The Chevron Championship women’s golf tournament in the Woodlands (ending April 21, 2024) was spellbinding. What mesmerized me was the number of girls attending. My heart leaped when I observed girls and their fathers as well as girls with their mothers streaming into the venue. How I wish my dad and I could have attended a women’s athletic event together. While he did take me to the Houston Buffs baseball games, we saw no women’s athletics.

In elementary school, the idea of girls playing sports was treated as a joke. We played kickball with a volleyball in the mornings. Students were allowed to pick team members. Boys were picked first, even though some of us girls were better players. Indoctrination into this idea was so strong that even girls picked the boys first. Nothing had changed by the time I went to a large high school in Baytown, Texas. (My graduation class was 400 strong). The only sport open to girls was tennis.

WOMEN’S GOLF BEGINNING

In 1950, thirteen women golfers, including Babe Zaharias, launched The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). The going was slow, but in 1972, the Colgate Palmolive Company offered the LPGA a deal that changed the path of women’s golf. For the next ten years, they sponsored tournaments, including the popular Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle. The event quickly became a “must attend” for show business A-listers, proving that women’s golf was legitimate and that its talented players deserved a platform.

According to the LPGA, the 2024 season will include 35 events (33 official events) with the world’s best golfers competing for a total prize fund of more than $118 million, with $116.55 million in official money. The 2024 total prize fund represents the highest ever in Tour history, up from approximately $70 million in 2021, a 69% increase.

WOMEN’S GOLF SHOW AT THE CHEVRON OPEN

The show did not disappoint. The tournament was stopped for inclement weather on Saturday, but not before Nelly Korda finished the ninth hole. As she exited to catch a ride to the tenth, she graciously stopped to sign autographs for a group of approximately six preteens waiting patiently for her to exit the course.

While we had not expected to leave the course so soon on Saturday, the evening turned out well. My friend and I dined on Sushi and sake. Sunday was clear, breezy, and cold. We watched as Nelly Korda hammered out her fifth straight tournament win, tying Nancy Lopez’s and Annika Sorenstam’s accomplishment. On the men’s side, Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan have one six in a row.

WOMEN’S GOLF THOUGHTS

As Marianne Elliott said, “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it. It’s just having those brilliant women break out and do something – then other girls can say, ‘I can do it, too!’”

Having someone to look up to, to see confidence, leadership, and discipline is empowering.

As females, we have had so little of that in the world. When I was growing up, the ideal woman was portrayed as June Cleaver in Leave it to Beaver, a stay-at-home mother who took care of the house and family. The only other woman heroine I remember was Dale Evans, but she only acted as a prop for her husband, Roy Rogers.

I am so thankful women’s sports is providing our upcoming generation with female role models. How I wish the opportunity had been available to me when I was young as I loved playing sports.

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