The month of June is Women’s Golf Month and Guyana leads the Region with the highest percentage of women golfers.
In an effort to celebrate Women’s Golf Month this year, Nexgen Golf Academy and the Guyana Golf Association is promoting golf among women with the help of fun events at their Woolford Avenue location throughout the duration of the month. Chip & Putt events during the evenings and weekends with trophies and prizes such as bottles of wine, massages and golf lessons will be up for grabs.
These events are designed to provide a friendlier environment for women golfers. Nexgen’s Golf Month is a way to help both casual and avid women golfers to get in the game, get to know each other, and contribute to the growth of women’s participation in golf.
Women’s Golf Month was launched by the PGA in 2005 and is celebrated every June. Fifteen years ago, less than 20% of young golfers worldwide were female. Today that number stands at 36%. However, in Guyana, the percentage of female participants in Golf is at an incredible 65%. This is proof that the Guyana Golf Association and Nexgen Golf has contributed a lot towards the growth of the sport among women and they continue to launch more such campaigns to further spread the popularity of the sport.
HISTORY OF WOMEN’S GOLF MONTH
Mary, Queen of Scots, who ruled Scotland from 1542 to 1567, is considered to have been the first woman to play golf. It was during her reign that the famous St. Andrews Links golf course was built. However, the first women’s golf club was formed much later in 1867 — the St. Andrews Ladies’ Golf Club. It later came to be known as the St. Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club. In 1893, Issette Miller, one of the leading women golfers of the time, invented the first golf handicapping system. This helped even the less experienced women golfers to have a competitive chance. And it was in 1917, the United States Golf Association (U.S.G.A.) formed its Women’s Tournament Committee. It later became the Women’s Committee of the U.S.G.A. in 1934.
