Just wanting to know what locals are doing to build the women's fields.

We, in Huntsville, are going to start having a Women's League every Wednesday night.

How many women play locally that DON'T play in tournaments?
What do you think would help in building stronger women's fields at tournaments?

Just curious!

Addie,
Birmingham had a "Tea Party" event and invited all of the causal girls out. They held a short clinic and then played a round. They had maybe 20 women. Of course none of them showed up at the next tournement, but it is a start.

Also Wednesdays are bad for league nights for people who go to church. Wouldn't another night be better?

perhaps incentives might help to entice females into participating in tourneys...

offer extremely low entry fees (to cover the cost of a disc) and give them a DX disc just for attending the way SN does with novice participants... ?

how about a prize to the winner of the "womens first timers" division wins a paid entry fee to the "next" event? & promote the heck out of a "femme first timers" division that targets newbsters.

Josh,

I'm open about which night! We, (Ginger, Karen, and I) thought Wednesday would be good because the wives/girlfriends/friends could show up with their husbands/boyfriends/friends to play while they played Singles. Our church doesn't have Wednesday nights except during Lent, so that didn't enter my mind.

Ideas,

GOOD ONES!! Thanks!

We have very few ladies that come out here that do not play in tournaments. I believe mostly it is Kathy Johnson and myself that play....we usually have doubles on Sunday and everybody is free to play in that. I would not be against traveling some though to promote ladies play.


Icey

Do we know any softball players or Ultimate Frisbee women players? Some of them may want to come out.


Are we on for Wednesday in Huntsville? What is the plan and where? I just got back into town amd will be able to play Wednesday of this week. I'm going to the Smokies next week. I want to play! LOL

Hey Karen,

I sent you an email, but everything is out at UAH this week. Lucky you getting to go to the Smokies!!! Check out the new course in Knoxville if you get the chance!

We have a new course in the Pensacola area @ Gulf Breeze Shoreline Park.
I have seen 3 women out there so far, and Debbie B. and Sarah Free are the only players this area has. So, I have been wondering the same thing on how to promote the sport to women and girls.

I think it is hard to get women outside and do something physical. They have a much busier/hectic shedule esp. with kids. And the ones that are active play tennis, swim, or just go to the gym. It would be hard to recruit these women mainly because there are few women playing for them to play with and show them how to play. I would like to try some things over here to get them in to it.

Maybe the best way is to look to our future...the kids. By promoting the sport to them, We will have a stronger future in bringing this sport to the women. Our park system has several types of day camps offering different sports instructed by park guys and volunteers. This gave me the idea to put it on the books for next year for a disc golf day camp for ages 12 and up.

So, the question comes back without an answer, what can we do to get more women involed? .... this may help me... What attracts YOU (women) to the sport?

Mike U.

Mike,

That sounds great about the camp thing! Kids are a great way to promote, I agree. We just got done doing a Disc Golf segment at Vacation Bible School. The kids thought it was "Cool!" and "Awesome!".

Having played so long in such a limited field, what draws me to a tournament is the course. I have been three or four times to Nashville, most of which being the only female, but I just try to BEAT THE COURSES!! So far, I STILL WANT REVENGE ON CEDAR HILL AND SEVEN OAKS!! LOL

Jeff, Judy and Kary throw absolutely FUN tournaments and that will make me go back to Columbus.

Memphis' tournaments always get great crowds of women. I will always attend them if I'm able, too. I will be going to Tallahassee this year for their Capital City Open. Pensacola isn't far from there. I'd like to stop on the way to or from.

Thanks for the input!

Well for one thing and I can only speak for me Mike...I started because of my hubby was playing and showed it to me. It took me like a year before I agreed to play. One thing that was important to me was not to have to go out and play a very long course just because the guys could throw a long ways. I think that it helped that there be like Amateur Tees and Pro Tees...some courses have these but I think it would help for most courses to have these set up at least for tournaments.

Another issue that has always been a factor is about the kids. If there was like an organized place that could watch kids while we are playing it would help. Also us ladies like to get a little something out of playing..there are so few of us that to get a disc like they do with the juniors usually would help.

I think that maybe we should have some tournaments that we encourage ladies to come to and try to invite more...there are some places that many of the wives will come out and watch but not play...maybe we can try to encourage them more with the help of the husbands of course.

I think that we have come a long way from when I started with ladies playing. When I first started playing there were like only 1 or 2 ladies playing in a tournament. I look now at places such as Memphis where we have about 15 ladies playing and say yes this is going good.

I think that having ladies tags have also helped. I know that I myself feel hopeless having to compete against the guys with the tags and get discouraged so to have the ladies tags is a great idea. It just is a shame that we cannot get together and play a tag championship sometime.

