Golf is a globally popular sport that not only produces some of the most exciting sports competition in the world but also inspires mass global participation.
Historically, the golf courses of the world have been dominated by men, and while male players continue to be the majority in the sport, the number of female players has been increasing. In fact, according to expert iGamingNuts, since 2018, there has been an increase of 20% in the number of women and girls playing the sport.
Yet while the number of female players is increasing, those at the top of the game are still struggling for recognition. Even the most elite players on the LPGA Tour attract a fraction of the attention and rewards that are available to male golfers. There is also a widespread global disparity in the number of top female players representing each nation. Some countries appear to be able to consistently produce top women golfers, while others struggle.
United States
Any discussion of women’s golf has to start with the United States. The home of the PGA and the LPGA Tours, it is the country in which most professionals aspire to play, not least because it contains a huge proportion of the world’s golf courses. There are a little over 16,700 golf courses in the US, which represents around 43% of the global number of courses. In fact, it has five times as many courses as Japan, the nation with the next highest number.
The wealth, facilities, and infrastructure available to players in the United States make it a great place for women golfers to pursue their careers, and golf is increasingly popular among US girls, with around 91,600 girls participating in high school golf competitions in the 2021/2022 school year.
Historically, that strength has resulted in US players claiming the bulk of the big golf prizes. Of 314 women’s golf majors played since the 1930s, US golfers have claimed 207. Legendary players such as Babe Zaharias, Mickey Wright, Betsy Rawls, Pat Bradley, and Patty Berg have dominated the game at various points in history.
The current star of US women’s golf is Nelly Korda. A two-time Major winner, she is currently ranked number one in the world and achieved a remarkable feat of winning six of her first seven tournaments in the 2024 season, including her second Major at the Chevron Championship.
South Korea
While the United States has dominated women’s golf historically, in the recent past, it has faced a tough challenge from South Korea. Players from South Korea have claimed 29 Major titles this century, and of those, the star is Inbee Park.
She took up the game at the age of 10 and developed her golf career on the LPGA Tour, winning her first title just a year after joining the tour, becoming the youngest player ever to win the US Women’s Open. She has since gone on to claim seven Majors, along with a gold medal in 2016. She also became the first woman golfer since Patty Berg to win three Majors in a single season.
Her success, and that of some of the stars who preceded her, most notably Se-Ri Pak, has contributed to a massive upsurge in interest in the sport among women and girls in South Korea, and while the nation cannot match the United States for the number of golf courses, it does have a strong sponsorship base, which has helped to fund the coaching and developing of dozens of top players.
In recent years, Japan has produced some top professionals, and two of the 2024 Majors have been won by Japanese players, but South Korea continues to lead the way for Asian golf.
Sweden
The United States and South Korea may be the superpowers of women’s golf, but Sweden can claim to be Europe’s leading nation. For a start, it has produced arguably the greatest female golfer ever in Annika Sorenstam, who started her career in 1992 and went on to win 72 titles playing on the LPGA Tour, including an impressive 10 Major tournaments.
Sweden has been exceeding expectations in women’s golf for decades. Although it has a population of just 10 million, compared to South Korea’s 51 million and the US’s population of 333 million, it has produced the third-highest number of Major wins in the women’s game, and 11 of the last 16 European team captains for the Solheim Cup have come from Sweden.
This success is all the more remarkable given that Sweden’s golf courses are unplayable for much of the year, forcing players to spend much of their time in driving bays. This, however, means that Swedish players have more time to work on their technique, which enables them to develop robust and well-grooved playing styles that can stand up to the pressure of top competition.
One key element of Swedish success is that there is a long tradition of treating female and male golfers the same. The process of developing a young Swedish golfer is also significantly different to an American golfer’s training—focused on all-round strengths and maturity, rather than intensive competition from a young age—which means Sweden produces fewer prodigies but a higher proportion of players that have the ability to sustain a long career.
Conclusion
There’s a long way to go before women’s golf gets the recognition that it deserves, but the sport continues to grow, particularly in its strongholds of the United States, South Korea, and Sweden, and these nations will likely be the driving force in decades to come as the sport continues to expand.
