Groups hope golf lessons spur girls' interest in sport

Golf was not a priority for Abby Johnson growing up. Basketball was her passion; golf was a sport her dad got her to play.

Her priorities changed in high school, when she became one of the best junior golfers in the state. Johnson found the same spirit of competition in golf as in other sports, but golf also offered another benefit.

"You find a sense of relief," she said. "If you walk onto the basketball court stressed-out about something, you'll walk off it still stressed-out. But there's a great release when you're on a golf course."

Johnson, who now is a freshman at the University of Georgia, is exactly the kind of golfer officials want to see more of at courses across the state.

But young female golfers are hard to find.

The Georgia State Golf Association, Girl Scouts and Georgia Junior Golf Association want to change that. The three organizations partnered to give free golf lessons to girls at eight courses across the state in September in an effort to hook a demographic that's underrepresented on the links.

The Athens clinic was rained out and rescheduled for next spring, said Angie Trantham, the senior program manager for the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia.

"This is a great way to introduce the game in a non-competitive, nonthreatening environment," Trantham said. "Golf is a great sport, but it's not traditionally a girls' sport."

More girls now are playing golf in high school and college than in years past, but the sport hasn't attracted enough girls from non-golfing families, said UGA women's golf coach Kelley Hester.

"A lot of girls don't do golf because there aren't other girls to play with," Hester said. "We do produce some great female golfers here, but we don't have the depth other states have."

A National Golf Foundation study in 2005 showed that the greatest disparity between male and female golfers is in the young demographic. There are four times as many young male golfers as young female golfers, according to the report.

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