Real examples of gender equality in golf are set to be brought to life by Golf Australia today at the launch of 2025 Visionaries, a compilation of case studies from Australian golf clubs.

Fifteen written case studies from around Australian golf clubs and four videos that the changes made over the past 12 months under GA’s Vision 2025: the future of women and girls in golf national strategy – introduced in 2018 to address the imbalance between male and female engagement in the game.

The case studies, launched at 13th Beach during the ISPS Handa Vic Open, highlight how clubs have made significant changes in the area of gender equality.

Click here to view the case studies.

They are designed to help show other clubs what actions they can take under the strategy and how to implement them.

Many clubs around Australia have made constitutional and cultural changes around gender equality since the February 2018 launch of Vision 2025 and the 2019 launch of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Guidelines For the Promotion of Equal Opportunity For Women and Girls in Golf which reminded clubs that they needed to be compliant with the Federal Sex Discrimination Act.

2025 Visionaries includes examples such as multi-day club championships at Kew and Huntingdale Golf Clubs, the end of men’s-only golf on a designated day at Torquay Golf Club, the brilliant MyGolf Girls’ program at Joondalup Golf Club in WA and a community instructor program at Bridport Golf Club in Tasmania.

One study profiles Golf Australia’s Even Par program, a newly developed Vision 2025 club support instrument now being rolled out across Australia.

Around 30 clubs took up the Even Par pilot program, funded by the Victorian Government, which asked them to make at least four significant changes in the area of gender equality. The case studies tell some of those particular stories.

2025 Visionaries will be available to all golf clubs and facilities to watch and read thanks to Marsh, one of Golf Australia’s partners, a world-leading insurance broker and risk adviser which funded the video project.

“One of the things we found with Even Par is that clubs wanted to know what other clubs were doing,” said Chyloe Kurdas, Golf Australia’s Senior Manager - Female Engagement.

“They’ve said to us that if they can hear case studies and see examples, it’s going to be helpful to them. We were hearing these anecdotes of change happening anyhow so we decided to formalise them in a positive and celebratory way.”

Kurdas said clubs were now talking to each other about the change that is required in an environment where female participation in golf had dropped to 20 percent, the lowest figure ever.

Click here to view the case studies.

“Even Par gave clubs for the first time a chance to sit at a table next to each other and have conversations about what they were doing, learning from each other, starting to collaborate and build relationships across their club fences. It seems to me not a lot of that’s happened before. We’re all very competitive and protective of our own patch, but this is about the health of the sport. We’re all on the same team here.”

A group of clubs who have completed the Even Par pilot program were awarded certificates today. The 2020 intake of clubs is significantly higher with Even Par being delivered nationally, Kurdas said, and she felt momentum building in the gender equality space.

“People wanted to do something but they didn’t know how. Now we’ve got the tools for the ‘how’, We are getting clubs approaching us who want to do something. Vision 2025 has woken clubs up, the early adopters who’ve taken the initiative and come to us. Some are a little more conservative but they’ll come with us. My mantra is, as long as we’re not standing still or going backward, we’re moving forward.”