Staffordshire club appoints a charter champion
In signing up to the charter, the club has committed to a number of measurable and tangible strategies to increase the number of women and girls playing and working in golf and to develop and implement an internal strategy to enhance gender balance at every level of club life. These include promoting the inclusion of women with nominations to the Board of Directors, making the course more accessible both for new golfers and the elderly and actively promoting careers for women in the golf industry.
2019 Ladies’ Club Captain, Sue Dimmock, has been appointed as Charter Champion to drive the campaign and to ensure that the targets are reached.
“Enville Golf Club has actively been supporting initiatives to get more women and girls into golf for some time now,” confirmed the club’s General Manager, Heather Mulley.
“Working with the R&A and hosting the Girls’ Open Amateur Championship in 2017 was truly inspirational. It ignited a real passion to support women’s golf and focussed my attention on issues affecting not just our club, but club’s countrywide.
To receive a hand-written letter from R&A CEO Martin Slumbers recognising my efforts to embrace the Women in Golf Charter was a definite career highlight,” Mulley added.
Enville currently has 63 full and five-day playing lady members, as well as seven active junior girls, and the plan is to increase that number and to aim for an equal number of junior girl and junior boy members.
The club has already launched a couple of initiatives to bolster numbers including launching a Ladies’ Golf Academy in 2018 and playing an active part in England Golf’s Girls’ Golf Rocks campaign.
“In 2018 we launched our Ladies’ Academy offering a structured pathway into golf and golf club membership,” explained Mulley. “The package included ten private lessons with our Pro, six group lessons, full use of the practice facilities and clubhouse and 72 holes on the course with a mentor. In our first year we had 14 ladies sign up. One lady has joined as a full member, two have gone to other clubs, but are continuing with their golf, and six others have signed up for a second year. In 2019 we have also had eight new ladies on the programme so hopefully our success story will continue.
“We are coming to the end of the Girls’ Golf Rocks initiative and were delighted to be chosen to run the scheme,” she added. “It has been a real delight for all involved. Our Lady Vice Captain, Donna Wharton has worked particularly hard to make this a success and our girls have risen to the challenge and have become excellent Ambassadors.
“We regularly had 10 to 12 local girls of all ages attending the sessions and we are confident some of those girls will progress to become junior members of the club. We would urge any club to take advantage of the ideas and schemes offered by England Golf. We have all thoroughly enjoyed the experience.”
Mulley’s enthusiasm for promoting women’s golf both internally and externally is shared by Lady Club Captain Dimmock.
“It is important for golf to reflect diversity in society by embracing inclusion both in the workforce and on the golf course,” she said. “Enville is committed to exploring ways in which we can support the various initiatives that look to progress diversity and inclusion.
“It is not only our aim to increase levels of membership here at Enville, but to increase women’s participation in the game of golf,” she added. “If every golfing organisation countrywide take up one initiative, no matter how small, what a great difference that could make.”
Image copyright Leaderboard Copyright.