Equal Opportunity
THE SUNDAY AGE
Sunday November 20, 1994
ATTEMPTS to glamorise women's golf in the past few decades have consisted mainly of some close-ups of Jan Stephenson's hemline and some `Women of Golf'-type calenders. But now more progressive steps are being taken to lift the game from the cosy world of the private club four-ball, and put it into the sporting mainstream.
``Traditionally, this organisation has been conservative," says the executive director of the Victorian Ladies Golf Union, Anne Maree Colborne. ``However, the organisation has been taking steps to modernise its image. Hence, we've just got through a new constitution, with a new promotional name, Women's Golf Victoria, and we are implementing policies to make the game more attractive to all age groups."
Colborne says her organisation, long the voice of the members, hopes to embrace the thousands of women golfers who are not affiliated with a private club. She says there are 31,000 registered members, but maybe four or five times that many occasional or public course players.
The average age of the woman golfer might also be about to decline.
Colbone says 9000 young players went through clinics conducted this year at more than 200 locations.
And the great bastion of men's golf, the Saturday afternoon four-ball, is also slowly being broken down. More and more women are taking out seven-day memberships that entitle them to play on golf's sacred day.
``It's in the hands of the clubs and change doesn't happen overnight, but things are changing."
© 1994 THE SUNDAY AGE