My experience as the only girl on my high school golf team (Freshman year)

Hi Gals,

I posted a few weeks back with a recap of my high school golf season, that post was focused mostly on the golf and match/tournament side of the season. There is a lot more to my season that I would like to share and so here it is! I am not writing this for sympathy or anything like that I am sharing this because I know that other girls have been through similar situations and I believe that it is important that we speak up about this. If we don't it will just continue to make the boys think that they can get away with it. 

I was the only girl on the varsity team (we had one girl on JV!) and as the only girl, I faced some challenges. Challenges from the boys treating me differently or as less than, sexist comments, etc.

I didn't feel like I was a part of a team this year, it felt like the seven boys were a team and I was an extra kid on the side. 

Many (not all) made sexist comments throughout the season. Such as "Ew, female golfers. They better not beat us.", "Ugh, I can't believe the girl beat me.". Referring to the fact that if a girl beat them it had to have been a fluke because there was no way that a girl could be better than them. 

Spoiler alert to those boys and to all boys -- it is okay for a girl to beat you. We can work just as hard or harder and be deserving of the win. 

There were many instances when we were told to pair up for a drill or even just putt to the same hole that the boys would ask if they could make a threesome so that someone didn't have to go with me. There was no reason for that. 

When we were on the putting green be it in practice or while we were playing they would step in my line, yet they never stepped in the boys' lines. 

I often said things to them about putting out or counting their score correctly during practice rounds, not that this is a sexism issue just another thing that took place during my season. This is something that happened in multiple schools I have heard about. I often caught them handing in incorrect scores in practice due to not putting out, not including penalty strokes, etc. Golf is a game routed in honesty and integrity. It is disappointing to watch the game I love so much be so disregarded like this. Cheating isn't okay anywhere and it certainly has no place in the game of golf. 

Most of the time while we were playing and I was at my tee (since it is in front of the tees that the boys were playing) the boys would continue to walk down the fairway. There were many instances where I felt as if I was playing as a single as opposed to being a part of the foursome.

This is not okay and it is disrespectful. The fact that these boys felt as though it was okay to treat me and to treat women this way is sad and we need to make sure that we speak up and share these stories so that they know it is wrong and will hopefully stop doing this. 

~NH Golfer Gal