What makes a golf course "women-friendly"?

[alcorn]

Beer????????????

[golf hungry]

I don't know and I don't really care.

I hope this was in jest.

Obviously you don't have a daughter, wife, sister or mother! Anyway.... One of our courses is set up nice for women, the shots are made with @ the same clubs as the men. The other course has lots of forced carries!! It's fine with my wife because she's a long ball hitter, but one of the couples we play with refuse to play it. The carries are to far. She has no fun when she is losing balls in the water.

[tjy355]

Hi everyone.

Pink wine on the beverage cart?

Kidding!! Actually, I agree with you Gayle, on most courses the women's tees are an afterthought and many times WAY TOO long for the average woman golfer Things are changing as many designers are now implementing forward tees in the 4800-5200 yard range. I live in the Phoenix area and would be interested to know where you are considering playing. I could make some recommendations (although not so much from the "woman-friendly" point of view...)

[wedge player]

.

i dont wanna use that it would be 7,560

[iWALK18]

I think a woman friendly course, if it has any forced carries, they must be very manageable. My local GC has a par 3 hole which is 140 yards all carry from the front tees. Now while I would hit a 9i on that hole, my girlfriend would have to pull driver to carry that, and even if she did the ball is not stopping on the green.

The course smartly put out a sign which tells golfers that there are alternative front tees on the other side for people without the ability or strength to carry the ball 140. It makes it a 30-40 yard hole, but giving women (and weaker players) the option makes it woman friendly IMHO. And besides its a pretty fun/cool set up from the 30 yard tees.

Other things:
- Tees which put them appropriately closer to the hole than the men. (discussed already)

- Forward tees which aren't boring. Don't move them around the dogleg every time. Don't make every hole straight and flat and short.

- Receptive greens, which let the ball run onto the front.

- Clean Toilets at the turn or somewhere on the course.

- A nice pro-shop to maybe shop a little (not joking, my GF loves to check out shirts and hats at the courses we play)

- Quality Women's rental clubs. I've seen a lot of courses with beat up or severely outdated Women's rentals. That is such a downer for anyone, but I bet women especially would put a lot of stock in some nice looking clubs.

[glebert]

It occurs to me that I have rarely seen women riding in carts. Do women prefer to walk? If so a "carts only" policy would certainly be a negative.

[Three Putt]

Pick up after a double bogey and card a +2 for the hole?

Beer Cart "Guys" instead of Beer Cart "???????'s"

[Trav]

- Quality Women's rental clubs. I've seen a lot of courses with beat up or severely outdated Women's rentals. That is such a downer for anyone, but I bet women especially would put a lot of stock in some nice looking clubs.

This is a very good point - the missus has had some bad experiences with this, even at so-called "destination" locales where they obviously have lots of experience renting.

[flopdarock]

wow... some of the responses in this thread make me think some of you guys hate women... guess that just means more for me... hahaha... i would love a course that caters to women rather than crotchety old farts who think they own the world... a course full of natalies/lorenas/annikas... ohh my... would definately improve the view...
my girl comes to the course with me often... she loves hitting balls on the range but finds some of the courses i play very very frustrating even from the ladies tees...
clean bathrooms both in the clubhouse and on the course are first on her list...
edible food at the turn...
womens gear in the pro shop...
lpga pro's on staff for a quick lesson...
a strong ladies association/ladies groups presence on the course or at least pics of them in the clubhouse...
after round girlie drinks...

now about the course itself as in playability for her...
some courses that she feels like playing... ill have to drive for her and she does the rest...
moving the teebox's up isnt always the best solution... its all about angle of attack...
some courses the forward teebox's arent just closer but theyre in a different area... which makes the course play completely different...
bailout areas for forced carries that are reachable for shorter hitters...
drop areas for forced carries that have no bailout area...
ill ask her some more stuff that she would like to see at certain courses later...

[alcorn]

In all seriousness, I think the game of golf is sexist and thats just the way everyone (including the women) like it. You don't hear women complaining about using the forward tees, about having the gender specific clubs, or about having gender specific professional organizations. Do I as a man care? No. If a golf course wants to put up a few restrooms around the course to add to the moving up the tees so they can compete with the men then fine. I think golf is all ready female friendly and I like seeing the growing female influence on it.

[NorCalGolfer]

Chippendale caddies..

[Golfgal]

Pink wine on the beverage cart?

Hey Tiy! Oh, as a Canuck, I envy you and the warm weather...

