Tiffany Joh Encourages Equal Representation in Golf

“When I was playing golf with a friend, we were playing behind this foursome that would not let us play through, in other words, to play ahead of them. Even though we were playing fast, hitting every fairway and every green accurately, while the groups in front of us were hitting the ball everywhere, they still would not let us play through. They looked back, and their first impression of us was that we were just girls and thought we were not very good, not knowing that we both played at a professional level. And it shouldn't be like that. You shouldn't have to go out and prove that you are an amazing golfer just to be taken seriously,” Tiffany Joh said.

Tiffany Joh recently shared the challenges she faced as a woman athlete, and her desire for change to allow golf to become a more inclusive sport. She is the Associate Head Coach of the University of Southern California women's golf team and a professional golfer who played on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tours for 11 years.

This discrepancy between male and female participants can be traced back to when golf began in the 15th century. Golf started as a male-dominated sport, and women were not allowed to gain membership in golf courses until the 19th century. This laid the foundation for the underrepresentation of women in golf.

“A lot of the LPGA tournaments are shown at off-peak hours when people aren't watching sports,” Joh said. Television network companies assume they will make less money than if they stream men’s games, which causes women to receive fewer sponsorships and pay money.

“Unfortunately, when it comes to the LPGA, our prize money is not where we would want it to be. For example, the 100th player on the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour makes 10% of what the 100th player on the Professional Golf Association Tour makes. So there is a huge disparity between men and women earning money,” said Laura Diaz, the Senior Director of Community and Inclusion at the Ladies Professional Golf Association.

The limitations in sponsorships for women also lead to fewer opportunities for the public to view women’s golf, meaning that there are fewer chances for girls to learn about golf.

Tenth-grader Cindy Yuan has noticed this through her five years of experience playing golf.

“There are more boys playing golf, and I think this is a result of no one paying attention to female sports. I will be asking a friend if you have been watching the LPGA, and do you know this professional golfer who is playing well. They would reply ‘Who are you talking about?’ And that girl would be playing so much better than the tour players on the guy’s team, shooting even lower scores, but no one knows about it because no one pays attention to female sports. But people are only paying attention to men’s sports because that is what has been happening for decades. And I think that doesn’t only apply to golf and that applies to other sports as well,” Cindy said.

Such a circumstance can also be seen in the Athenian coed varsity golf team. The data provided by Darek Cliff, the Director of Athletics, demonstrated that in the 2012-2013 golf season, all ten team members were male-identifying students. The number of female-identifying students became four out of eleven members in the 2022-2023 season. Even though the participation of female students on the team has improved, it is still not yet balanced.

In Athenian, there has not been a girls’ golf team because there have not been six dedicated golfers to form a team. Not all of the teams in the Bay Counties League East league are capable of forming a team either. Only two schools out of the 14 East Bay schools have a girls’ golf team, and one of them is an all-girls school. There are also only six schools with a girls’ golf team out of the 26 conference member schools that Athenian is part of. 

“It would be wonderful to see girls playing. We would like to see golf being passed on to generations and raise the equality of the game. And I think all it takes is a couple of people to change the game. Tiger Woods did that for men’s golf. Before Tiger, the percentage of people in golf was a lot lower. I think we will start to see more high-level athletes that are starting to come up out of the college ranks now. Rose Zhang, for example, is a woman professional golfer who could move the needle in girls’ participation in golf.” Joh said.

With continuous promotion, the representation of female-identifying golfers could progress.

“I think golf has come a long way, especially since when I was a kid. In golf, the biggest-growing or the fastest-growing demographic right now is girls under the age of 15. So I think in the next ten years, we are going to start to see how the pioneer role models and the rise of advertisements are going to affect the game,” Joh said.