Harding Park Women’s Golf Club

By Lily Achatz 

I was 12 years previous the primary time I picked up a golf membership. My father took us children to a public golf vary in San Rafael. I had a whole lot of enjoyable however I do keep in mind that my sister and I had been the one ladies there. I actually thought it was a sport solely for males and that you simply needed to belong to a membership to play. I didn’t return to golf till many years later after I would accompany male buddies on the course. I liked it however was by no means constant. I wasn’t comfy as a feminine to point out up at a golf course alone in the event that they weren’t obtainable.

Throughout Covid, I mustered up the braveness and simply confirmed up at my native course. I booked classes on the Presidio Golf Course and discovered that they’d a ladies’s membership. I felt consolation in realizing there have been different ladies and joined their membership instantly. I met wonderful ladies of all ages and backgrounds—some had been rookies and others extra skilled. We shared suggestions, methods, tee-times, our ardour for golf (and perhaps a martini or two). I discovered from this sisterly group the place and methods to purchase tools, suggestions for discounted tee instances and most significantly, how there have been so many ladies similar to me in search of group. Some shared that they’d usually play alone to keep away from a aggressive male dynamic and all of us bonded round the truth that we merely needed to satisfy extra ladies we might play with.

Feeling energized, I mapped out the native programs and put collectively a wishlist of the place I might play after I turned proficient. TPC Harding Park was on the prime of the checklist. I used to be drawn to their wealthy historical past and had watched their PGA tournaments on TV. I shared this checklist with my ladies’s group and was instantly invited to play at Harding Park with them. I used to be touched that two very skilled gamers would come with me and a pal who was additionally a novice.  They confirmed us the best way round a troublesome course and made us really feel comfy by instructing us course etiquette; what golf equipment we’d use; and the that means of ‘tempo of play’. I felt empowered as I walked the identical hallowed course that Tiger Woods and Michele Wie have performed numerous instances. It was throughout this primary spherical that I discovered that there was once a Harding Park Girls’s Golf Membership. It was disbanded many years in the past although many ladies as we speak love taking part in Harding and wish their very own membership. I started to look into the way it may very well be reinstated after discovering that many ladies at Harding in addition to surrounding golf programs had been additionally very enthusiastic about becoming a member of this membership.

By probability I met Tom Smith, the Basic Supervisor of TPC Harding Park, whereas attending my very first LPGA occasion, the MEDIHEAL event at Lake Merced Golf Membership. We started a dialog about ladies’s golf vogue. I shared my vogue background with him in addition to my imaginative and prescient for a golf assortment. He talked about that it reminded him of a few of the garments he noticed in a Harding Park Girls’s Golf Membership Scrapbook from 1936. He pulled up some pictures on his cellphone. They had been outstanding and portrayed a robust group of feminine golfers. I provided to add them on-line so I might share the pictures with different ladies. I additionally talked about that there have been many ladies enthusiastic about reinstating the membership. We met a couple of weeks later and he was extremely supportive.  For months, he devoted hours of his time into making the membership come to fruition. He taught me concerning the golf trade, golf equipment, and made key introductions.

One key introduction he made was to Lyn Nelson, Director of Golf Growth and Property at San Francisco Recreation & Parks / Mayor’s Girls’s Golf Council Chair. Lyn took me below her wing and commenced instructing me every little thing about golf from how golf golf equipment are fashioned to golf structure and even golf classes. She inspired and supported me all through the entire means of forming the membership.  She additionally made necessary introductions. It was Lyn who gave me the arrogance to begin the membership because the President.

The Harding Park Girls’s Golf Membership Board was based and included the ladies from my first foursome at Harding Park and Lyn Nelson. We’re a various group of girls from all ranges, ages and backgrounds. The wealthy variety throughout class has grow to be our mission assertion.

Harding Park Girls’s Golf Membership goals to introduce and promote golf by offering an inclusive and pleasant group to all members. We create a social surroundings that fosters friendships on and off the course. We assist all ranges from absolute rookies to aggressive athletes.

HPWGC turned an official membership with the NCGA on December 6, 2021 and opened membership memberships on February 20, 2022. In a single day, we grew to 50 members – with 20% new golfers. We now have ladies from all ages 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and even an 80 12 months previous; working ladies, retired ladies, and faculty college students. Greater than 80% of our members have a number of ladies’s golf membership memberships (private and non-private). We’re nonetheless rising and anticipated to achieve over 100 members by the top of the 12 months. I’ve acquired so many messages already from ladies who’re so thrilled that the membership has been fashioned. Certainly one of our board members claimed that she was so lonely and so comfortable to have discovered a group of girls. She asserts that our membership modified her life. This group has additionally modified my life.

What is exclusive about HPWGC is that we’re creating occasions and tournaments with new concepts for all ranges. We are going to supply instructional clinics to show new golfers on our 9 Gap Fleming course, maintain on-line comfortable hour Q&As, and showcase totally different golf execs utilizing the Toptracer vary. For the extra skilled and aggressive golfers, we plan to have extra revolutionary occasions involving Fore Caddies, Crew play and the chance to take part in our Toptracer league. I additionally wish to share what I skilled with my golf sisters – what apps to obtain for tee-times, tee-time offers, procuring journeys (the place to purchase golf equipment, garments, equipment), golf fittings and extra. HPWGC has already created allyship with 5 different ladies’s golf golf equipment within the space and can collaborate with them on-line and on the right track. We are going to assist ladies (and boys) by way of organizations like First Tee and US Children. Our imaginative and prescient is to create group throughout all ladies golfers in Northern California, long-term imaginative and prescient is globally.

I’m so grateful to the NCGA, Tom Smith and Lyn Nelson for serving to us create an area of our personal at Harding Park the place ladies really feel included and that they’ve someplace they belong. I wish to develop ladies’s golf and increase alternatives for girls that my 12-year-old self didn’t see. I hope for this to be a template for all golf programs sooner or later.