It is 6 months since WOTT was launched and a lot has happened in that time…
Before I do a recap of Women on the Tee and the successes of this year, I would like to thank any and everyone who has helped, supported, provided constructive feedback, joined as a member, played in an event, talked about WOTT with your golf friends and playing partners, written an article in a publication, provided prizes and been positive about WOTT in ANY way, it has made the rollercoaster of 2021 an experience of a lifetime for me. Thank you!
The idea for WOTT started in 2015, when I had been playing golf regularly for 12 months at a local 9 hole golf club, I did hit a ball around a links course in my late teens but not on a regular basis.
With a background in business development, marketing and innovation, I carried out research into women’s golf and found that there was no central place online where you could go to find out about all things women’s golf and women’s golf products were mostly adapted from men’s, things started from there…
Initially the plan was to create a community of women golfers, online and create new women’s golf products and events as Golfing Gertie. The first product was the Gertie Brolly, this was created in partnership with women golfers, and there are over 750 of them on fairways across the UK.
Between 2015 & 2018, while working fulltime, and playing whenever I could get a few hours off, I talked and listened to women golfer’s and found that there was an interest in playing in an all female Pro-Am.
The first Ladies ProAm took place at Burhill Golf club in October 2018. The Pro’s prize fund, £2,700 was the largest for female PGA professionals that year, funded by the players entry fees. With a smaller field, the 2019 Pro Am at Cuddington, Prize Fund was £2,000 and this year, WOTT was the proud to sponsor of the Pro’s £2,000 prize fund for the WPGA-WOTT Pro-Am at the PGA Bowood Golf Club.
In 2020, I was introduced to senior women’s golf, via the Brenda King Foursomes a 2 day medal foursomes competition, previously run by England Golf, now under the stewardship of a committee of women passionate about keeping the competition going.
While playing in the competition I met a talked to a number of women who expressed an interest in playing more competitive golf across the UK, to try and qualify this interest, I ran a survey in November 2020, where 533 women responded within 48hours, the results are HERE.
When the lockdown was announced in January of this year, instead of looking for a new job, I decided to take the plunge and use the time to build the Women on the Tee website, and with help from a small group, setup a calender of events, tested the technology worked and launched the website at the end of February.
The launch of the website, was introduced to and caught the attention of Ryan Howsam, the founder or Staysure insurance, and now owner of the Legends Tour who asked his teams to look at ways to help support WOTT.
Ryan and his team at the Legends Tour are passionate about creating new and enjoyable playing experiences for senior golfers, men and women alike. It will be good to build on our relationship and create more new and interesting playing opportunities and experiences for women golfers in the future.
The R&A supported our launch with accepting Women on the Tee as a Signatory to their global Women in Golf Charter, under the organisations tab. The R&A also provided OPEN merchandise as prizes for the Bowood Pro-Am.
Slingsby Gin, creators of the celebrity golf academy, sponsored the Pro-Am, with 12 bottles of Slingsby Gin for prizes and individual gin and mixer cans for each of the competitors.
From a personal point of view, I have had fun playing in the English and Welsh Opens, where my golf was not my best, however I learned a lot about running golf events and met a lot of interesting women golfers. I have also been privileged to play both Birkdale and Hillside, with WOTT members and look forward to playing at Copt Heath in October.
For now, it is time for me to take a break for a couple of weeks and work on my own golf before starting work on updating and refreshing the website with next year’s elite championship schedule, more women’s golf content and next years WOTT schedule with events at:
21st April High Post
4thJuly Enville Lodge Course
15th July Burnham & Berrow Championship Course
8th August Gog Magog Wandlebury Course
21st & 22nd Sept Ganton Golf Course
Thank you again for a great start to Women on the Tee. watch out for next WOTT update.
Enjoy the almost “Indian summer” on the fairways…
Julie
