The Players Changing Perceptions of Women's Golf: More Than Just a Scorecard
Exploring the golfers influencing the identity, visibility and future of women's golf, both on and off the course
WOMEN'S GOLFWOMEN'S GOLF STORIES
Chris Mole
10/16/20268 min read
Introduction: More than the numbers on a scorecard
During my youth, growing up around the game of golf, the perception of women’s professional golf has always been that they can hit the ball pretty straight and they usually putt ok, but they can’t hit it very far, and there’s no chance they could compete with a decent amateur male golfer. The usual misogynistic views that infiltrate real life have been magnified in golf club situations.
I was lucky enough to play some junior golf, and indeed some of my early adult golf, with some exceptional women golfers that proved to me that this couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve seen players that I grew up with go on to extraordinary things. I played junior golf against Felicity Johnson several times, and I even did my Level 1 Golf Coaching course with her before she went on to win twice on the Ladies European Tour.
This article looks at how these perceptions are changing, and the people driving that change. These players might not just be the players who are at the top of the leaderboards every week, although that certainly helps. Some use their personalities and public profiles to advocate for change in the game, others challenge assumptions about what is possible, some find ways to make the game more accessible. All help to attract new audiences and make women and girls feel like they belong in the world of golf.
The Modern Superstar: Changing the visibility of the game
The biggest superstar in women’s golf right now is Nelly Korda. Nelly challenges the sport's typical conversation topics. She’s very athletic, she hits the ball a very long way, her average driving distance during 2026 is over 275 yards, and she is fashionable with her dress sense without it detracting from the golf talk that often happens when a golfer of any gender dresses slightly differently.
Firstly, Nelly is an exceptional golfer. As we reach the end of 2026, she is currently over 1.5 points ahead of Jeeno Thitikul in 2nd place. In her first 8 tournaments of the year, she recorded 4 wins, 3 second-place finishes, and a tie for eighth as her worst result. It was a remarkable run of golf. Her season stats show she ranked 1st in Driving and Tee-to-Green and is in the top 3 for Around-the-Green and Approach play.
But it was the win at the 2026 US Open at Riviera that really took everything to another level. The Pacific Palisades setting, with the Hollywood sign visible on long-range camera angles, gave it a movie-star feel, and the course itself elevated the viewing experience. Using the top courses for the next 10 years of US Women’s Opens will make a huge difference to TV viewing figures.
Winning was huge, but what happened after was potentially even bigger than the result itself. Nelly was whisked off to New York a couple of weeks later for a press tour unlike anything seen in women’s golf in a long time. She was on the TODAY show. She visited the New York Stock Exchange, aided by being sponsored by Goldman Sachs, among others. As if that wasn’t enough, she then visited Times Square to see herself on the largest billboard in the Square.
Nelly is an icon finally enjoying the spotlight, and it is huge not just for her, but for the game, as she continues to raise her profile through incredible golf and the exposure gained from being named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in Sport.
The Personality: Making women's golf relatable
People love seeing “normal” people in high places because they feel rare and relatable. Charley Hull is exactly that person in women’s golf right now.
Charley says everything exactly as she sees it. In 2023, she announced that she had been diagnosed with severe ADHD after taking a short break for her mental health. Her admission has made her a role model for young girls, who see what she has achieved in the game and feel that they might have the chance to do the same.
Charley’s interviews are always full of soundbites for the press, making her relatable to a mass audience and a press favourite. She is unpretentious and is far from the media-trained sportspeople that you usually see in interviews. This allows for wider discussion on a variety of subjects during tournament weeks, as everyone talks about her latest comments.
She has spoken regularly and honestly about her struggles with tour life, and plays a much lighter schedule than most. Her talent obviously helps, as her results make this financially possible, but she often says she sees herself as a regular person who just happens to be good at hitting a golf ball. She embraces family life, going out with friends, and her famous smoking habit, which may not be ideal for influential girls, but it all adds to her sense of normalcy.
But one thing Charley does that can make a difference for young girls watching is her second-to-none work ethic. Because she feels she needs routine for her ADHD, Charley is prolific with practice and gym sessions. This adds to the aura around her as it shows that hard work doesn’t mean giving up on fun. You can have it all if you do things the right way. Golf needs a couple more Charleys.
The Advocate: Challenging the structures around the game
Stacy Lewis had a fine playing career. She was an excellent amateur, winning major collegiate titles and going 5-0 in the Curtis Cup, before turning professional in 2008. She won 13 LPGA Tour titles, including two majors (Chevron in 2011, the Women’s Open in 2013), reached number 1 in the World Rankings, made 4 Solheim Cup appearances, and captained the side twice.
But she may be remembered as much for what she's doing off the course as for these incredible feats. Lewis has scoliosis. It would have stopped most from even considering playing at a high level. Lewis used it as fuel to prove she could do it, not only for herself, but to show kids with scoliosis that they, too, could make it to the top of whatever game they wanted. She encouraged sponsorship of Tour events, and kids were often seen out watching her play with their back braces on.
