‘Women don’t think they deserve to give themselves four hours to play golf'

Earlier this summer Rathcore Golf Club sent out a notice inviting women to join an initiative that was called: ‘Get into Golf – Women’s Programme.’ The idea was to encourage women to get a taste of what is involved in playing the game and see if they like it. Some did, some didn’t. That’s the normal way in life.

The programme is part of a Golf Ireland initiative to try and get more females playing - and perhaps discover another Leona Maguire or two along the way. The Cavan woman has, of course, gone on to carve out a very successful career in the professional ranks.

Some clubs run the five-week ‘Get into Golf’ programme, some don’t. Rathcore, for example, offer it on an annual basis. For the €85 fee participants receive a lesson with a PGA professional (club pro Colm Dunne) and other benefits including the provision of equipment and a follow-on membership offer. It has helped some play a game they might never have taken on.

MARY ELLEN SHERIDAN’S STORY

As the volunteer Golf Development Officer at Rathcore, Kilmessan woman Mary Ellen Sheridan was one of those very much behind the ‘Get into Golf’ idea. A psychiatric nurse by professional, she is also the volunteer Golf Development Officer at Rathcore GC. Part of her mission is to get more women involved - but why is there a reluctance to take up the game in the first place?

“A lot of people ask me why isn’t there a ‘Get into Golf’ for men because it seems to be easier for men to get into the game,” she asserts. “They usually have a friend who is playing who just takes them under their wing and shows them around but, for some reason, women don’t think they deserve to give themselves four hours to play golf. They don’t think they are able to dedicate that amount of time to sport, so we try and show them there is a huge social aspect to it all. It doesn’t need to be four hours it can be nine holes for two hours.

“I definitely think women don’t put themselves first – it’s across every sport. Women will tend to go for walks for fitness, they tend to go the gym but if they have children all that tends to go on the back burner. They might not be able to go for a walk some evenings because one of the kids are sick or some other reason. 'I can’t go to the gym this evening because I have to bring little Jimmy to training,’ is the kind of thing you hear women saying but if you play a sport that’s a commitment that you have to go out and play, maybe a competition or something, that protects that time and makes you committed to the sport.

“Women just won’t give the time to themselves and with the ‘Get into Golf’ programme we try and point out to them how they can give time to take part in the programme, that they are already doing it, they are taking part. It’s just to keep that routine going and a lot of them do.”

She also points out how long-standing misconceptions about the game - and how it was for a certain exclusive group of people who had plenty of spare cash to spent - can also be a turn off for some. “A lot of people thought back in the day you needed a lot of money to play golf but we’re trying to get rid of that attitude. You can play golf for as cheap as you want or spend as much money as you want.”

A former Gaelic footballer and camogie player with Dunsany and Kilmessan, Sheridan got into golf during Covid – and found she loved it. “From the start that hardest thing to overcome was thinking golf wasn’t for me, it’s a mindset you have to challenge.

“I had a great drive, it was just a natural thing. I found chipping and putting the hardest but the more you go out on the course you start to get better. Then you start to getting a little addicted, you want to improve and beat your score. Golf is about improving yourself. Even if you improve your game by one shot that’s enough to beat someone.”

Sheridan was also encouraged to take up the golf clubs by the fact that her partner Niall Bannon is “a very good golfer” with a relatively low handicap. She points out that the handicap system makes golf unique among sports in that people who are at different levels can play with each other. “It equals the playing field,” she adds.

TARA MOLLOY’S STORY

There’s a line that has been attributed to one of the greatest American golfers of all time, Bobby Jones. “Golf is played on a five-inch course — the distance between your ears.”

Tara Molloy has, in her short time in the game, arrived at a similar conclusion. “One of the good things about golf is that it demands focus and concentration. When you are out there on the course you tend to put everything else to the back of your mind, you go out and you can’t think about work of other things going on in your life. It’s your time when you are out on the golf course – and as a beginner you really have to concentrate.”

The mother of three children, who are now adults, Molloy is the CEO of St Michael’s House in Dublin, a large organisation that caters for people with disabilities. From just outside Trim she started out on her golfing odyssey two years ago when she embarked on ‘Get into Golf’ and found the game very much to her liking despite the challenges involved. She was in her late forties and since then she has found her involvement in the sport “a hugely positive experience.”

Not that it’s all sunshine and light. She can find the game immensely rewarding but also deeply frustrating at times. “The frustrations are that one day you can go out and play really well, the next you can play really poorly.”

The important thing, she knows, is not to let the bad days put her off. Positively has to go hand-in-hand with a hunger to improve and an ability to focus on the task at hand whether that’s teeing off or finding just the right stroke to secure a coveted birdy.

“The whole thing about the sport is that it’s about keeping at it, keeping the faith. In golf you can go 10 steps forward and five back on any given week, it’s just the nature of the game, you have the good days and the bad days. The whole game is about keeping at it, practicing, and all aspects of the game are equally important, the driving, chipping, putting, whatever it might be.”

Despite the many barriers golf can put in front of a player on any given day, Molloy has found herself making the kind of improvements in her game that has left her pleasantly surprised.

“Rathcore are very good because they don’t have a huge amount of ladies playing the game so you get on teams, you are playing in competitions and that’s not something I thought I would be doing in my first year or two playing golf. Even last year I was on teams relevant to my handicap. All that is very important.”

Then there’s the social aspect, time spent on the 19th hole, relaxing with fellow club members discussing the ups and downs of the round that has been just completed.

Tara Molloy’s advice to others thinking of taking up golf is to go for it – and the earlier the better.

“If I ever thought about golf, when I did think about it, was that maybe it was something I could do when I retire. Then it was pointed out to me you kind of need to have played the game at some level by the time you retire. It’s not something you might want to learn when you are 64 or 65. If it’s something people think they might do sometime in the future let’s get out there now, it’s about giving it a try and finding out if you like it or not.” Action, action, action appears to be the message.

“It was just a post on Facebook in the local community that I saw the Get into Golf in Rathcore and I thought right, that’s not too far away. I’ll go and give it a try. I had a couple of other friends interested as well, we were in a running club, and we just had to give it go. They didn’t stay on but I did.”

Her immediate ambitions are clear; to keep challenging herself in terms of trying to reduce her handicap. It’s the kind of challenge she has grown to relish.