How women’s teams work in golf
We need more chairs in the meeting room. Eight seats are not enough. Not enough for all the women who manage this golf club. Two female managing directors, the club manager, the head greenkeeper, the restaurant manager, plus three female club secretaries and another female greenkeeper – if you want to find out whether the golf course business can also be female-dominated, you will end up here, for example: Golf Club Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany. A facility that is one of the Leading Golf Clubs of Germany and where the club president, looking at all the women in the meeting room, says: “I’m off, I’m not needed here now.”
Then Bernhard May is gone, his wife Victoria sits at the table as Managing Director because she came to the conclusion a few years ago that “it makes little sense to always do the job just because you are the wife of the President. I think it’s better if it’s properly organized.” She now takes care of finances, marketing and personnel.
Women in the minority in golf
Women are underrepresented in the golf scene in almost every country in the world. This applies to the number of amateur golfers as well as teaching professionals, club managers and greenkeepers. The prize money on the women’s professional tours is lower, even though sponsors such as the French investment company Amundi are now focusing explicitly on promoting women’s golf.
But they do exist, the women in top positions in golf or the women with great influence. Names such as Annika Sörenstam, former proette, Judy Bell as the first female USGA president, Pia Nilsson as a world-famous Swedish trainer or Stacey Pauwels, Executive Vice President of equipment manufacturer Ping, come to mind here.
Harmony as a success factor
In standard golf clubs around the world, however, the picture is often similar: women in the secretary’s office, in the pro shop, in catering. However, they are rarely in the majority in management positions. Like here at the Golf Club Würzburg, where the nine women are discussing the recipe for success of the collaboration. “The team I saw here was simply very harmonious,” says Sanja Bradley, explaining the impression she gained during a visit as a club consultant for the German Golf Association. She will soon be joining GC Würzburg herself as club manager. She believes: “The positive thing about women’s teams is that often no one thinks they have to pretend to the other because everyone knows that they are acting in everyone else’s interests.”
A feel-good factor that Susanne Brendle has also experienced. As an unskilled greenkeeper, she now often sits on the mower. “I would never have thought that I would one day be driving these machines,” she says with a smile. “When I had to drive the sloping edges of the tees for the first time, it didn’t work out, but it was no problem for Jacqueline.” Jacqueline Siegel is her supervising head greenkeeper, currently the only one in Germany. She has been in the business for 24 years, “so you learn to assert yourself,” she says with a smile. She has been responsible in Würzburg since 2022.
Better eye for detail
The management’s impression of the female head greenkeeper is: “A lot has improved in detail since then, it’s no longer just about the quality of the fairways.” The interior of the greenkeeping building was repainted and the planting in the outdoor areas was revised. “The female touch,” says Bianca May, who, like her brother Bernhard, has known the facility the longest and also works as Managing Director on a daily basis, is noticeable in all areas. In her view, this doesn’t just apply to greenkeeping: “Women are often more precise when it comes to the little things.”
The recruitment of female staff at GC Würzburg was never really planned. The constellation came about automatically, and in the meantime one or two men have slipped into the team. The working time model in Würzburg is not significantly different to other large German golf courses: busy during the season and a quieter winter. Nothing here has been designed to be particularly women-friendly. The annual working time model is obviously popular.
Which brings us back to a man in the end. Club President Bernhard May, himself the father of three daughters, thinks the strong female cast is great. “Strong support for the team,” confirms the female staff.
The apparently high attractiveness of jobs in golf for female employees also underlines an assumption that Stacey Pauwels made to the online magazine the 1stCall in 2023 at a congress to promote female jobs in the golf industry in the USA: “There are tons of jobs, even outside the golf course, but still in golf. Women bring a different perspective, and companies and teams make better business decisions when different aspects are brought in.” It is therefore essential to encourage women to enter the golf industry. Once you get there, it can obviously be a fun job.
