In an era where modern golf culture is actively grappling with its past, striving for genuine equality, dismantling outdated barriers, and encouraging female participation, it is easy to assume that women’s integration into the sport is a relatively recent campaign. But when I happened upon my own club’s history, I was rather delighted with what I found.
The history of women’s golf is far richer and more deeply woven into the game's fabric than many realise. There are records of ladies playing a tournament in Musselburgh as far back as 1811. By 1867, the St Andrews Ladies’ Golf Club was established as the world's first women's club, and the home of golf followed this in 1893 with the landmark formation of the Ladies Golf Union.
