I Drive The Ball 240 Yards, So It's Wrong That Even I Find Many Golf Courses A Total Slog For Women
PGA Professional Katie Dawkins on the design flaws stripping the fun from the women's game and making golf courses fairer for everyone
It’s an issue that many women happily accept as the norm, yet so many golf courses are still so challenging and simply too long.
Women come off the 18th tee feeling utterly exhausted, not because they’re unfit, but because they’ve hit so many more shots than their male counterparts. They’ve found themselves in hazards from great shots by all standards and feel somewhat beaten up after their rounds.
Women assume that the forward tees are designed for them to suit their needs and the way female golfers play, but this is not the case at the vast majority of courses worldwide.
Golf is a sport that should be a game for life, enjoyed with all the family and makes you live longer (on average 5 years), but in reality it isn’t being made available to everyone. Women and indeed any shorter hitters are being excluded and the industry, as much as it tries to include them, is failing these golfers.
I’ve recently played courses that are undoubtedly stunning and award winning on many levels. I played off the forward tees (admittedly in tough conditions) and honestly found it a slog.
Off the tee, I hit the ball over 240 yards on average, so I’m no short hitter, but I found a few carries a struggle into wind and hit some great long hybrids into many of the greens for them not to stick. I came off the course thinking, wow if I found that tough, how does somebody who hits it shorter than me fair out there?
It’s not just off the tee, when faced with shots into greens, these require fairway woods. Greens designed to be hit with high spinning short irons due to the long tee shots hit by men. The assumption this has been considered and courses are set up for short hitters is a poor one. Simply moving tees forward to vaguely flat areas isn’t the fix.
During a round recently I noticed my playing partner needing to use a 5-wood on her second and sometimes third shots to clear fairway bunkers. As a result, on numerous occasions, she found her ball rolling out into the greenside bunkers from well struck shots. So having hit some great golf shots with a driver and then fairway woods, she was then punished.
Bunkers that are literally traps for the shorter hitter are often the end to a good scorecard. Yet those who hit it beyond them are avoiding the trouble and often being rewarded with a rebound off a steep bank or a clear run out.
Bunkers are tough for any golfer with a slower swing speed. I know many women who dread playing courses guarded with greenside bunkers. If they do carry them, they can’t get the ball to stop. The same applies to rough. If the carry is over rough, women who have over 50% less wrist strength than men are penalised further as they can’t escape what they can’t carry.
The golfer playing from forward tees isn’t getting the full experience the golf architect intended when they designed each hole. Gary Player knows this and in his later years he now tees his ball up where he deems would make a fair and fun hole. It could be anywhere down the hole which is brilliant. If Player is doing this, there’s a big problem, so what can be done? Do clubs care enough to invest in change? It’s not that simple…
Fiona Womack and Sharon Eales are forging ahead with an incredible proven system that shows golf courses simply aren’t set up for shorter hitters. The formidable duo won the Trailblazer award at the Women in Golf Awards in 2024 for good reason. They’re powering through tradition and exposing the barriers that are stopping courses from seeing women, seniors and juniors enjoy their games.
The pair’s work with this year’s Open venue, Royal Birkdale, and architect Tom Mackenzie, serve as a great case study to promote this further, so here’s hoping this is the start of change in golf course design.
Royal Birkdale 18th hole
Not only did Mackenzie go about an entire re-design of the tee boxes using the duos' numbers, he also took out penal bunkers which weren’t an issue to high swing speed players but overly penalising to the mere mortal golfer. He created run-off areas where the ball can be rolled up onto the green so in all making a fairer golf course that is truly an enjoyable test for everyone.
Birkdale really nailed this. But it’s not been easy, 13 years of development and convincing golfers this change is a good one. We all know how people feel about change.
“Royal Birkdale is one of the few Open Championship venues and historic clubs that have a family culture and they have always been quite forward thinking. Conservative yes, but not reluctant. This was critical to the success of the campaign.
“I was able to move away from talking about women and talk about all golfers - juniors, senior men and women, those coming back from injury etc. What I found is when I tried to make this a female-only issue the result was the usual rolling of the eyes by both men and women and resistance from the women’s section who are so content to keep the status quo,” said Eales.
A course layout should be a fair test of golf for everyone
Speaking to Womack, she reminded me of the story that Paul Eales, ex European Tour pro and Sharon’s husband recollected from the Paris Olympics at Le Golf National…
“Laura Davies was incensed with the tee position on the first hole at the Olympics. Eales explained that when he had challenged the tee placement he was told that the tees were designed to give the women "the first tee experience", even though they were hitting a hybrid which either went in the water or off the back of the green. Davies said, "Coming off the 1st with an 8, how's that an experience for you?".
Putting this into another perspective, Womack says, “Would we put female cyclists on men's bikes at the Olympics just because it was better for their view of the crowd? How did we allow something as ridiculous as that to skew the competition results? Why do female golfers accept this? Why aren't we complaining, demanding more? “
I wholeheartedly echo all of Eales’ and Womack’s findings. For me, why would I introduce women to the game that eventually punishes them for hitting great shots. Who would do that? Change is needed and the time is now. Thus the reason I push a shorter par-3 version of golf at Iford Golf Centre. The women I coach at the Iford Women’s Academy have fun as it’s accessible and they excel at this.
If you’re a golf course who wants to encourage more females and multi-generational participation, then please take a good look at Royal Birkdale’s set up. Even better, contact Fiona Womack and Sharon Eales via LinkedIn and find out how they can help you. They’ve helped the course hosting the biggest test in golf. Everyone deserves to enjoy this game to the fullest. Let’s make it happen.