Stacy has also been a major reason for the huge rise in sponsorship on the Tour. She signed her first deal with KPMG in 2012, becoming the first female athlete from any sport sponsored by the financial firm. KPMG later expanded the sponsorship to include a logo on Lewis’ cap, not just her shirts, before Lewis led the effort to get them to sponsor the Women’s PGA Championship.
That tournament sponsorship began in 2015, and they have since increased the prize fund to $13 million, a 500% increase since they started sponsoring the tournament, as well as other events and players. They also provide the official data and analytics for the LPGA Tour and provided stats for Lewis during her captaincy of the USA Solheim Cup team. She also got them to partner with the American Junior Golf Association to launch junior initiatives, including the KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior Open and the KPMG Stacy Lewis Women’s Finance Internship.
And it doesn’t stop there. After having her daughter Chesnee in 2018, she went to war for her fellow mums about the Tour’s maternity policy and sponsorship deals. KPMG agreed to pay out her full sponsorship deal while pregnant and on maternity leave from the tour. In 2019, after talks with Lewis, the LPGA updated its maternity policy to let players return to play within 2 years of giving birth instead of 12 months. When a player returns, she retains that status for 12 months from the date she returns. This extends to the majors too.
While Lewis may have retired from full-time play at the end of the 2025 season and had her second child in September 2026, her influence lives on with the Tour, and she will no doubt continue to influence the game from the sidelines by pressuring the right people to promote it.
The Digital Storyteller: Reaching audiences beyond the course
Digital platforms are providing an excellent way into the game for many women. The rise in Instagram and YouTube golfers has been very noticeable in the last 12-18 months. And while we will come to one or two of the influencers not on tour in a minute, there’s one person that stands out amongst current pros for showing the way.
Hannah Gregg is an American golfer currently playing on the Ladies European Tour. Gregg rose to (Instagram) fame by showing how difficult it can be for a female pro to make a living while trying to make it on the tours. She has likened it to starting a business. Most startups struggle to make money for their first few years, and it is similar for professional golfers.
Gregg keeps it very real on her socials. She shows all sides of tournament and practice life to her 173,000 Instagram followers. But that following, and the one with her husband on their joint “shortgamegains” channel, are a lifeline, money-wise. Gregg hasn’t had a good year on Tour. But it won’t stop her from trying again next year, and sometimes that creates the best content for socials.
The number of golf influencers is growing. The original two, either side of the pond, were Paige Spiranac (USA) and Jazzy Golfer (UK). Paige used her undoubted golf skills to match with the growing number of companies looking for people to show off their goods. Her page balances modelling, lifestyle and instruction to provide something for everyone. She has often been criticised by traditional golf fans for supposedly “relying on her physical appearance”, which she has constantly fought back against by talking about her educational and instructional content. Her 4 million followers seem to agree.
Jazzy, meanwhile, quit her finance job in 2019 after building a huge audience over previous 2 years, when she documented learning the game as a beginner and showing that golf can be colourful and interesting. She then founded the UK Women’s Golf Community in 2022, the UK’s largest women-only golf group. Jazzy also became the host of CNN International’s Living Golf show and took on other presenting jobs, while continuing to promote the game and diversity through content creation.
And then there are the commentators and broadcasters, including several former Tour players, such as Laura Davies, Trish Johnson, Catriona Matthew, and Felicity Johnson. One that really stands out over the last couple of years is Iona Stephen. Iona had planned a career as a professional until her attempts were curtailed by a serious wrist injury. This took her down the road of broadcasting, and she is now a regular voice on both the men's and women's tour. She also runs the YouTube channel “On The Road with Iona”, and a podcast with Dan Walker called “For the Love of Golf”.
Conclusion: The influence beyond the leaderboard
The future of golf is in good hands, with a wide variety of players and broadcasters available. There’s something for everyone, and a player for every type of sponsor. Perceptions around women’s golf are changing rapidly, and that is starting to show in prize funds and TV coverage. But there is still work to do.
The women on Tour are doing their part. The likes of Stacy Lewis have opened the floodgates for sponsors and exposure, and Nelly Korda is following in her footsteps by opening doors to a number of different types of sponsors that had not been involved before.
The way women play golf at the highest level is changing. Until 2019, only two years had a player average longer than Korda’s 2026 distance of 275.75 on Tour. This year, that was only good enough for 13th. Indeed, an average of 270 would have seen you only 36th on Tour.
But it’s not just distance that makes the difference. The personalities are there. They just need to be shown on TV at the right time. This year’s PGA Championship and US Open were a step in the right direction. If the stories of these professionals can be shown and discussed with a wider audience, they will influence girls of the future, and they will hopefully find a role model to look up to.
Women’s golf, and how it's perceived, is changing for the better.