Last week twelve influential black women were invited for their first golf experience in central London in what one participant described as “totally amazing”.
Hosted by love.golf and staged at Urban Golf in Soho, the event was the latest step to invite a more diverse audience to the game of golf.
Despite a recent surge in golf participation, statistics show that just 5% of those new or returning to the game are from an ethnic minority.*
Women from a range of professions, from tech entrepreneurs to content creators, gathered at the indoor simulator experience for an entertaining evening where they could try the game for the first time followed by networking with other members of the group.
Charmaine from Kent, who works in tech, was one of the participants. She said: “Being a stereotypically white male-dominated industry, I was super nervous coming to golf, but it’s been an amazing experience.”
Content creator and personal shopper Tuli said: “I found the experience very liberating, and I learned quite a lot. At first obviously I was very nervous in the sense that ‘Okay, I have never really done it’, but I found that the coaches were very helpful, made us feel very much at ease, there wasn’t any expectation to be perfect, and you could just come dressed as you are.
“I am very interested now in the sport, and I think I am actually curious, I’m like ‘Okay Tuli, maybe you could really be the next black golfer’.”
The women were supported on the night by coaches James, Molly and Hannah and will be invited to future love.golf events in the near future as they continue their new-found interest and enthusiasm for the game.
Head coach and love.golf founder, Alastair Spink, added: “It’s understandable that, with a very low proportion of black women playing the game of golf, this group were unsure about whether this was a game for them.
“It’s incumbent on programs like ours to extend the invitation and show new, diverse, audiences what the experience is all about.”
Last week’s event in London follows on from love.golf’s groundbreaking partnership with the Muslim Golf Association which has introduced more than 1,200 Muslim women to the game and recently featured on Sky Sports.
*R&A’s Post-covid Opportunity Research, 2021
