1867-2027

160 Years of Women’s Golf

A continuous system of participation

A global invitation for golf clubs to recognise their place in a shared history through their own club stories.

Women’s golf grew through participation – in clubs, competitions and communities around the world.

1867 — Organised Beginnings

St Andrews Ladies’ Golf Club and the earliest clearly evidenced women’s club medal competition.

From the beginning, women’s golf adapted the game – using shorter formats and flexible play to support participation.

1867 — St Andrews

A contemporary newspaper report from the Dundee Advertiser confirms that women at St Andrews had organised their own golf club by September 1867, complete with officers, rules, and competition structure.

On 5 October 1867, 22 women competed in a club medal competition over 45 holes.

Winner: Miss Chambers, 139 strokes.

A clear early record of organised women’s golf participation.

Source: Dundee Advertiser, 8 October 1867.

1893 — National Coordination

By 1893, women’s golf was already being played through a growing network of clubs across Britain and Ireland.

In March 1893, newspapers reported plans for a Ladies’ Golf Union, supported by clubs including St Andrews, North Berwick, Portrush, Blackheath, Wimbledon, and others.

Issette Pearson – Photo in the public domain – from Wikicommons

The aim was to create shared rules, coordinate competition, and establish a championship structure.

Contemporary reporting in Golf later recorded the formal establishment of the Ladies’ Golf Union, including agreement on rules, club affiliation, handicapping, and championship organisation.

This was an important structural milestone—but not the beginning of women’s golf.

It was the formal coordination of a participation system women had already built.

Sources: Edinburgh Evening News, 23 March 1893; Gentlewoman, 20 May 1893; Golf, 28 April 1893.

The Ladies’ Golf Union Championship, first played in 1893, became the leading championship in women’s amateur golf, bringing together the strongest players of the era in national competition.

1894 – 2nd Ladies Open Championship Players – Littlestone, Kent

Photo in the public domain – from Wikicommons

By 1929, when Joyce Wethered faced Glenna Collett in the final at St Andrews, the championship had become one of the most prestigious events in the women’s game, attracting international attention and public coverage.

WATCH THE 1929 – WOMENS CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL HOLE HERE

1913 / 1919 — Girls Open Championship

1913–1919 — Building the Next Generation

In 1913, The Gentlewoman launched the Girls’ Open Golf Championship, explicitly designed to encourage young golfers.

Open to girls up to age 18 from across the United Kingdom, the British Colonies, and other countries, it shows that structured youth participation in women’s golf was already being actively developed.

The championship was postponed in 1914 because of the First World War, then revived in 1919.

Women’s golf was not simply sustaining current participation—it was intentionally building the next generation.

Sources: The Gentlewoman, 18 October 1913; 19 September 1914; 12 April 1919.

WATCH THE 1921 GIRLS OPEN PLAYERS HERE

1921 – Veteran Ladies Golf Association

(now Senior Women)

1921 — A Pathway for Lifelong Participation

In 1921, women golfers created the Veteran Ladies’ Golf Association, providing organised golf for women aged fifty and over.

This was a formal participation structure, with leadership, committee organisation, competitions, and regular meetings.

It shows that women’s golf was being built not only through clubs and championships, but through participation pathways that supported women across the life course.

The President was 92 years old and could hit a 90 yard drive.

That legacy still exists today through senior women’s golf associations.

Sources: The Gentlewoman, 19 March 1921; Ladies’ Field, 16 April 1921; Daily Express, March 1921.

1927 – An International Network

Women had built a coordinated system of clubs, competitions, and governance – operating at national scale.

1927 — 100,000 Women Golfers

By 1927, the Ladies’ Golf Union had grown to 1,002 affiliated clubs representing more than 100,000 women golfers.

That is the scale of women’s organised golf participation a century after the 1867 St Andrews competition.

Women’s golf was not emerging.

It was already a major participation system.

Sources: The Scotsman, 10 February 1927; Express & Star, 9 February 1927; Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News.

2017 – Governance Integration

In 2017, the Ladies Golf Union merged with The R&A.

This brought women’s and men’s amateur golf under a single governance structure.

2027 – A Shared Recognition

160 years after the first recorded competition, clubs are invited to recognise their place in this ongoing system.

This is not the start of something new.
It is the recognition of something that has always existed.