‘We Can Compete Big Time:’ Players give input on the future of women’s golf

Otter Creek is hosting the Epson Tour’s Otter Creek Championship this weekend. The Epson Tour is the LPGA’s development tour, and boasts the tagline “Road to the LPGA.” Throughout the season, players compete with hopes of earning a top spot and an LPGA tour card.

Recently, women’s sports have skyrocketed in popularity. ESPN published that the WNBA is experiencing historic television ratings, with games averaging 1.32 million viewers. The Athletic highlighted that softball’s Women’s College World Series averaged two million viewers tuning in on Texas and Oklahoma. Last fall, the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship hosted a record-breaking 19,727 fans at the indoor venue and averaged 1.7 million television viewers, according to the NCAA website.

But other women’s sports, like golf, aren’t necessarily creating numbers of this magnitude. Yet.

Golfer Cailyn Henderson has a successful social media prescence on YouTube and other platforms, as well as her own clothing line, “Fore the Girls.” She sports the white bucket hat from her line, and so do the players joining her for the pro-am day.

Henderson’s philosophy on playing the sport, and the development of it, align with her personality. She describes golf’s reputation as being “stuffy,” but doesn’t think it needs to be that way.

“This is fun. Let’s go out there and smile and have fun, laugh, and I think the more we can do that, the more we’re going to get women into the sport, and it’ll grow even more,” she said.

Henderson feels like younger golfers joining the sport and playing in a positive environment is the best way for women’s golf to grow. She said that she’s noticed more female golfers on the course recently.

“I just think that women’s golf is definitely on the rise, and it’s really cool to see,” she said.

Even though Henderson focuses heavily on positivity, she doesn’t sacrifice her competitiveness.

”I feel like we’re just as good as the guys,” she said. “We can compete big time.”

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Samantha Wagner, current Epson Tour member, shared a component of women’s golf she thinks is attractive to fans.

“I’ve had a lot of people tell me they prefer watching women’s golf because it’s a little more relatable for them. We hit it a long way, we hit it straight, and people like to see that,” she said.

Wagner also noted that Nelly Korda, an Epson Tour graduate, has been drawing eyes to the LPGA. And eyes draw sponsors.

“I think we’re just heading in such a cool direction,” Wagner said.

With the Epson Tour especially, she said it’s “heading in a really strong and competitive direction.” As Wagner pointed out, the tour includes many talented athletes from a number of countries.

Accompanying Wagner for the pro-am were three local high school golfers — Grace LaSell of Columbus East and Erin Hopkins and Lindsey Hartwell, both of Columbus North.

“I think women’s golf is honestly becoming more popular than a lot of women’s sports,” LaSell said.

And for her, the technological advancements with clubs give her a lot to look forward to for the future of golf. She also thinks women bring something unique to golf — aggressiveness.

“I think women can be more aggressive than men sometimes, and I think we get underestimated with that,” LaSell said.

Hopkins said golf in general has been growing in popularity, but she wouldn’t say women’s golf is as popular as other women’s sports currently.

“I think in the future, it can become quite a bit more popular, for sure,” she said.

With the LPGA gaining more attention, Hopkins said that reflects well on the sport at a local level.

“It’s not quite as niche as it used to be, so I think that’s pretty exciting,” she said. ”I think there is just like so much talent across the board, with all athletes. I think it’s very important to get recognition for everyone, not just men.”

Golf’s reputation is that it can be more work than play. But for these athletes, golf is rooted in the game. And the game is competitive.