From 2019 to 2023, no category of golfer grew faster than the women’s segment, up almost 17 percent, and now estimated at close to 7 million by the National Golf Foundation. Today, female golfers account for about one player within every foursome playing the game.
If you’re a frequent golfer, you’ve likely noticed it when playing at your favorite course, whether private or public access. There are more women on the course enjoying the game than at any time in almost two decades.
There have been surges in female participation before, the most recent being in the early 2000s during the real estate/financial bubble and just before the Great Recession. In the aftermath of the bubble popping, golfers fled the game as the economy disintegrated. Jobs were lost, and many golf course communities struggled to survive. And, while participation slid across all segments, it severely impacted women on the course.
Just before COVID wreaked havoc in early 2020, there were approximately 6 million women playing the game, and industry caretakers were in the midst of attempts to increase the popularity of the game, with little relative success.
In 2024, Golf Datatech, a division of Chicago-based market-research company Circana, undertook its third in-depth investigation into this underserved and underdeveloped market for golf products. Not only do these studies focus on purchasing activity, but they also explore attitudes and opinions on several topics of interest to golf marketers and brands, such as what women enjoy the most about playing the game, as well as what are their biggest pet peeves.
Previous waves in 2014 and 2021 focused on more “serious” players, including those who played often and spent the most. With this latest 2024 study, we’ve opened the responding base to a much broader cross section of female players, including new players (less than four years), younger players (under 40), as well as our traditional base of frequent serious golfers.
While many of the key findings have not changed dramatically on a macro basis, deep dives into the various sub-segments of the sample provide incredible insights that are masked when only looking at the total sample population of 1,477 survey respondents.
In this summary, I touch on a few key insights, although the full report has so much more that can provide marketers and product-development departments with roadmaps for understanding and reaching this economic powerhouse: the female golfer.
Projecting the market
Female golfers spend a lot on golf equipment and golf apparel. After being cast aside for many years as less likely to buy premium clubs and balls, today’s female golfer spends substantially on new equipment, an estimated $1.4 billion, with an additional $797 million on apparel.
What they like about the game
If you’ve played the game more than a few times, regardless of gender, you know how it can capture your mind, blending an outdoor physical activity with the desire to improve and being with friends. Or being paired with new friends. Golf has a way of connecting people that is unlike most endeavors in today’s world.
Just like their male counterparts, women find that what they enjoy about the game often varies by level of play. Lower handicaps frequently are more focused on improving and reducing their handicap, while all segments, regardless of handicap, enjoy being outside and socializing with friends.
Dislikes?
While many respondents have nothing negative to say about their golfing endeavors, there are two significant undesirable elements that continue to be issues: 1) cost and 2) the impression that golf courses/pro shops are deeply male-dominated places that are not welcoming to women.
The cost of golf continues to be an issue more broadly and is not specific to women. In particular, people who are new to the game are not only faced with the cost of playing (green fees and/or memberships), but they need to invest in new equipment, and quite often in lessons to help them get over the steep learning curve needed to improve their game to the point where they are comfortable on the course.
The bigger issue for many women is the perception of how they are treated at the golf course, frequently not the same as their male counterparts. Many organizations and golf course management teams have recognized these long-standing issues and created programs to improve opinions and attitudes, but fundamental change takes time and continued efforts to improve the overall environment are clearly necessary.
Equipment design and marketing
No topic drives more heated discussions among our respondents than their feelings and opinions about the design and marketing of golf equipment. And there are two very different streams of thought that are diametrically opposed.
To understand the arguments on both sides, it helps to be aware of how golf equipment for women has historically been designed and marketed. Until recently, golf equipment for women was often a modified version of a product that was made for men. A commonly used phrase within the industry, particularly in golf clubs, was to “shrink it and pink it,” meaning to start with a men’s club, put shorter, softer shafts in the head and use pink paint to appeal to women.
If a woman was particularly strong, tall, or a lower handicap, she often would buy standard-issue clubs from the major brands, often custom fit to match her swing speed.
There are a significant number of female golfers who embrace the concept of equipment “made for women,” believing that the manufacturers and marketers understand their needs and have created products to meet their requirements. Oftentimes, this segment is toward the older end of the age spectrum and has higher handicaps, but they welcome the idea of a product made to meet their needs.
On the flip side, there are many female golfers who feel strongly that making equipment that performs for “a woman” misses the point of what is important in the design and marketing of the product. To paraphrase one of the comments, “the ball and club don’t know if I am a woman or a man; it only knows the physics of the club and the ball coming together.”
Brands that design and market equipment to women need to understand the differing audiences that are out there. The women’s golf equipment market has many layers, and it would be a mistake to treat them all the same. Having data and insights like the ones available in the “2024 Purchasing Power of Women in Golf” is critical to fine-tuning product lines and messaging.
For more information on purchasing the report, please email [email protected]
John Krzynowek is a partner with Golf Datatech, a market-research company.