Golf has long been a game defined by tradition — its etiquette, its championships, its iconic venues. Yet tradition, while valuable, must evolve.
Across the global golf industry, a decisive shift is underway: one that recognises women not simply as participants, but as leaders, innovators, operators, executives, PGA professionals, coaches, agronomists, and decision-makers shaping the future of the sport.
This shift is no longer anecdotal. It is becoming structured, data-driven, and measurable.
At the forefront of this movement, the Women in Golf Awards and 59club have launched a landmark global initiative: The Fairways Project — a 5-year research study designed to systematically examine women’s experiences across every sector of the golf industry.
Why This Moment Matters
Women’s participation in golf has grown significantly over the past decade — from increased grassroots engagement to expanded professional opportunities.
Major championships such as the AIG Women’s Open and the Solheim Cup have elevated visibility and commercial value.
Yet representation in senior leadership roles, course management, governance, and ownership remains disproportionately low in many markets.
The challenge is not simply attracting women to golf — it is retaining, supporting, and advancing them.
Culture, career progression pathways, workplace policies, access to mentorship, and unconscious bias all influence outcomes.
Without robust longitudinal data, however, these factors are difficult to quantify and even harder to address strategically.
This is precisely where the Fairways Project becomes transformative!
The Fairways Project: A 5-Year Industry Audit
The Fairways Project is poised to become one of the largest and most comprehensive studies of women’s experiences in the global golf industry.
Key features include:
- A five-year research timeline
- Participation open to men and women
- Inclusion across all industry sectors (clubs, federations, management, coaching, media, retail, turf management, executive leadership)
- Two 10-minute surveys annually
- Advanced analytics powered by 59club
By collecting data consistently over multiple years, the study moves beyond snapshot sentiment and into meaningful trend analysis.
It will identify:
- Barriers to entry and progression
- Leadership pipeline gaps
- Workplace culture patterns
- Recruitment and retention trends
- Aspirations versus realised opportunities
In short, it will provide benchmarking metrics that the industry has never previously possessed at scale.
Men as Strategic Stakeholders in Change
A critical, often-overlooked insight underpinning the Fairways Project is this: inclusion cannot be achieved in isolation.
As Nicole Wheatley, founder of the Women in Golf Awards, emphasises:
“Men’s involvement is paramount to the success of all of our projects. Like everything we do, the Fairways Project is for the wider golf community.
We want to improve the industry’s culture, help companies make better provision for women and understand how to hire and retain female talent.
To do that, men’s and women’s experiences need to lead the conversation.”
This framing is essential. Cultural reform within any sector requires cross-demographic participation.
When male executives, club managers, PGA professionals, and board members engage in data collection, the resulting insights become systemic rather than siloed.
This is not a “women’s initiative.” It is an industry transformation strategy.
The Analytical Backbone: 59club’s Data Expertise
The partnership with 59club ensures the study is not merely aspirational rhetoric but is operationally rigorous.
Sarah Jane Shepherd, Global Franchise Manager at 59club, underscores the ambition:
“We hope that the insights we capture will provide golf with the tools to benchmark progress, inform decisions, and ultimately shape a stronger and more inclusive future for the game.
This is such an important project. We know that the golf industry wants to embrace the talent of women at every level and we have the means to enable that.”
With advanced survey software, comparative analytics, and training infrastructure, 59club will transform qualitative experiences into measurable KPIs.
This enables:
- Evidence-based policy changes
- Targeted leadership development
- Strategic workforce planning
- Accountability tracking across years
For an industry that increasingly operates within sophisticated commercial frameworks, this alignment of diversity strategy with data intelligence is both timely and necessary.
The Broader Impact on Golf’s Future
Why does this matter beyond fairness? Because inclusion is not just a social imperative — it is a commercial one.
Research across industries consistently demonstrates that diverse leadership teams outperform homogeneous ones in innovation, financial performance, and decision-making quality.
Golf competes in a crowded leisure and sport marketplace. To thrive, it must reflect and engage the demographics of modern society.
Improving pathways for women strengthens:
- Talent acquisition
- Organisational culture
- Member engagement
- Sponsorship appeal
- Long-term sustainability
The Fairways Project is designed to provide the empirical foundation to support this evolution.
How to Participate?
The project is open globally to women and men working at any stage of their careers in the golf industry.
Participants will:
- Complete a short “Getting to Know” survey in March
- Complete the first main survey in May
- Contribute two 10-minute surveys annually over five years
Those wishing to take part can register via the Women in Golf Awards website.
This is not merely participation in a survey. It is participation in shaping the future architecture of the golf industry.
A Defining Opportunity
For decades, conversations about women in golf have centred on representation and opportunity. The Fairways Project elevates that conversation to accountability and measurable progress.
Change in golf — like improvement in a swing — requires honest analysis, structured practice, and consistent review.
With this initiative, the industry is finally committing to that discipline. The fairways of the future will not simply be wider.
They will be broader in opportunity, stronger in leadership, and more inclusive by intent.
The data begins now.