(Submitted photo/Cooke Municipal Golf Course)

By Nolan Kowal

Golf growth

More women, more juniors among new golf trends: Cooke head pro

May 10, 2024 | 5:00 AM

Golf season is about to kick into high gear, and the head professional at Cooke Municipal Golf Course has started to notice some new trends in the sport.

Darcy Myers is the head pro at Cooke and said one thing he’s noticed is more females taking up the game.

“It’s hard to pinpoint, but Brooke Henderson, she’s a high level golfer from Canada who has had lots of success on the LPGA Tour so maybe that has something do with it,” Myers said. “Or maybe some of the women are just wanting to get out…golf has become more of a family affair too with the kids and the adults, so that could have something to do with it, but it’s really hard to pinpoint right now.”

Myers added that it is encouraging to see more women out swinging the clubs.

“It’s been a category or a segment that has been lacking in the past, and it’s nice to see things shifting in that direction,” he said. “And hopefully we can continue to grow it and just make golf more accessible to all people.”

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“Things are really looking positive in that respect.”

The other trend that Myers has noticed is the growth of their junior program, particularly among boys.

“We’ve got a lot of kids around here, and a lot of them play other sports. A lot of them are hockey players, and hockey and golf go really well together,” Myers said. “So we’re seeing a lot of interest in the junior boys division…and we’re always looking to get a few more girls involved here at the golf course, the younger ones.”

“That’s something we’ll continue focusing on going forward.”

Myers also touched on how golf actually benefitted from the COVID-19 pandemic, while other sports were shut down completely.

“Golf was one of the only things that you could do for a while during COVID, so that brought lots of new people to the game or brought people back that hadn’t played in a long time,” he said. “And they’re continuing to do so here a few years after that pandemic, so it has really helped the game of golf.”

“It’s just a sport that really anybody can do and have fun with it.”

Cooke Municipal Golf Course opened for the season on April 26, and the course is already off to a hot start. On Wednesday, two golfers recorded a hole-in-one. The highly coveted golf shots happened on Hole 6 and Hole 17.

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nolan.kowal@pattisonmedia.com