I think that things like the ladies tea party that they had in Birmingham was a good idea. Everybody (except me) came out with at least a little token of thanks and learned something....


Icey

Two cents from the husband...

(I didn't read all of the thread so forgive if this is a duplication.)

My wife likes to play casually. She started because of me (a common theme). We're in HSV, and at the time we had the old UAH course that was a good beginner course. These days there is not a good beginner course in HSV - the UAH course is way long with shots over ditches and water, and Mastin and Brahan are full of intimidating trees and in neighborhoods that are not the best.

I said all that to point out that there is no beginner's course in HSV anymore, and the problem is compounded for the women who cannot throw the distance the men do. "Stick" golf solves this with women's tees.

So why don't DG courses have women's tees?

Skip,

My guess is that there aren't women's tees because there aren't many women...yet! :o) Brahan IS intimidating at first but it gets better. I hope she sticks to it. I agree about the fact that it's not safe to play Brahan and Mastin alone. That's a shame, BUT there are usually TONS of people at Brahan and I feel safest there, if playing alone (with the exception of hole #3). I hope to meet you both soon!!

Honestly, I think that more women don't play for several reasons:

(A) They don't want to look stupid if they don't throw it right (some females are just like this).

(B) They are introduced to the game by their boyfriends or husbands who don't want them to 'tag along' all of the time - be honest fellas, you know this is the truth - and how can you get good at something unless you practice?

(C) They don't know anyone on the course, which is also why they don't play in casually or in tournaments. They are afraid they will be put in a group with people they don't know. And they won't go out to play by themselves without their boyfriend/husband and team up with others because they feel they don't know anyone well enough.

(D) children

There are also numerous other reasons why women don't play. So think about this: If every woman that plays DG got just one other woman to play regularly, that would double the number of women that play. Then, if that women got another to play, then the number would quadruple, and so on - a chain reaction. As for the women's tees, I am allowed to throw from these tees during tournament and I do, however; when I play casually, I usually throw from the pro tees. I think all the women should get into this habit - it can only make your game stronger.

Luckily, Steph, you have a lot of women in Memphis. Why don't y'all just plan a women's league night/day. We did here in Huntsville and we only have 4 women....for right now! :o) We don't call it a "league" we just let each other know when we will be out and then we meet up. NO BOYS ALLOWED!!!! LOL It's great!!!

Hey, the bathrooms are much nicer in here! No fair!

In Lafayette, we introduced the sport to a local high school who included it in their P.E. schedule. They even bussed them there, like a field trip. It resulted in a notable increase in park use. Maybe targeting elementary school P.E. classes would get more full-time kid players.

Problem is, disc golf seems to favor people who can transport themselves to the courses, many of which aren't in the best part of town or are located in public parks that are in outlying areas of a city, like Greenwood in B.R., for example.

Luckily, Disc golf is growing in the schools. That's a great asset! The "not in the best part of town" courses are a problem here in Huntsville, as well. I don't feel as safe going to 2 of our courses here if I don't have some company. I think the more promotion we get...be it TV, newspapers,etc....the better the field will grow! Thanks for your input!

PS- Don't tell anyone about the bathrooms! :o)

Thanks. You know, I was trying to think of celebrities who play disc golf, but I couldn't think of any. It would be nice to have some kind of celebrity endorsement for the sport. Does anyone know of any famous people who play?

The fellas from Saliva hve been known to grace the course on their off-dayz.....that'd best be reponded to by Crawdaddy!

Griff

Matthew Perry plays in Cali!

Wow! Matthew Perry? I didn't think that he was laid back enough to be a player. I saw him on the celebrity poker show, and he seemed like a jerk. Could've just been a bad day for him, I guess. I found out that Woody Harrelson plays, but it would be nice if we could get a Brad Pitt or someone like that. I'm quite sure women would show up to that tournament.

This may be a little late in discussions, but at Wall Doxey for our southern national tournaments. We offer a final six for the top four open pro women. If enough pro women don't show up, we add that money to their payouts. Every woman who registers receives a door prize of some stuff we have donated. We have been doing this for a couple of years now and at each tourney. We probably have one new lady to play. This past April a couple of the wives from Monroe showed up. They weren't able to play, but we gave them a door prize anyway. According to their reactions, we feel they will be back in September to play. We would love to host an all womens tournament every three months. I think this would draw a lot of the women in that normally just play casual. This way they get a complete weekend break from the kids and their children(haha). If the other half wants to tag along they must be like the caddies for the PGA (very Quiet). I think the previous ideas are beautiful ideas for the growth of women in disc golf, and i will try to incorpate some of these ideas in our local area.
Thanks,
Benny