[icedrakona]

Article in local paper about the health of girls golf. It's sad really and I hope more interest can be raised for the future health of the game. Getting the ladies to come to SW Florida is a big move for the area and I hope it draws some kids to galleries.

Girls golf hits rough

Surveying the field at the District 2A-14 tournament Monday at Eastwood Golf Course in Fort Myers, Riverdale High School girls coach Tim Hawkins wasn't worried about his modest team finishing in the top three and advancing to the next round.

There were only four teams in the field, and the competition these days just isn't very good, especially in Lee County.

"It's bad," said Riverdale sophomore Mary Stanulis, whose team finished third despite having only one player shoot better than 54 for nine holes, about the lack of full teams and experienced players. "Everyone looks at golf as so boring, but when you go out there, it's a lot of fun."

Golf's global overseers long have wrestled with an unholy trinity bedeviling the game: too hard, too expensive, takes too long.

But as the game's participation nationwide continues to slide amid economic stagnancy and in the declining wake of the so-called Tiger boom of a dozen years ago, few demographics better exemplify the game's fading popularity than high school girls, at least locally.

"It does bother me. It bothers me a lot," said long-time local club professional Jeanne Rubado, who opened the first chapter of the LPGA/USGA Girls Golf Club in Southwest Florida nearly 20 years ago.

"Golf is a great sport for any kid. It's an individual sport they're going to carry with them for the rest of their lives. Especially for girls if they're going to go into the corporate world, why should you be sitting if all your male counterparts are out playing golf and getting business?"

Rubado and others noted the array of scholarships - athletic and otherwise - said to go unclaimed every year because of a lack of qualified applicants.

Golf, it seems though, needs girls more than girls need golf.

Of the 27.1 million golfers in the United States in 2009, about 2.7 million, or 10 percent, were juniors, ages 6-17, according to the National Golf Foundation.

Of those 2.7 million, less than 600,000 were girls.

Considering that a little less than half of all juniors are what the industry defines as core golfers, or those who play at least eight rounds in a year, there were less than 300,000 girls in the nation who played golf regularly in 2009.

The statistics are no better locally.

Fifteen years ago, seven of what were then eight Lee County public schools were able to post team scores in the Lee County Athletic Conference tournament with a minimum of four golfers completing rounds.

In the past six years, though, an average of only five teams posted team scores despite Lee County growing to 13 public schools.

In district competition, when participation is arguably the most important, the numbers actually get worse.

Only three public schools (Estero, Fort Myers, Riverdale) and two private schools (Bishop Verot, Canterbury) in Lee County posted team scores last week.

Collier County got team scores from six of its seven public schools, including perennially strong Barron Collier and Gulf Coast, and from two private schools.

"I would love to see more girls out there," said Oasis Charter junior Gina Falvey, the only girl to compete this year for the Cape school. "I miss the competition, to be honest. Six years ago, you had to try out for a high school team. Now if you're willing to golf, you're on the team, even if you've never picked up a club."

Falvey first learned the game after attending the Cape Coral chapter of the LPGA/USGA Girls Golf Club when she was about 10. The chapter folded several years ago, however, when its director moved out of the area, eliminating one supplier of young golfers.

Fort Myers and Naples still have chapters of the club, but Fort Myers limits total attendees to 40 because of a lack of instructors willing to volunteer, said Rubado and Fort Myers chapter co-director Terrie Weisse.

"They might help one time, and then you don't see them again," Rubado said. "It takes a lot of work."

A number of other golf groups and clubs offer introductory lessons for juniors, but none are for girls only, one important factor in making girls comfortable in the early stages learning the game, golfers and instructors said.

Southwest Florida's courses also haven't been welcoming to juniors historically, although economic struggles have forced more to open their doors.

"I just think there's not enough opportunity for kids to play golf," Weisse said. "If you're not a member of a club, it's really hard to get out and play golf."

By the time girls reach high school, introducing them to the game becomes even harder, observers said.

Other interests compete for their attention, and facing more-experienced players while trying to learn the rules can be daunting.

"Golf takes a long learning curve," Hawkins said. "To start as late as a lot of the girls do, it's an uphill battle to get them competitive with girls from other areas who have been playing longer."

Hawkins, though, makes no apologies for his girls' meager scores. Rather, he applauds a sentiment that hasn't filled the halls of many other Lee schools.

"Yes, it's frustrating in a sense, because it's hard to beat (more-experienced teams)," he said. "But if you look at our peer schools, I feel good that the girls are out there, they're learning the game, they're getting a lot out of it. The parents are thrilled that their daughters have learned golf."

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