Meet five women with awesome careers in golf who are breaking boundaries, setting trends and having fun along the way
When I sat down to research this story, I started with a simple Google search: “Women in the golf industry.” What came back was a list of websites covering the “hottest” female players and industry pros. A more refined search, “Women with careers in the golf industry,” resulted in the same list. But there are plenty of ladies working in golf who are doing more than looking good. Here are five women with enviable careers in the sport.Katherine Roberts; Founder & President of Katherine Roberts Yoga for Golfers
Roberts has forged her own path in the golf industry, and she’s managed to leave quite a mark. She created a proprietary style of yoga, which focuses on the similarities between yoga and golf, that’s been proven to help golfers improve their game, as well as their overall level of wellness.
Roberts has released nine Yoga for Golfers DVDs, as well as two books (one she co-authored with Tiger’s former coach, Hank Haney.) She’s also been featured in quite a few publications including USA Today and Golf Magazine, and she’s a regular contributor to the Golf Channel.
In addition to building her company, which now has Yoga for Golfers-certified teachers all over the world, Roberts has found time to work with multiple Major League Baseball teams to help their players improve their flexibility.
Stina Sternberg; Global Golf Director & Columnist for Golf Digest Sternberg recently tweeted a picture of a questionnaire that one of her young children filled out at school titled “How Well Do I Know My Mom?”
Mom’s favorite thing to do: Golf. Mom’s favorite TV show: Golf. Mom is really good at: Golf. One word to describe my mom: Golf.
Sternberg’s obsession with the sport makes sense given her position as the Global Golf Director at Golf Digest. Sternberg has been with the magazine since 2008, and before that she worked for a discontinued Conde Nast title, Golf for Women. Over the course of her career, she’s covered plenty of interesting topics. She was an author of an advice column called “All’s Fair in Love and Golf.” Though it was last published in 2014, it’s still chock full of useful advice and is available on the Golf Digest site.
Cynthia Dye McGarey; Principal Architect at Dye Designs Group
Thank you ASGCA! Thrilled to be Architect of the Week! @asgca1946 #whitehorse #golf #design #asgca
A photo posted by Cynthia Dye McGarey (@cynnybear) on
The American Society of Golf Course Architects counts some pretty impressive members in its ranks … Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Cynthia Dye McGarey. McGarey is one of the few females in the organization, and she’s helping forge the way for other women who want to pursue careers in golf course design.
McGarey comes from a family full of golf course architects, including her aunt, Alice Dye, who co-designed the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort and Whistling Straits. McGarey has designed courses all over the world, including in Italy, Japan, Thailand and all over the United States. To get to where she is today, she studied horticulture, botany and landscape design.
Claudine Foong; Strength & Conditioning Coach
A little short game practice- Learning to hit "pillows" as @riggsgolf calls it. #whatdoesthatevenmean ?#buttheylandedonadime #whyilovethisgameA photo posted by Claudine Foong | Dubai (@claudinefoong) on
Foong has an awesome career as a Dubai-based strength and conditioning coach, Lululemon brand ambassador and Golf Digest Middle East fitness contributor. It just takes a quick trip to her Instagram to get a taste of the cool experiences that have come along with her career in the golf industry.
A former professional golfer, Foong traded in life on the tour to pursue her passion for fitness and wellness. Her love of fitness led Canadian-born Foong to the UAE, where she works as fitness director for the Butch Harmon School of Golf at the Els Club, in addition to her many other endeavors. She also does some caddying work, having carried the bag for Rory McIlroy at last year’s Abu Dhabi Invitational.
Tina Barnes Budd; LPGA Senior Director of Social Media & Marketing
Love the quiet paddles on the @road2lpga @road2eldo
A photo posted by Tina Barnes-Budd (@tinabarnesbudd) on
Budd has been working with the LPGA marketing department since the early days of social media, and she helped the organization shape its social media presence to what it is today. Currently, she oversees the LPGA’s various social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Under her guidance, the LPGA’s social media channels have grown by triple digits every year since they were launched.
One really cool aspect of Budd’s job is that she gets to work with LPGA tour players to help them learn the best practices for managing their own social media channels. Budd says that players have a lot of autonomy when it comes to running their pages, but her team monitors all of their posts.
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