PGA professional Rachel Campbell is using group lessons to change the face of membership at Perth’s Lake Karrinyup.

When you’re the only girl in Geraldton who plays golf, finding friends to play with – let alone learn the game with – never enters your mind.

Rachel Campbell grew up the daughter of a PGA professional, so found her way into golf via that path. She has discovered since joining the team at Lake Karrinyup Country Club in Perth that many women desire a more collective entry point.

Since taking over the Women’s Introductory Program six years ago, Campbell has introduced 48 women to golf in a 22-week period each year. Last year, 37 of those women took up the transitional membership offered by the club. Next year’s program, which starts in March, has just six of the remaining 48 spots still available.

Each program consists of six groups of eight women and Campbell believes it is the shared experience that makes it such a success. “It’s often safety in numbers,” she says. “There’s always two or three friends that are doing it together because one won’t do it without the other.

“It’s very social. There’s a lot of chatting that happens in our classes and it’s a pretty relaxed atmosphere, but that’s what they’re there for. They’re there to have some fun, do something with their friends.”

Campbell was an outstanding junior golfer who attended New Mexico State University on a golf scholarship before spending time on the Ladies European Tour, Futures Tour in the US and the WPGA Tour of Australasia. But through offering the group lessons where half the time is spent on-course to make ladies feel comfortable and aware of golf etiquette, Campbell is seeing the wider benefits that playing golf offers, even if you don’t carry a scorecard.

“One of the ladies who was in the program my first year, in 2019, is now nominating to be on the committee,” she says. “Six years ago, she didn’t know anyone in the club and had never played golf. She said that the program positively transformed her life and that she has ‘found her tribe’ with a passion for golf.

“Some of these ladies will never play a comp. They just want to play nine holes on a Monday morning with their friends and have a coffee. There are a group of ladies who now go away on golf trips together who met doing the introductory program. They’ll go down to Margaret River; one lady has a boat so they’ll go to Rottnest Island for the day and play the Rottnest Cup. They recently went to Adelaide. It’s quite amazing. They didn’t know each other well and now they’ve just formed this nice group.

“Golf’s probably not the highlight – it’s the eating and drinking and a bit of travel along the way – but golf brought them all together.” 

PGA professionals throughout Australia offer introductory group lessons. To find the one nearest you, visit pga.org.au/find-a-pga-pro