She hit the shot eight years ago, but like any truly obsessed golfer, Alex Andersen can still see it. It was a drive – a line drive – down the middle of the first fairway at Ridgemark Golf Club in Hollister, California.
“That’s what kept me coming back, that one shot. I can still picture it to this day,” said Andersen, 36. “I remember struggling, I still have videos of me swinging irons that day, and I just couldn’t hit the ball. I kept on trying because I wanted that same feeling that I got when I hit that driver.”
Andersen had never given golf the time of day in her early 20s, despite working in member billing and human resources at Ridgemark in her hometown of Hollister for four years. But after that day on the course, a monumental shift occurred.
Andersen is the founder of Babes Golf, an organization launched in 2017 that has brought together roughly 200 female members across chapters in Orange County, California; San Diego and Scottsdale, Arizona, where Andersen is based. Running Babes Golf is a full-time job for Andersen, given the full slate of tournaments, outings and clinics across three locations.
Andersen, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business management entrepreneurship from San Diego State University, always knew she wanted to start a business; she just wasn’t sure what that business would be. A professor told her it would have to be something she was passionate about, and the passion took a few years to develop.
Andersen originally came to golf through a former boyfriend who loved the game. He would work a two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off schedule, and in the off weeks, Andersen remembers that the two would play every day. Her boyfriend taught her a few basics, and she picked up the rest on her own.
When that relationship ended, Andersen found she didn’t want to stop playing. She began recruiting friends to go to the driving range with her to make it less intimidating. That became a standing event and grew in size.
“From there I decided to try to throw a golf tournament, so I threw a nighttime golf tournament and invited everyone we knew. It was really cool because so many guys had come out and they were helping all the girls play golf, and it was just a lot of fun,” she said.
Andersen then began to reach out to local teaching pros to host clinics. The interest was overwhelming, and it spiraled into more clinics and outings.
When the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, Andersen was laid off from her job at a plastic surgery center in San Diego. She used the extra time to build Babes Golf. By the end of the year, it became an affiliate club with the Southern California Golf Association.
“They emailed me back and said, ‘Our bosses had been telling us that we needed to find more women’s clubs out there. You landed on our desk [with] perfect timing,’” Andersen said of her initial interaction with the SCGA. “They were a huge part of getting the club going and launching us.”
The event calendar continued to grow and now even includes an annual getaway, dubbed the Babecation, typically attended by 40-50 women. This year the Babes will gather for a weekend at the Westin Kierland Golf Club in Scottsdale.
“We may not get a hole-in-one, but we have a whole lot of fun.” — Alex Andersen
There are formal Babecations, and then there are the ones that come together organically. Katharine LiMandri, 40, just returned from a girls trip with a group made up entirely of Babes Golf friends, and there may be no better endorsement for the community which the club builds than that testimonial.
“As you get older, you really start discerning and choosing who you want to spend your time with and how you want to spend your time,” said LiMandri, a San Diego native. “Golf allows you to spend big chunks of time with lots of different people, but at the same time it allows you to spend really good quality time with your friends.”
A mutual friend connected LiMandri with Andersen for a round of golf, and the two have been close ever since. LiMandri, who owns a business operations and marketing agency, took up the game during the pandemic as a way to get out of the house and meet people.
The Babes are well known around San Diego, LiMandri notes. She recalls an early-morning walk-on round at Torrey Pines with Andersen and hearing a male player shouting, “Babes Golf!” when he saw them. He joined them for the round. LiMandri almost always gets supportive comments about the group when she wears a logoed hat.
“Usually men are like, ‘I need a hat. I’m a man Babe,’” she said.
Andersen and Babes Golf continue to evolve in their own ways. As Andersen got more deeply involved in the game and started listening to teaching pros at Babes Golf clinics, she began to take notice of the fundamentals they were teaching. She was fitted for a full set of Callaway clubs and is teetering on the edge of breaking 80, with her best score an 81.
Now a member at Phoenix Country Club, Andersen set her next goal as working up the courage to play in the women’s club championship there, which has long been dominated by a small number of talented players.
With Babes Golf, Andersen is planning a long-term pivot to an ambassador program that would take the concept across the country. More than anything, Andersen just wants to offer the Babes Golf community to a wider range of people, always with the driving theme that enjoyment trumps skill.
“We may not get a hole-in-one,” Andersen said, “but we have a whole lot of fun.”
Top: Babecations, like this one in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2022, generally attract 40-50 members of Babes Golf. Photo by Fusion Studio
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