🏌️‍♀️ England Golf: Real Life, Real Golf

A Game Aligned With Men’s Lives — and a Century Out of Step With Women’s

For generations, men’s golf has been built around a rhythm that has barely changed:
work Monday to Friday, golf at weekends.

The structure fits perfectly:
Club → County → Regional → National,
with clear pathways from junior, amateur, mid-amateur, senior, and super-senior levels — all recognised within England Golf.

Every man can find a place, a pathway, and a progression — with each tier connected, funded, and visible.
Even the elite UK Senior Golf Association, though independent, sits comfortably alongside this framework.

Women’s golf followed a very different course.
When the Ladies’ Golf Union was founded in 1893 — before women had the vote —
golf was designed for those who were not in paid work, who could play mid-week, and who organised competitions themselves.

That model has endured beautifully — but it reflects a world that no longer exists.

Women’s Lives Have Changed. The Game Has Not.

Over the past 135 years, women’s roles have transformed:

• wartime service and work outside the home
• professional careers and leadership across every industry
• caring roles, families, and community responsibilities
• seven-day lives where sport competes with real-life commitments

Yet women’s golf structures have remained rooted in the early 20th century pattern:

• Club and County links to England Golf — strong and vital.
• No regional pathway for amateurs or mid-amateurs.
• Senior women’s golf still independent, self-funded, volunteer-led, sustained by remarkable women who keep the tradition alive.

England Golf currently has no formal line to these senior associations,
even though their players represent England in Home and European Championships,
selected from just three events — the English Senior Championship, the English Open Stroke Play, and The R&A’s British Senior Women’s Championship.
Men’s teams, by contrast, draw from a broad suite of qualifying events across the full England Golf pathway.

This is not criticism — it’s context.
And context is what drives modernisation.

Before looking forward, it’s worth understanding how England Golf came together — and how equality in governance hasn’t yet translated into equality in experience.

Governance and the England Golf Structure (2012 – Present)

A unified body with shared ambition — but equality in governance is not the same as equality in experience.

Formation and Purpose

England Golf was created on 1 January 2012, merging the

• English Golf Union (EGU) — founded 1924 for men, and
• English Women’s Golf Association (EWGA) — founded 1952 for women.

The merger formed one governing body for amateur golf in England, representing both men and women from grassroots to international level.

England Golf’s mandate:

• Promote participation and equality across genders and generations.
• Manage national handicapping and championships.
• Represent England internationally through The R&A.
• Support clubs, counties, and volunteers through modern development programmes.

Its headquarters remain at Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, also home to the National Golf Centre.

Women in the England Golf Structure

From inception, England Golf pledged to be inclusive and gender-balanced.
Key commitments include:

• One in three Presidents must be a woman, ensuring continuous female representation.
• Women on the Board as non-executive directors shaping governance and policy.
• A Women’s Golf Committee and working groups focused on participation, performance, and inclusion.

These guarantee a visible presence at the top table — an important milestone in equity.

Representation vs Experience

However, presence is not the same as perspective.

While women hold positions in governance, few paid executive leaders come from women’s-golf backgrounds — county, national, or senior.

The day-to-day leadership voice of women’s golf — with its volunteer heritage, community systems, and century of expertise — is often missing from operational decision-making.

The organisation speaks the language of equality, yet its lived structures still echo the institutions it absorbed.

Women’s Golf in Practice

England Golf delivers:

• The English Women’s Amateur and Women’s Stroke Play Championships.
• Junior and girls’ regional coaching and national squads.
• Women’s Golf Week and local participation campaigns.
  These are vital programmes — but they operate within frameworks still adapting to merge the once-separate men’s and women’s systems.

The Brenda King Foursomes — Tradition Preserved

A defining example of what happens when structure shifts faster than stewardship.

When the Brenda King Foursomes was dropped from the England Golf championship calendar after the merger, senior women golfers took it upon themselves to keep it alive.

They continue to run it independently — self-funded, volunteer-led — a living reminder that women’s golf sustains itself through community, continuity, and care, even when formal governance moves on.

Legacy and Continuing Evolution

The merger of 2012 ended separate governing bodies but began a new challenge: aligning equality on paper with equality in practice.

Legacy achievements

• Unified national voice for amateur golf.
• Consistent representation of women in governance.
• Modern systems for handicapping, development, and club support.

Continuing challenges

• Recognising and valuing the women who built and preserved amateur and senior golf.
• Ensuring leadership reflects not only gender balance but golfing experience and historical understanding.

Key Dates

Men’s golf enjoys a continuous pathway from junior to senior through club, county, region, and nation.
Women’s golf remains fragmented. This short film highlights the gaps and the potential for a connected future.

The Opportunity: Completing, Not Replacing

The weekday women’s game is one of golf’s greatest success stories —
a thriving, supportive network built and run by women, and it must remain at the heart of the game.

But today’s women live seven-day lives.
To grow participation and connection, golf must add to, not take from, what already works.

Weekday and weekend.
Amateur and mid-amateur.
Senior and super-senior.
All connected through England Golf.

🏌️ Table 2: The Golf Experience – Structure and Opportunity

Building a Seven-Day Future for Women’s Golf (2025–2030)

1. Protect and celebrate weekday women’s golf

• Preserve the traditions and autonomy of club and county competitions.
• Recognise women’s committees as the custodians of golf’s social and historical core.

2. Build the missing pathway for 21–49 year-olds

• Establish regional and weekend competitions linked to England Golf.
• Launch a Women’s Mid-Am Circuit and Weekend Series.
• Connect academy graduates and working women into these new structures.

3. Integrate senior women’s golf as valued stakeholders

• Form partnerships between England Golf and the independent senior associations.
• Support them through visibility, promotion, and logistical assistance while respecting their heritage and autonomy.

4. Create one connected women’s calendar

• Combine weekday, weekend, regional, and senior fixtures into a unified, accessible schedule.
• Promote through My England Golf and county channels.

5. Measure what matters

• Track women’s participation by age, day of week, and playing level.
• Evaluate growth in weekend and mid-amateur engagement.
• Ensure senior associations have recognised representation in England Golf governance.

These priorities add up to a single goal — connection, visibility, and opportunity for every woman who loves the game.

Our Vision for 2030

Every woman in England — from first handicap to international team —
can find a clear, supported pathway to play, compete, and belong
within a seven-day, all-age, fully connected England Golf.

A quick-glance summary: “Where Golf Aligns – and Where It’s Out of Sync”

This page is a starting point for conversation. We welcome collaboration from clubs, counties, and senior associations who want to help shape the next chapter of England Golf.