Donna Bailey: Even Par Wasn’t Good Enough

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t play sports. My last romp with organized sports was in the sixth grade, back when I was homeschooled, and my mom insisted that I do something that involved interacting with other humans. So when I think about golf, a few things come to mind: rules, pastel polo shirts, not talking over 10 decibels, and rich white men. Without ever giving much thought to it, the stereotypes of golf are already ingrained in me. Of the few sports I’ve attempted, golf was never on my my to-do list. It feels like a space men have mostly taken up, and I never desired to enter such a starch-pressed locale. I’m not alone in this though. For the last decade, the number of people playing golf has been on the decline. But one woman, yes, woman, is looking to change that.

Donna Bailey started seriously playing golf once she retired in 1990. I use the word “retired” loosely, but check back for more on that in Part II of this series. “I started playing golf when I started dating my husband, because that’s what we liked to do. Then I stopped working in 1990; we’d be married for four years. I thought, ‘This cutesy little golf crap is gonna wear off. I need to get competitive so we can do something together.’” Starting then and there, Donna embarked on an intense, year-long journey to improve her game. In a year’s time, she drove her handicap from twenty-five to seventeen. And, eventually, to ten. She won an award for most improved, and played in celebrated competitions. On the surface, it seemed like Donna had achieved everything she’d set out for. But, as these stories go, Donna wasn’t finished.

“There was a woman who mentored me in the golf world, an older woman, who taught me grace, integrity -- all those kinds of things about golf that I wasn’t aware of.” This mentor eventually convinced Donna join her on the board for the South Carolina Women’s Golf Association, where Donna got her feet wet using her keen business acumen to develop the Girl’s Golf Program. Her goal was simple: put women’s golf on par with men’s golf. In furtherance of this mission, Donna recruited other esteemed women’s golfers to join the board. One such young golfer eventually made her way out of Columbia, South Carolina to work for the United States Golf Association (USGA). “So she calls me [one day] and says: ‘Donna, I know the director of the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association), and they are looking for a new board member. I recommended you.’”

Her first meeting at the LPGA Foundation, Donna and legendary professional women’s golfer, Nancy Lopez, were the “two new kids on the block.” Still trying to get their footing in a new organization, Nancy raised her hand and asked an elemental question, “Is there some reason we don’t have an LPGA Girls Academy?” Donna smiled, remembering the moment, and how quickly the idea was dismissed. “People ignored the conversation, but I went back to [Nancy], and said I can do that. I can do it. I can organize it. I can get it done, and I can get it paid for.” And she did. Now in it’s fifth year, the LPGA Girls Golf Academy aims to do much more than teach eight to twelve year old girls how to play golf. “It’s about using golf as the vehicle to teach life lessons. And they have fun doing it.” Part of making golf more amenable to women is also to make it more accessible. “We offer scholarships,” Donna explained. “The spectrum is every which way financially.” Aside from teaching girls the game of golf, “[W]e teach them. . .how to empower themselves, how to enrich themselves, and how to exercise.” And of course, friendship. “It’s unbelievable the friendships these girls get. They come from all over the country. They communicate all year long,” Donna said, recalling an instance where an young girl from the Bronx befriended a young girl from the rural countryside. They became such good friends, they sent each other Christmas presents. “And that happens all the time with these girls.”

After getting the LPGA Girls Academy off the ground, Donna moved on to the next piece of her puzzle: young women aged twelve to seventeen. “[B]etween the ages of twelve and seventeen, girls drop out of everything. Absolutely everything. They drop out of golf; they drop out of most sports. So how do you keep them in?” Her work was cut out for her. After some thought, Donna decided that a leadership program, paired with elements of golf, was the answer. Donna went to work pulling together a faction of female corporate executives and women golfers to conduct the LPGA Leadership Academy. “Everything we do is based on teaching [the young women] leadership skills and empowerment skills.” Over the course of two days, the young ladies work through various exercises that teach them leadership techniques, such as: how to deal with different personalities, how to choose a career path, and how to talk to Mom and Dad about the chosen career path. Eventually, the young ladies are taken out to the driving range to put their leadership and strategy techniques to work. The young women work together to strategize how, where, and with what strength to hit the golf ball, utilizing the major concepts they learned over the course of the program.

Donna’s final piece of the puzzle, a piece that is currently in the works, is the LPGA Scholars Program. Aimed at young adult women, the Scholar Program will be the LPGA’s final step in developing and priming young women for golf and career. In combination with leadership training, the Scholars Program will pair young ladies with career mentors. The hope is that the mentors can open doors for the young women, and that the Scholars Program can, in turn, provide companies with a vetted pool of hardworking, driven, millennial workers. Reflecting on the changing gender climate of the today’s workplace, Donna speculated why support for these women’s programs has been so readily available. “People understand that women’s leadership is where you have to go tomorrow. If you look at any of the financial institutions, they understand the wealth is going to be with the women in the very near future. Almost all of it.”

Aside from her tremendous work with the LPGA Foundation, Donna’s had a major hand in establishing the UNC Asheville Women’s Golf Program, acquiring more prestigious practice location for the College of Charleston Women’s Golf Team, developing a UNC Asheville student-athlete mentorship program, and organizing a twice-yearly golf academy for former female colleagues who never learned to play golf. All this, after she retired. “Life begins at sixty,” she wrote in an email after our interview.

Donna’s role in the women’s golf community is particularly effective because she understands both the business side and the cultural side of golf. “There are still clubs that don’t allow women, but the good news is that they’re fading.” She continued, “Slowly but surely the LPGA is finding it’s voice in the golfing community. And the golfing community is now helping to support the LPGA, especially through the Foundation and the Girl’s Golf Program, because the game is dying. The number of people playing golf overall is decreasing.” But Donna is very hopeful about golf’s future, especially amongst women. “The USGA has recognized the shrinkage. . .The industry itself is really working hard to tap into more male and female golfers.

In writing this piece, I found myself contemplating my own future with sports. Golf, it seems, makes a lot of sense for me, and many others. It’s a non-contact sport; there are no balls flying at or near my face; and golf can be played for a lifetime. Learning that women are making inroads in the game of golf makes me more keen to try it out. Learning that access to the game is broadening, and the USGA is working to recruit a diverse array of players, encompassing all races, genders and socioeconomic status makes me want to try it out. Learning that there are many women before me, like Donna, who have cleared the path, and made it almost pain-free for me to play means I have to try it! And, why not?

Part II of Donna Bailey’s story continues next week. We’ll be delving into the corporate career that ultimately led to her success at the LPGA Foundation.