⭐ ABOUT THE WOMEN’S GOLF HISTORY PROJECT
Welcome — and thank you for being here.
The Women’s Golf History Project is a research, storytelling and archival initiative dedicated to uncovering the pioneers, structures and stories that shaped the women’s game from 1893 to today.
It exists to bring women back into the centre of golf’s narrative — not as an aside, but as the foundation on which the sport was built.
What began as a personal investigation into the early days of women’s golf has grown into a much wider effort: recovering forgotten histories, mapping long-lost structures, and exploring how the decisions of the past still shape the experience of women and girls in golf today.
⭐ What You’ll Find Here
Each week, this publication shares insights drawn from 135 years of women’s golf, including:
• Pioneer Profiles
Stories of women like Issette Pearson, Mabel Stringer and Molly Gourlay — organisers, community builders, architects, referees and champions whose influence helped define the game.
• The Invisible Architecture of Women’s Golf
How the early structures of governance, handicapping, competitions and pathways were designed — and how those decisions echo through the modern game.
• Senior Women — Custodians of Continuity
A look at the women whose leadership, loyalty and quiet determination have held the amateur game together for generations.
• Research, Archives & Discoveries
Timelines, letters, documents, newspaper accounts, images and forgotten stories that help rebuild the women’s golf archive.
• Reflections on the Modern Game
Why women aged 25–49 leave golf, the missing mid-amateur pathway, the role of senior women, and what modernisation looks like when women’s lives are placed at the centre.
This publication is part historical reconstruction, part analysis, part storytelling — and entirely dedicated to understanding how women shaped the sport.
⭐ Why This Matters
The early women who built the game created systems that allowed generations of players to thrive.
But much of their work was never recorded, preserved or celebrated.
Rebuilding this history is not simply a tribute to the past — it is essential to understanding:
today’s participation challenges
the structural gaps in women’s golf
the loss of regional and national pathways
the importance of senior women’s leadership
the opportunities for meaningful change
To imagine the future of women’s golf, we must first understand its past.
⭐ About the Curator
I’m Julie Walker, curator and founder of the Women’s Golf History Project.
After 35 years leading transformation and innovation across industries — and more than a decade as a competitive amateur golfer — I turned my research lens and storytelling experience toward understanding the world women built in golf.
This project is the result of that work: a long-term effort to piece together a history that has been scattered, submerged, or almost forgotten.
My approach brings together:
research and archival work
structural and governance analysis
oral histories
storytelling and digital curation
lived experience inside the women’s game
All guided by one belief:
When we tell the full story of women’s golf, we unlock the full potential of the game.
⭐ Join the Journey
This is a living archive — growing with each discovery, each pioneer profile, each conversation with senior women, each insight into the systems that shaped the sport.
If you care about women’s sport, the future of golf, history, leadership or simply good storytelling, I’d love you to subscribe and be part of this work.
Thank you for reading,
Julie
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