Nestled in the northern suburbs of ‘The Top End's’ capital, the popular Darwin Golf Club is undertaking significant change on and off the course.

Darwin recently became the second club in the Northern Territory to sign The R&A Women in Golf Charter – following in Gove Country Golf Club's footsteps, alongside X-Golf Palmerston – and are also working closely with Golf Australia on both its aligned strategic plan and overall master plan.

As is the case with many clubs across Australia, becoming a signatory was Darwin's formalised commitment to celebrate a myriad of work they are already doing to maximise women and girls' potential in the sport.

Led by former Captain, Amy Griesbach, and PGA Professionals Rebecca West and Kurt Watts, Darwin has been steadily building an extremely strong women's program for years now, and with a few areas adapted to align with the Charter, have ensured the building continues.

Led by former Club Captain Amy Griesbach and PGA Professionals Rebecca West and Kurt Watts, Darwin has developed a strong women’s program over many years. As a result, the steps required to fulfil the Charter were a natural extension of their existing initiatives.

“When I joined the board last year, it was encouraging to see the progress that had been made from the base we had, tidying up a lot of our governance, and various other parts of the club," Darwin Golf Club President Simon Gardini said.

"At the same time, Bec (West) and Kurt (Watts) were doing a mountain of work to get more women engaged in the club”.

"And so, when we had our first discovery session with Golf Australia around the Charter, we were able to say 'yes, yes, yes, yes' to many of the pledges”.

"It was valuable to help us tidy up a few areas we hadn't got to yet, but becoming a signatory was ultimately an easy decision."

Darwin has an established roadmap for new women golfers, starting with very social get-togethers mixing a bit of coaching, to Get into Golf women's only group sessions, through to informal on-course golf, before players are then encouraged to progress to competition golf.

It is only when the women are ready for on-course golf that Darwin encourages them to consider club membership, and Gardini details how the club have made this an appealing next step.

"Once the women are ready, they can roll into membership seamlessly from the introductory programs, and we actually have a three-year discount program for them," he said.

"They get full membership for a third of the cost the first year, two thirds the cost the second year, and so on.

"It really was about identifying what the barriers were, from a time perspective, from a cost perspective, all those sorts of things, and even positioning club membership as a social experience rather than associated solely with golf”.

"Where it's been particularly successful and we're actually seeing membership spikes in both men and women in that the 25-50 cohort, where golf is popular, but many would have never considered membership."

Creating a golf club that is a social hub that people from all walks of life want to join and be a part of is at the heart of the changes happening at Darwin.

"We want to be the leading community-based sporting club in the Darwin northern suburbs, which is just absolutely tapping into every one of that 80,000 locals and getting them in the door," said Gardini.

"The strategic plan is very much in place and now our focus in on the actual master action plan to drive it all and identify what we do in the next two to three years.

"With the strategic plan there, it drives every conversation we have and even at the management level, we ask ourselves 'Where does it fit into the pillars? Does it fit into one of our goals?'.

"While the club has done very well on its own prior to the strategic plan, we can now clearly see where we are going now and how to get there."

The direction Darwin is on, coupled with a brimming junior space including the Australian Golf Foundation Junior Girls Scholarship program, makes for an exciting and bright future.

To find out more about Darwin Golf Club, CLICK HERE.

To find out more about the R&A Women in Golf Charter, CLICK HERE.