by Alice Lowe, the Golf Foundation
I’m still slowly coming back down to earth after having an inspiring few days with the LPGA Foundation in the US. I was delighted to be offered this experience to learn from their team and discover how the Golf Foundation could adopt some of the LPGA Foundation principles to encourage more girls to love golf in the UK.
The LPGA Foundation run five Girls Leadership Academies every summer, which enables up to 200 girl golfers to access this transformational programme each year. Celebrating its 10th year in 2025, the aim of the two-day Academy is to keep teenage girls engaged in golf and prepare them for leadership opportunities. I was fortunate enough to attend one of these events, between the 24th-25th July, joining 32 girls aged 13-18 at Westchester Country Club, New York.
Driven by the 5 ‘E’s’ of Girls Golf: Enrich, Energise, Empower, Engage and Exercise, the LPGA Foundation use golf to unlock each participant’s true leadership potential. The girls are introduced to tools to help them make better decisions, let go of setbacks, take calculated risks and develop skills to accomplish specific goals. What stood out was the support they were given to love their unique self, play their own game in life and find their voice. They came away believing ‘I will succeed in life, because I am unique’. Needless to say, I was inspired just as much as the girls!
From the very first interaction I had with the organisers and coaches, I knew why there’s such huge demand to be involved in the initiative. These individuals were some very special role models. Over 80 female PGA Coaches who run Girls Golf programmes applied to be involved, with only 43 spaces across the summer academies. Having nine of the country’s most enthusiastic, fun and dedicated instructors at each Academy allows for very personal support, along with high levels of energy and variety for the girls. The coaches were extremely committed and shared a desire to make a difference to the lives of girl golfers. Over the two days they celebrated the opportunity to learn new skills themselves, journal, and reflect on their own future goals.
It came as no surprise to me that an event like this in the US was going to be overloaded with noise and fun, but WOW, this was another level. The instructors and guests (including me) were introduced during a welcome song and dance of their choice – setting the tone and performance standards high for the next couple of days! According to life coach Debbie O’Connell (who was dressed as Wonder Women for the full two days), people only remember 7% of what you say. It’s actions that stick, which is why body language and movement was an important theme throughout.
Intern and past Academy graduate ‘DJ Sara’ looked after the carefully curated playlist. Uplifting tunes, Disney classics and dance-along hits united the girls and gave them chance to get up and move as well as allowing them to push their own boundaries in a safe space. It set the mood quite intentionally for different tasks, reinjected energy when needed, and helped engage some of the quieter members of the group in mass dance routines. The girls were given everyopportunity to take the microphone to ask questions, share an opinion or lead the singing. Their confidence and understanding of themselves and others grew quickly due to this.
Day one consisted of understanding the qualities of a leader, followed by confidence, trust and communication building exercises. Dynamic indoor workshops were complemented by purposeful games on the putting green, short game area and range. Positive body language through adopting a ‘power pose’ (with a smile) became a regularly reinforced principle early on. The group also learnt the importance of breath work and the power of being thankful for all you have.
The girls had many opportunities to voice their feelings and beliefs. It became evident that they experience similar issues, barriers and worries as those in the UK; whether this was in relation to finances/ peer pressure/ the challenge of juggling multiple sports with academics/ meeting high expectations of family/ playing a male dominated sport/ dress codes/ social media. Each girl was able to connect with something they learnt at the Academy to enable to them to overcome an issue, or a limiting belief. The coaches helped them with this on a personal level and there was the offer of ongoing support beyond the Academy.
Day two began with the creation of dream boards. A chance for creativity and another opportunity for the girls to get to know themselves on a deeper level. After lunch, a Women’s Executive Panel including Cheyenne Woods (LPGA Tour Player), Emily Frenzel (UBS Financial Services Inc.), Nancy Henderson (LPGA Foundation President) and Jennifer Fitzgibbon (Managing Director and America’s Treasurer for Barclays) talked about their journeys in industry and college golf. Following that they became the judges for the ‘Shark Tank’ activity, where the girls had to pitch a new golf invention in teams. The encouragement to ‘dream big’ was prevalent throughout.
The final few emotional minutes allowed for the girls to exchange contact details and discuss future meet ups. Many were heading out to their parents saying, “Hey Mom, this is xxxx who I was telling you so much about!” This demonstrates the impact events like this can have more than anything. The LPGA Foundation expect nothing back from the girls after these 2 days, but the girls want to give back. The well-established network of Girls Golf sites across the US provides a consistent offer for girls to return home and be supported into volunteering roles.
Since experiencing the Leadership Academy I don’t think we should be afraid to ‘girlify’ what we do in an empowering way, to create safe spaces and bespoke, positive opportunities for girls in golf. We can enrich the current world class initiatives that the Golf Foundation offer, including Unleash Your Drive and GolfSixes League. The Golf Foundation promote very similar messages to the LPGA Foundation through the Unleash Your Drive programme; and while we as an organisation are proud of how much energy and passion we have in our delivery of our mental toughness tools, the LPGA Foundation does it with more pizazz, music, love and dancing!
Alongside producing some guidance and adjustments to our programmes, we must ensure we are providing opportunities for girls in golf to connect and feel a sense of belonging. Putting a spotlight on the workforce who are already doing some exceptional work to get girls playing golf in the UK would be a good first step to achieving this. We must value the chance to connect,invest in, and thank the exceptional professional network. Doing so, should encourage more influential women to get involved, on the ground, face to face with girl golfers.
There are areas where the LPGA Foundation have had so much impact that girls’ participation is overtaking boys’ participation in golf! Isn’t that awesome! Over the next 6 months, I hope to help the Golf Foundation and partner organisations to come up with a plan to make girls’ golf a priority in the UK. Our new partnership with the LPGA Foundation will help this tremendously and I’m excited to see where it takes us.
On a personal note, I’ve been trying to teach my 18-month-old daughter some of the body language tricks… we’re getting there slowly, but that’s how convinced I am that this is a good lesson to learn. I think she’s discovered how powerful a smile can be, but I’ll update you lovely readers on how that progresses! Where focus goes, energy flows. So, let’s get focussing on girl golf!
#WatchMeWin #littlegirlsBIGdreams #LiveAnAwesomeLife
