One hundred fifty-six of the best women golfers begin their U.S. Open golf tournament Thursday at the Erin Hills course in Washington County — a few miles west of Holy Hill.
The 80th edition of this major championship comes amid growth in the number of women who play golf, though things are not yet 50-50 with men.
At Storms Golf Range in Brookfield, Zoe Gryniewicz uses a club known as an iron to whack balls more than 150 yards.
Just completing her sophomore year at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, Gryniewicz is already one of the top female teen golfers in Wisconsin. Her team has won the girls state golf championship two years in a row.
Gryniewicz says her success is more than a dozen years in the making.
“Well, my mom, like kind of introduced me to going to the range and stuff, and started playing when I was 3. Played my first tournament when I was 5. And then once I grew up a little bit more — my dad works from home — he was able to take me and I was able to play a lot of golf with him during the summer,” Gryniewicz says.
Gryniewicz says take your pick as to her passion for golf: “I don’t know, it’s like a chicken and the egg. Do I love to compete because of golf, or do I love golf because I love to compete?”
Way back in the heydays of male stars like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, many high schools didn’t have a girls golf team. But numerous schools have since added them. Divine Savior Girls Coach Dave Himm says his school is about to add a second JV team.
During his eight years of heading a local girls golf program, Himm says he’s seen the young women take advantage of the greater opportunities some of them have, and raise their game — especially with accuracy.
“Whereas the boys, they just want distance. They’ll find it later. These girls just play such solid rounds of golf,” Himm says.
The USGA (United States Golf Association), which is running this week’s tournament at Erin Hills, says 38% of junior golfers in this country are female, more than double the number of 15 years ago. Jacob Miller is Midwest regional rep for the USGA. He says the Wisconsin State Golf Association offers a program called Youth on Course that recognizes that some kids are priced out of golf.
“It’s a subsidy program that allows kids to play golf for five dollars or less. Which, one of the barriers for the game is access, the finances behind the game,” Miller says.
There is a 20-dollar annual membership fee for that program. But Miller says participation is growing. He says other nonprofit organizations, such as First Tee, help with access to drivers, irons, putters and other golf clubs. First Tee and Milwaukee Public Schools have a partnership, with one estimate being about 90 percent of girls in the program don’t have their own golf equipment. (The percentage of boys is only slightly smaller.)
Miller says the USGA is also trying to help more older women learn — or get back into — playing golf. “That closer to retirement female is really a growing segment of the game. Plus, they’re going to bring their daughters and their kids into the game,” Miller says.
At the professional level, the prize money for women is typically still less than for men’s tournaments. But this week’s presenting partner at Erin Hills, Ally Financial, has helped raise the Women’s Open purse, or total, to 12 million dollars. Ally’s Stephanie Marciano says the “golf space is a phenomenal territory for marketing.”
She adds, “The goal is to drive our brand and our business forward. And we have seen tremendous results already.”
And to hear USGA CEO Mike Whan tell it, the finances and participation for women’s golf will continue to grow: “I think if women’s golf was a stock, you’d buy it.”
The Women’s U.S. Open begins Thursday and runs through Sunday. There is a cost to attend, but there will also be network television coverage.
