Breaking Barriers: The History of Women Competing in Men’s Golf Tournaments – Golf News

Creator: Kevin Roberts

From time previous, golf has all the time been thought of a recreation for males. Nonetheless, it has continued to evolve, permitting girls to take part.

The primary golf occasion passed off in Scotland. It was in 1857 when a bunch of ladies from the then St. Andrews Women’ Membership got here collectively to arrange an unique girls’s golf membership.

Regardless of this achievement on the time, girls are but to take heart stage, as males dominate golf thus far. Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a doubt that the foundations laid by the early pioneers have continued to yield fruits, though not as quick as anticipated.

As we speak, {many professional} girls’s golf tournaments can be found worldwide, together with a devoted PGA (Skilled Golf Championship). Much more, there was a big barrier shift, breaking the barrier that stops girls from collaborating in males’s tournaments.

Contemplating that male athletes earn greater than girls throughout completely different sports activities, it’s unsurprising to see that girls discover it extra rewarding to take part within the Males’s Golf Match. This text explores some girls golfers who’ve made their mark in such tournaments.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

This will likely have been a very long time in the past, however the world of ladies’s golf tournaments can be incomplete with out mentioning Babe Didrikson. She was distinctive, excelling in golf and different sports activities like monitor and discipline, baseball, and basketball. She participated in seven PGA excursions and made it to the 36-hole reduce on the Phoenix Open and Tucson Open in 1945.

Babe’s heroics proceed to pave the way in which for ladies in at this time’s world {of professional} golf competitions. Her affect cuts throughout completely different actions, together with boosting girls’s participation in sports activities, and influencing the general reputation of ladies’s golf competitions throughout completely different sectors. As an illustration, on a lot of the platforms you discover on https://www.gamblingsites.com/offshore/sportsbooks/, girls’s golf competitions have develop into extremely popular for wagering. Gamers can now stake on girls collaborating in these competitions and different golf excursions, offering extra betting choices.

Annika Charlotta Sorenstam

Annika Sorenstam is among the finest feminine golfers in historical past. As of 2008, she had essentially the most wins (96) in any worldwide skilled event.  She gained 10 main titles, 72 LPGA, and 24 worldwide tournaments.

The height of her profession was in 2003. She gained her first and solely profession grand slam, successful all 4 main tournaments that 12 months. Annika went additional to interrupt the mildew in 2023 as she turned the primary feminine to take part in a PGA occasion after 58 years. She did not progress to the subsequent spherical by 4 strokes.

Nonetheless, the aim was already achieved by her participation within the event. Whereas it sparked widespread curiosity, it emphasised the necessity for gender equality in sports activities. Annika will proceed to be remembered as one of the crucial profitable and embellished feminine golfers who paved the way in which for ladies to be extra adventurous in a sport primarily dominated by males.

Lexi Thompson

Alexis Noel Thompson was a gem who took the world of ladies’s golf by storm on the tender age of 12.  In 2007, she turned the youngest to qualify and take part within the US Women’s Open and ultimately gained her first LPGA at age 16.  Lexi gained 11 LPGA Tour honors, 2 Women European Tour, and 1 LPGA Japan Tour.

Lexi’s first participation within the males’s PGA Tour was in 2023. It was the Shriners Kids’s Open. She fell in need of qualification by three strokes, making her the seventh girl to take that daring step in any males’s main competition. She continues to encourage different girls to showcase their potential to achieve even greater heights on this planet of golf.

Courtesy to Kevin Roberts