I'd love your recommendations. I am writing for a women's mag, so women-friendly will be one criteria, but not the only one. I may be female, but I do judge courses by many other factors that are important to both men and women. AND I'll be playing with my husband who always has input into my writing. :)

[Golfgal]

I think a woman friendly course, if it has any forced carries, they must be very manageable. My local GC has a par 3 hole which is 140 yards all carry from the front tees. Now while I would hit a 9i on that hole, my girlfriend would have to pull driver to carry that, and even if she did the ball is not stopping on the green.

An excellent check list iWALK18. Thanks!

[Golfgal]

It occurs to me that I have rarely seen women riding in carts. Do women prefer to walk? If so a "carts only" policy would certainly be a negative.

I love to walk, but that's NOT a woman thing I don't think.

[Golfgal]

In all seriousness, I think the game of golf is sexist and thats just the way everyone (including the women) like it. You don't hear women complaining about using the forward tees, about having the gender specific clubs, or about having gender specific professional organizations. Do I as a man care? No. If a golf course wants to put up a few restrooms around the course to add to the moving up the tees so they can compete with the men then fine. I think golf is all ready female friendly and I like seeing the growing female influence on it.

Hmmm....no, have to disagree...women don't like sexist.

Golf may be female friendly, but not all golf courses are female friendly. One tiny example...I have a ton...but this is just a little one that bugs me... When I show up at the bag drop, and the guy automatically assumes my husband's bag goes on the driver's side, that bugs me. I drive the cart when we play, and I know that many of the women I play with like to drive the cart. It's probably because if we let our husbands drive, they would forget to go to our balls. LOL! Sad but true...they are focused on their own balls and their own game, so we have to take care of ourselves. Anyway, I am happy you like seeing the growing female influence on golf, and I agree the "game" is gender neutral. But the courses aren't yet and so we have a ways to go. But we will get there. I have no doubt about that.

[Big_M]

In my opinion (and I could be wrong, heaven forbid ;)), but I believe the ladies tees should be placed so that when she tees off, her ball should land roughly in the same area where the guys' balls are on the fairway. There is nothing worse than being last off the tee and first off the fairway on the 2nd shot. The courses I've played that received the GFW award had tee positions that seemed "fair" to me - ie. met the criteria I just mentioned. Those courses were fun to play because after the tee shot, it was a level playing field with the guys.

Not quite in my opinion...

That doesnt make much sense at least if you are trying to level the playing field. If you both land in the same spot and have 175 yards to the green, you might be hitting a 3 wood and I might be hitting a 6/7 iron. I would clearly have a better chance at hitting the green unless you shoot lasers with your 3 wood.

exactly... the tees should be positioned so that the 2nd shot is with a similar club... this may be better on some holes than others, but it should balance out. As someone mentioned the 5-iron rule is pretty good, to a point at least.

My wife and I discussed this thread at dinner and came up with this... 1) good selection of tee boxes (e.g. 4900, 5400, 6000, 6600, 7200)... 5 boxes is not uncommon these days. 2) appropriate "landing areas" for said tee boxes 3) a restroom someplace besides the turn (maybe 5 & 14 or such) 4) greens that allow for bump-in-run approaches (maybe not all greens or the entire green, but at least to an extent). 5) tee boxes that don't look like an after thought and are "taken care of" 6) a pro shop with some women's balls and clothes 7) drop areas on holes that are surrounded by trouble or with forced carries 8) a limited amount of those mentioned in #7 9) a female golf pro might be an added plus 10) a pink flag to match my wife's driver headcover and towel (her idea). ... she also really likes ducks... so maybe a duck feeder on one hole.

[Damien45]

I have never given much thought about the things that would be considered women friendly on a golf course. I like the majority of what was discussed in this thread. I can think of one thing that wasn't mentioned. At a lot of courses I have played, there has been course books available. The books usually provide course management hints. I am thinking one that discusses all the tee boxes, in gender nuetral terms, would be great. It occurrs to me that most of the books are written with the Blue/White Tees in mind. To me, this just creates the implication that not a lot of thought went into the tee placement of the reds.

[alcorn]

Hmmm....no, have to disagree...women don't like sexist.

Um yeah... as far as your example goes (the whole issue with the person at the curb putting your husbands clubs on the drivers side), I'm going to have to call BS. I thought we were talking about the course (ya know fairways, greens, tees, etc) and not the staff.

And you missed my point about there being seperate leagues, tees, etc. I see the tees and other things that are seperated by gender to a distinct barrier between the two genders. Based on the tees and leagues alone you could make the argument that women are given a distinct advantage over men. They're tees moved up so everyone is equal and in most cases par is changed for them. If everyone wants to be equal then why can women tee off from the same tees are whats normally custom for men? Its sexist in my opinion, but as I said, you don't here anyone of the female gender complaining that they get to hit from closer tees. Going along with this point why does a course have to "women-freindly"? That's not exactly nuetral like you would like it be.