Women Golfers

The Wall Street Journal recently published and article by John Paul Newport on women and golf. The article was called Golf Searches for Its Feminine Side.

This story is about new studies that look at what women are looking for in golf, and how courses could change to attract more women to this sport that is currently made up of about 22% women golfers.

The article states:

"The new research details a disturbing disconnect between what golf facilities perceive as important to women and what actually is. For example, course operators vastly underestimate the significance to women of top-notch conditions, speed of play and length of holes. They tend to trivialize concerns such as having adequate drinking water and clean bathrooms on the course, clear directional signage and tee markers, well-stocked women's merchandise sections in the pro shop and friendly, welcoming staff atuned to women's needs."

We operate three golf courses at the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority: Algonkian, Brambleton, and Pohick Bay. I am sure we can improve the experience for women golfers at our courses, and we will be looking at these studies to see what we can do.

In the last few years we have been improving our courses with an eye to attracting more women golfer in addition to retaining our current base of golfers. We have improved the forward tees at some of our courses, and encouraged more leagues to make the game more social. While not specifically a female golfer issue, we have significantly ramped up our environmental commitment at all three of our courses. We were actually the first publicly owned courses in the Mid-Atlantic region to obtain Wildlife Sanctuary status for our courses through Audubon International. This greening of our greens can can give our golfers and the general public peace of mind that we are proactively protecting water quality, reducing chemical usage and enhancing wildlife habitat.

to read this Wall Street Journal article click on: www.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094104575143772046834464.html