The Golf Gender Gap Is Closing

Business gets done on the golf course, and for years this has put women at a disadvantage. Well, times have changed. (Teach a woman to fish—who cares. Teach her to golf and you've got a multimillion-dollar deal in the making.)

Playing golf is "a good tool to have in your quiver," says Baker Tilly managing director Barbara McDuffie, here with Lincoln Property Co SVP Bari Nichols and Ambassador Council founder Sunny Alsup. Barbara is a member of CREW DC, which organizes golf lessons and outings to encourage women to become more comfortable with the game. Every year, the lessons and networking sessions culminate in CREW’s annual golf outing in May.

Bari, who is the 2015 president of CREW, plays or practices two or three times a week and grew up playing with her family. Barbara is a member at Washington Golf and Country Club and at Kiawah Island Club in South Carolina, where she and her family own a house. Both take pride in their games. “It takes a lot of lessons and practice in order to develop a game that is worthy of being on the course," Barbara says. Here she is with Bari, Judy Douglas (retired from Freddie Mac) and Debbie Wilson (retired from Walker & Dunlop).

Women on Course helps develop comfort, which Bari says is far more important than actual skill. “When you go to the many corporate golf outings, there are very few good golfers,” she says. “The guys who rarely play, they know it’s about networking, not golf. They don’t care if they lose 10 balls. The women are afraid that they’re going to be judged if they don’t play well.” The big goal for bringing more women on the golf course is to demystify the game. All you have to do is know the rules and strike the ball well, and you belong on the course. It helps if you strike coordinated poses, like JBG partner Leslie Ludwig, First American Title's Jeanne LaBelle, Javelin 19 Investments principal Jill Homan and Citizens Financial Group SVP Barbara Mackin.

Even getting to that point is a challenge. A round of golf can take five hours. Professional women, particularly young women, have a hard time devoting that much time, that often, to a sport that can be infuriatingly challenging for beginners. Getting women in a supportive environment early on is key, as is making sure they have fun. One of Bari’s friends at Studley told her she had so much fun at a CREW golf outing, she went back and told her husband she wanted to play together more. “Golf is a big part of business,” Bari, a member of Trump National, above, says, “but it’s also something you can do for life. It builds confidence, it’s a game of integrity, it opens up vacation activities, it’s great for families and a great way to enjoy the outdoors.”

It begins at events like CREW's outings at Top Golf, like this one snapped above. The ultimate goal is to be able to be comfortable in any situation, even with men. Etiquette is super important, and so is the understanding of pace of play. “It’s a good ole boys’ game for sure,” Barbara says, but that doesn’t mean she’s ever felt out of place or that any new golfer should hesitate to hit the links. “I find the guys in commercial real estate are gentlemen.”

Ethan Rothstein, Bisnow DC