Women's Golf Is Booming, and the Over 50 Player Is the Real Story
By Dave at Back Nine Living.
This June, the final round of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship pulled in 1.4 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, the most watched final round of that championship since 2005. That is a nice television number, and it got my attention. But the TV story is the small one.
The big story is on the tee sheet. The fastest growing group in golf right now is women, and a surprising share of them are picking up the game, or coming back to it, in the second half of life. If you have been paying attention at your own course, you have already noticed. The data just confirms what Saturday mornings have been telling us for a while.
Why is women's golf growing so fast?
The short answer: women are taking up golf in record numbers, and they have been for five years running. The National Golf Foundation counted a record 8.1 million female on course golfers in 2025, a 45 percent jump since 2020. Women now make up 28 percent of all on course golfers, the highest share on record and up from 20 percent in 2012.
Here is the number that stopped me. Women and girls accounted for 52 percent of the net gain in new on course golfers from 2020 to 2025. More than half of golf's growth over the past five years came from women. The game's future is walking up the fairway next to us, and she probably kept her drive in the short grass.
The pipeline looks the same. Women are roughly 35 percent of beginners, 35 percent of juniors, and 43 percent of the people who only play off course golf at ranges, simulators, and places like Topgolf. The pro game is following the money too. The LPGA played 33 official events in 2025 for a record 131 million dollars in prize money, up roughly 90 percent since 2021.
Is this just a young influencer story?
No, and that is the part almost everyone gets wrong. The version of this story you usually read is about young pros, viral swing videos, and apparel that looks great on women in their 20’s. That version is real, of course. But it’s not the whole picture, and it might not even be the biggest part.
A large slice of the women driving these numbers are in their 50s and 60s. Some are returning to a game they parked during their younger years. Others never touched a club until the calendar opened up. I know both kinds. A friend of mine took the game up at 58, a few years after her children left home, and now organizes more rounds than I do.
The best ball striker I know is a woman in her 60s, and she is kind enough to only mention sparingly when she sees me on the range.
Meanwhile, the influencer world has almost nothing for her. The big female golf creators skew young and appearance forward, and nearly nobody with a real following speaks to women over 50. That gap is worth saying out loud, because it means millions of new golfers are being handed a picture of the game that does not include them. They deserve better, and frankly, so does the game.
Why do women still get worse tee times at some clubs?
Mostly tradition, and tradition has a long memory. At plenty of clubs the prime weekend mornings were reserved for men's play for decades, and in some places they quietly still are. Golf Monthly published a first person account from a woman golfer with a single digit handicap who counted 17 weekend days in one summer when her course was closed to women for men's competitions. She eventually quit the club and took up pickleball. Golf lost a good player for no good reason.
The friction shows up in smaller ways too. Locker rooms that are an afterthought. The reflexive assumption that women play slowly, which the pace of play data does not support. And the naming problem on the scorecard, where the forward tees are still called the ladies tees at many courses. You pick a ski run by ability, not by gender. Tees should work the same way, and as I wrote in my piece on moving up a tee, most of us men should be playing them anyway.
Then there is the gear. The clothing selection for women has swung from too little to almost too much, but most of it is aimed at younger, slimmer, fashion forward shoppers. The gap for women over 50 is fit, sleeves and sun protection, and honest sizing. A few brands are starting to figure that out. Most have not.
I will be careful here, because I am a man writing about experiences that are not mine. I am not going to explain to women how they feel about any of this. I will just say that I have watched it happen at courses I have played, and the women I golf with did not imagine it.
What can a guy over 50 learn from the women's game?
More than his ego might like. The recreational women's game has never been built on raw power. It runs on position, course management, and a sharp short game. Sound familiar? That is precisely the golf a 50 plus man losing distance has to learn, whether he wants to or not.
I wrote a whole piece about losing distance on the back nine of life, and the honest summary is that the fix is not swinging harder. It is playing smarter. The women at your club have been playing that game all along. Turns out we are playing the same game now. We are just arriving late.
Is it too late to start golf at 50 or 60?
Not even close. Plenty of committed retirement golfers never touched a club until their 50s or 60s, and the industry has finally noticed, with schools, leagues, and gear built for older beginners. The game keeps pulling people in, and back. Michelle Wie West came out of retirement this June, at 36, just to play one last US Women's Open at Riviera. Nobody really leaves this game. It just waits.
The health case is real too, and it is especially well documented for older players. A physical therapist with Banner Health points to research showing that golfers aged 65 to 79 have significantly better balance than non golfers, and balance is one of the biggest factors in avoiding falls as we age. Published research on older recreational golfers has also found stronger grip strength and longer single leg stance times compared with non golfers. I dug into the broader evidence in my post on whether golf is good for your health, so I will not repeat it all here.
And the social side may be the best part. There is now a whole ecosystem of women's golf travel groups, and much of it is built around solo women in their 50s and 60s who sign up to make friends as much as to play. New golfers, new friendships, new trips. That is the second act this site is about, and women are living it in record numbers.
Common questions
Why is women's golf growing so fast? A record 8.1 million women played on course golf in 2025, up 45 percent since 2020, according to the National Golf Foundation. Women and girls made up 52 percent of the net gain in new golfers over that stretch, helped by lower pressure entry points like simulators and ranges.
Is it too late to start golf at 50 or 60? No. Women are about 35 percent of all golf beginners, and many of them are starting in midlife or later. The game rewards accuracy and thinking over power, which suits older beginners just fine.
Is golf good for women's health as they age? The research is encouraging. Golfers aged 65 to 79 show significantly better balance, grip strength, and single leg stability than non golfers, and a walked round is low impact exercise with a built in social circle. As always, talk to your doctor before starting anything new.
Why are forward tees still called the ladies tees? Habit, mostly. The modern view is that tees should be chosen by driving distance, not gender, the same way you pick a ski run by ability. Many men over 50 would score better and have more fun from the forward tees.
Where can women over 50 golf with other women? Look for a ladies league at a local course, or one of the growing number of women's golf travel groups, many of which are built around women in their 50s and 60s travelling solo and looking for company on the course.
The game is better with more people in it, and the people showing up right now are women, a great many of them on the back nine of life. Make room in the foursome. You might learn something about course management while you are at it.
See you on the back nine.
Stay in the Fairway
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Dave is the founder of Back Nine Living, a golf and lifestyle site for players over 50. A lifelong golfer, he writes about golf, fitness, gear, travel, and the second half of life from his home base in Ontario, Canada.
Sources: National Golf Foundation (ngf.org/short-game/the-record-rise-of-female-golf and ngf.org/the-clubhouse/golf-industry-research), Yahoo Sports on KPMG Women's PGA viewership (sports.yahoo.com/articles/kpmg-womens-pga-championship-drew-143924154.html), ESPN on the 2025 LPGA schedule (espn.com/golf/story/_/id/42502506), Banner Health (bannerhealth.com/healthcareblog/better-me/the-health-benefits-of-golfing-for-older-adults), Journal of Aging and Physical Activity via PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36084931), Golf Monthly (golfmonthly.com/features/why-i-gave-up-golf), ESPN on Michelle Wie West (espn.com/golf/story/_/id/48909189). All figures verified against these sources on July 3, 2026.