds.

✔ Recognises senior women as essential contributors
Embed senior and vets circuits within the official pathway; treat them as strategic assets, not optional extras.

✔ Designs structures for long, healthy lives
Pathways, schedules, and competitions that match the lived reality of 21st-century women — not the assumptions of 1893 or 1950.

How Longevity Connects the Pillars

Systems & Structures
Longevity reveals that frameworks built between the 1890s and 1990s no longer match modern lifespans or modern working patterns. Pathways must be redesigned around a full life-course.

People & Stories
The women who built golf — from Issette Pearson and Mabel Stringer to Molly Gourlay and Caroline Berry — were resilient, adaptable, and community-oriented. Many competed and served into later life. Their experiences mirror what longevity science now describes.

Inner Life & Culture
Ageing reshapes identity, purpose, friendships, confidence. Golf becomes a sanctuary of continuity and renewal — a place where women can re-anchor themselves through changing life stages.

Insights & the Future
Longevity is the key to forecasting who will play, when, and why — and to understanding what must change to support a lifetime pathway in golf.

What This Pillar Will Explore

This Longevity pillar will:

Show how longer, healthier lifespans transform women’s participation.
Explain why women aged 50+ are golf’s strongest strategic opportunity.
Reveal why mid-life women leave — and how to design structures that keep them in.
Highlight how senior women quietly sustain club culture, competitive continuity, and economics.
Reimagine pathways for an era of 90–100-year lifespans.
Explore the power of intergenerational golf.
Offer practical roadmaps for clubs, governing bodies, and coaches preparing for the future.

The Bottom Line

Longevity is not a challenge to be managed.
It is the defining opportunity for the future of women’s golf.

Understanding longevity allows us to:

modernise outdated pathways
elevate and empower senior women
design for the realities of mid-life
grow participation sustainably
position golf as a leader in the Longevity Economy
future-proof the game for the next 50 years

Women aged 50+ are not slowing down — they are entering the longest, healthiest, most capable phase of their golfing lives.

The biggest threat to women’s golf is not ageing.
It is failing to design for longevity.

This pillar will show how we can change that — and build a game that thrives across the whole of a 100-year life.

2. FULL STRUCTURE OF THE LONGEVITY PILLAR

Each section includes: purpose • key insights • examples • historical connections • modern implications.

1. Global Demographic Change: What the Numbers Tell Us

Purpose:
Explain the demographic revolution: longer lifespans, lower birth rates, an exploding 50+ population.

Key Insights:

By 2030, 1 in 4 adults in Europe will be 60+.
Women live longer, remain active longer, and control more leisure spending.
We now have a third stage of adulthood (50–80+) that did not exist for Issette Pearson’s generation.

Examples:

Increasing numbers of women playing into their 70s and 80s.
Age-friendly sports movements worldwide.

Historical Connection:
Early women golfers often played well into later life — but were not recognised as a strategic audience.

Modern Implication:
Golf’s business model must shift from youth retention to lifelong participation optimisation.

2. Healthy Lifespans: Why Golf Is a Longevity Sport

Purpose:
Establish golf as a leading healthy ageing activity for women.

Key Insights:

Golf improves balance, mobility, cardiovascular health.
Regular play correlates with lower mortality.
Social connection is a protective factor against cognitive decline.

Examples:

Studies showing benefits of walking the course.
Senior women reporting enhanced mental wellbeing.

Historical Connection:
Women’s golf was historically framed as “healthy recreation” — a concept now backed by science.

Modern Implication:
Golf can position itself as a health partner, not just a sport.

3. Women Over 50: The Fastest-Growing and Most Engaged Market in Golf

Purpose:
Reframe senior women as a vital growth market.

Key Insights:

They have more time, more disposable income, and greater social commitment.
They fill opens, club competitions, and weekday tee sheets.
They create stability across clubs.

Examples:

Northern Vets, Midlands Vets, ESLGA — century-long loyalty patterns.
Senior women sustaining membership revenues post-pandemic.

Historical Connection:
Veteran ladies’ associations have existed since 1909 — longevity is built into the sport.

Modern Implication:
This group is not “niche”; it is the backbone of future golf economics.

4. Mid-Life Women (25–49): The Missing Link in Participation

Purpose:
Explain why mid-life women leave golf — and why this is the critical structural gap.

Key Insights:

Women in this age group face the greatest time pressures.
They lack weekend access and a clear developmental pathway.
Men have full pathways; women do not.

Examples:

Declines in participation from 25–49 documented repeatedly.
Mid-amateur events rare compared to men’s.

Historical Connection:
Systems built in the 1890s assumed women did not work — these assumptions still shape access today.

Modern Implication:
Fixing the mid-life gap is essential for long-term membership sustainability.

5. Senior Women as Custodians of Continuity & Culture

Purpose:
Show how senior women hold the fabric of the game together.

Key Insights:

They create community, mentor younger players, protect traditions, and sustain competitions.
Many roles of quiet leadership (committee work, refereeing, event planning) fall to senior women.

Examples:

Caroline Berry as an exemplar of a lifetime pathway.
Vets associations preserving camaraderie and heritage.

Historical Connection:
Women have always been the organisers — from Mabel Stringer to Brenda King.

Modern Implication:
Their knowledge should be recognised as strategic cultural capital.

6. Rethinking Pathways in a Longevity Era

Purpose:
Propose new pathways that reflect modern lifespans.

Key Insights:

Lifelong pathways should include: junior, amateur, mid-amateur, senior, super-senior.
Flexible, life-stage aligned rather than age-restrictive.

Examples:

Comparative models from Australia, USGA, Scandinavia.

Historical Connection:
The LGU’s structures worked beautifully for 1893—but not for 2025.

Modern Implication:
Golf needs a 21st-century pathway that matches 21st-century lives.

7. Intergenerational Golf: The Next Opportunity

Purpose:
Highlight the power of cross-generational play.

Key Insights:

Golf is one of few sports where a grandmother, mother, and daughter can compete together.
Intergenerational formats increase retention.

Examples:

Family foursomes.
Mixed-generation club events.

Historical Connection:
Early women’s clubs often fostered multi-generation membership.

Modern Implication:
Intergenerational design is a major opportunity for growth.

8. How Clubs, Governing Bodies, and Coaches Can Prepare for the Future

Purpose:
Provide a roadmap for future-proofing the sport.

Key Insights:

Adapt tee time policies to match working-life realities.
Build new senior pathways and mid-life support.
Treat golf as a health and wellbeing partner.

Examples:

Senior academies, flexible coaching blocks, health-oriented programming.

Historical Connection:
When the LGU was created, it responded to unmet needs. The moment has come again.

Modern Implication:
Strategic action now will shape the next 50 years of women’s golf.