Golf’s new wave of women

Women are pushing a national golfing boom, and local clubs like the Leongatha Golf Club are seeing that growth firsthand.

Recent Golf Australia figures show that women are taking up golf at a rapid rate, with female players making up a huge portion of the sport’s recent surge in participation.

Leongatha Golf Club general manager Kate Rowe said the trend was certainly being felt locally.

“Yes, we definitely are,” she said when asked whether the club was experiencing growth in participation from women.

Her comments come after Golf Australia revealed that women were powering one of the largest sport participation increases in the country, after January 2026 delivered the busiest month in the history of its adult golfing beginner program, Get Into Golf.

IN January alone, a record 2526 people joined Get Into Golf programs nationally, which was an 18 per cent increase from the previous month, with women making up a staggering 90 per cent of the participants.

Female registrations in Get Into Golf programs grew 11.6 per cent year-on-year, reaching 17,726 women in 2024-35 across more than 360 venues in the country.

The figures are just one part of a broader growth in the sport, as more than 4 million adult Australians now play golf.

Since 2022, participation in the sport has grown by 1.3 million players, or 48 per cent, and women now account for 42 per cent of all golfers nationally.

Golf Australia also found that 60 per cent of new players in the past two years were female.

Golf Australia CEO James Sutherland said more women were discovering the sport and the ways in which it suited their lifestyle.

“We’re seeing more women than ever discovering golf, and they’re engaging with the sport in ways that suit their lifestyles, social and flexible formats, on and off course,” he said.

“Programs like Get Into Golf are playing a critical role in turning curiosity into participation, and that momentum is being felt right across the country.”

The future might hint at even more growth as well, as the research found that 2.4 million Australians are highly interested in taking up golf in the next year.

Of that group, 53 per cent were women, demonstrating a potential further 1.3 million female golfers.

For local clubs, that challenge is now turning this massive momentum into long-term participation.