160 Years of Women’s Golf
A global story of participation, competition, belonging and community
Women were playing golf before 1867.
Over generations, women organised clubs, created competitions, developed systems, formed communities and built opportunities for girls, adults and older women; recreational players and champions; amateurs and professionals.
The structures changed. The organisations changed. But women’s participation, innovation and communities continued.
1867
Women Organise Their Own Golf
In September 1867, women at St Andrews established their own golf club, with office bearers, rules and a programme of competitions.
On Saturday 5 October, 22 women played the club’s first ladies’ medal over 45 holes.
Miss Chambers won with 139 strokes — while the woman recording the highest score, 222 strokes, also received a prize.
Competition created challenge. Participation created belonging.
1893
From Clubs to Coordination
By 1893, women had established clubs, competitions, handicaps and connections between them.
The formation of the Ladies’ Golf Union created a structure to coordinate that growing network, organise a national championship and formalise a handicap system that recognised both player ability and course difficulty.
Women did not simply participate in an existing system. They helped create the systems that enabled participation to grow.
1890s
A Global Story Emerges
Women’s golf did not develop through one model.
In Britain and Ireland, women created their own organisations. In the United States, women’s championship golf developed within the emerging national governing structure. In Australia, women participated within developing golf clubs, while in Sweden women were present from the earliest documented years of the game.
Different structures. A shared pattern: women played, organised, competed and created communities.
1900–1914
Communities and Connections
As participation expanded, women created new networks around golf.
International matches and championships connected golfers across national boundaries, while associations formed around professions and shared lives — including medicine, law, Parliament and the United Services.
Golf was becoming a network of overlapping communities.
Participation created connections. Connections created communities. Communities created belonging.
1913–1927
Participation Across Generations
Women deliberately created opportunities across the life course.
The Girls’ Open Championship created a pathway for younger golfers. The Veteran Ladies Golf Association, founded in 1921 for women aged 50 and over, created opportunities to continue competing and belonging later in life.
By 1927, the Ladies’ Golf Union represented more than 100,000 women across 1,000+ affiliated clubs, alongside an extensive overseas network.
Women had created pathways to start, compete, contribute, continue and belong.
1932
International Friendship and Rivalry
The relationships behind international women’s golf had been developing for decades.
At Royal Cromer in 1905, visiting American golfers including the Curtis sisters joined women playing international matches around the Ladies’ Championship.
In 1932, those international relationships became formalised through the Curtis Cup between the United States and Great Britain & Ireland.
Formal structures followed relationships women had already created through participation, competition and friendship.
1950–1978
Professional Pathways Emerge
A new pathway developed alongside the established amateur game.
The LPGA was formed in the United States in 1950. In Britain and Ireland, the first Women’s British Open was played in 1976, followed by the organisation that became the Ladies European Tour in 1978.
Professional golf created new opportunities for elite women to make golf their career.
A performance pathway had emerged alongside a participation system generations of women had already built.
2011 – Present
Integration and New Structures
During the twenty-first century, many of the structures governing golf have been brought together.
In England, the women’s and men’s governing bodies merged in 2011 to form England Golf. In 2017, the Ladies’ Golf Union integrated with The R&A.
In Australia, One Golf brought national and participating state and territory administration together under Golf Australia, alongside a move towards a single digital destination connecting different parts of the game.
The models are different, but they reflect a wider change: structures that had developed separately over generations are increasingly being brought together.
The structures changed. Participation and community continued.
2017 – 2027
New Ways to Participate and Belong
Today, women continue to create new golfing communities.
Some exist within traditional clubs. Others have developed through social golf, independent groups and digital networks that connect women locally, nationally and internationally.
The technology and structures may be different, but many of the needs are familiar:
to play, meet others, compete, contribute and belong.
2027 – 160 Years
160 years after women at St Andrews organised their first club medal, clubs around the world are invited to discover their own place in this shared history.
The story belongs to generations of women who played, competed, organised, volunteered, innovated, formed friendships and created opportunities for those who followed.