GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Wyndham Championship starts today at the Sedgefield Country Club. This is the final tournament of the PGA Tour regular season, determining the 70 players who qualify for the Fedex Cup Playoffs.
While this tournament is for men, more women have been playing golf than ever, and that number continues to rise.
What You Need To Know
More women than ever are heading to the golf course
Triangle Women in Golf is for African American women and youth
Their TWIG KIDZ program is teaching young girls in the Triangle how to play golf
The Wyndham Championship teed off Thursday in Greensboro
Out on the green, it’s a quiet place for many, but for a group of Triangle girls, it’s a place for community.
“When you’re like around people that kind of know you, it’s really nice cause you can know what their swing is, and they can be really good friends with you,” 10-year-old August Yates said.
Yates is part of Triangle Women In Golf, a group for African American women and girls to sharpen their golf skills and build a network. She is one of many girls in the TWIG KIDZ program.
Yates was introduced to golf by her dad, often playing together for bragging rights and a milkshake.
Aubrey Jackson works on her putting with TWIG KIDZ. (Spectrum News 1/Sydney McCoy)
“Girls should just be encouraged to try difficult things. It’s kind of hard to replace that feeling of doing something hard and then achieving it,” said Efrem Yates, August Yates’ dad. “Everybody should experience that. But especially girls, so often they’re kind of pushed to the sideline.”
In fact, more females than ever are headed to the golf course, according to the National Golf Foundation, which notes a 41% increase since 2019.
“It’s more than like a boys sport and that like anybody could play if they wanted to,” August Yates said.
Many of the girls from TWIG KIDZ play in tournaments, on school teams and for fun.
“Sports is a great opportunity to just give young kids confidence, give girls a sense of being strong and being powerful,” Efrem Yates said.
According to the girls, their favorite part is the relationships they are making.
“All we do is crack jokes and laugh. So it makes it even more fun,” said Aubrey Jackson, a TWIG KIDZ participant.
A member of TWIG KIDZ practices her swing. (Spectrum News 1/Sydney McCoy)
Jackson started playing golf after seeing her grandfather’s golf clubs and learning the sport from her old PE teacher.
“If I’m correct, she was the first middle schooler to make the varsity team at 12 years old,” her grandfather, Shaikh Khashoggi, said. In an email he said Jackson and her teammates played 18 holes and scored 9 under par with a net score of 63.
Not only are more females than ever playing golf, the National Golf Foundation says more than a quarter of junior golfers are people of color, up from 6% from just over 20 years ago.
“Over the last few years in particular that it has exploded,” Khashoggi said.
It is not only evolving the sport, but developing friendships to last a lifetime.
“If anybody tries to take you down, don’t believe them, follow your heart,” Jackson said.
The Wyndham Championship is holding a raffle this weekend and a benefit concert Thursday for the Asheville Municipal Golf Course, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene.
