Golf At Goodwood Open Forum - Lady Members Action Notes

Marquee Events

1 - There is a lack of knowledge of what a Marquee Event actually is between the majority of the Ladies section.

We appreciate there has been no obvious indicators as to what a Marquee Event. The main reason we push the Marquee Events, is because they are our flagship events, where lots of effort and time is given to our members experience. They are the best value for money events, where the experience on course is so much more than your standard round of golf and most of the events offer either a welcome or leaving gift for all members attending on the day.

There are multiple ways we are going to increase awareness around our Marquee Events. Firstly, we have created a new tag under the Members Diary, that allows you to filter for our Marquee Events. We are in the process of creating a competitions handbook, which will not only outline the Marquee Events, but be a reference to any competition related questions. Finally, we will look to get a poster made of all Marquee Events and have this visible on notice boards around the club.

We still appreciate, these events will not interest everyone, but we believe they are the finest display of what makes Golf At Goodwood unique to other golf clubs.

2. Ladies feel as though the Marquee events are aimed towards the men and that ladies are at a disadvantage. The feedback was that perhaps we as a club can introduce a ladies prizes in marquee events?

There are a number of our Marquee Events that are ladies only, including our Spring and Autumn Meeting. However, we want all ladies to feel welcome in the rest of the club Marquee Events. As a result, we are looking into the option of an additional Ladies prize in all Marquee Events. We wouldn’t want to take away from a player, if they were to win the whole event, but as an additional prize to the best lady of the day, if they were not to win a main prize would be our best suggestion at this time. While the first Marquee Event is not until April, we will give this further consideration to find the best solution.

3 - Some marquee events have handicap limits, ladies would like to see some marquee events for the higher handicaps.

The main Marquee Event that holds a handicap limit is our Club Championships. As a start we will look to add a higher handicap event that runs at a similar time, that will only be open to those who are not eligible to compete in our Club Championships.

4 - Ladies like the idea of marquee events being able to select their tee times and playing partners rather that it being a drawn event.

As discussed within the meeting, our Summer and Christmas Roll Up’s have always previously been drawn events. For the Summer Roll Up 2025, all players will be able to choose their playing partners. Which means for those who feel more comfortable playing with only people they know or other ladies, this is now possible.

Please note, we are first trialling this for the Summer Roll Up and will review ahead of the Christmas Roll Up.  

5 - Ladies Autumn Meeting food was very poor at the B&G. Not worth the money and let the experience of the events down.

There are a few options we have to avoid these issues,

No food included in the event, we would look to include tea and coffee only once players return from the course. Which would allow the tables and space to be reserved, allowing players to still socialise after their round

If the menu choice is of issue, we can look into sending a poll out ahead of the day. Or as some other clubs do, we could ask the winner or the previous year’s event to choose the menu option.

The option of using one of the internal rooms within the Hotel could be explored, such as the cedar suite. However, the cost of hiring these rooms would result in an increase in entry fee for the event.

6 - In the ladies marquee events the ladies would like to see a better breakdown of prizes rather than bigger prize pay outs. For example, can we have prizes for best front 9, best back 9. Best scores in division 1 and 2 handicap categories etc.

This is something we are looking into, the most popular option of splitting prizes would be to have an overall winner, then silver and bronze divisions, with first and second prizes for each. This would increase the prize offering from 3 to 5 prizes in total, however it would decrease the value of each individual prize.

7 - Can we replace the Marathon match with something similar with another club?

This is something we would like to do and are still in the process of researching, and speaking with other golf clubs.

8 - Can we do more events linked to the Men’s and Women Major golf events?

For this year we are offering the Goodwood Ryder Cup again. We will look to bring in a Goodwood Solheim Cup when it returns in 2026.

However, the 2025 diary is now close to full and for many dates of prominent events, we have other events booked in.
We will give this further attention towards the end of this year when planning the 2026 diary. 

Weekly Competitions

1 - Some ladies think that ladies who enter the competition as a show and go entry should appear on the tee sheet.

We would love to have a transparent system that allows for this feature, however unfortunately it does not exist on Intelligent Golf.The benefits of having the Show & Go feature include those who cannot make the allotted tee times, being able to arrange a game at a different time of day. If the allotted tee times fill ahead of the day, again ladies can arrange games within the general tee sheet. So we see much merit in keeping this setting on, but came to the compromise to keep this setting turned off in the more prominent events such as Medals and Order Of Merits. For these events there are a couple of tee times reserved later in the day for those who have commitments such as work to still be able to play.

2 - Gazebo roll ups are very popular, can we extend the tee times for this event? Perhaps this is something we can do in Summer and keep winter to 1 hour of tee times?

This has now been done as a trial for the next two Gazebo Roll Up events. Following the two amended events, the Club will carry out a review, and if successful, we will see all Gazebo Roll Up events in the Summer extended to an hour and a half tee time block. Due to limited daylight and tee time availability in the Winter, all Gazebo Roll Up events will remain as one hour tee block. 

3 - Ladies have asked if we can have some later tee times in the weekly competitions to allow those who have work or family commitments to play at a later time rather than the usual 9:00am to 10:00am.

As mentioned, when discussing the Show & Go events above. This has been done for those events that you are not able to play outside of the allotted tee times, which are the Medal’s and Order Of Merits. For these events, we have added a couple of later tee times for this purpose.

4 - Ladies have asked the possibility of having some ladies competitions on the weekends every now and then?

We are in the process of adding two ladies competitions a month, through the Summer months, on Sundays. These will alternate between the Downs and Park Course.

5 - More 9-hole qualifiers on the Downs course.

We will also look to make one Thursday 9 hole event a month into a qualifier. Again, ensuring this will alternate between The Downs and The Park Course

6 - Can we run more blue tee events in the Summer. Or have the option for ladies to play off the blue tee’s in the weekly competitions.  

For those who are not aware of the blue tees, they were set up in 2024 as a mixture of the green and orange tees to offer a slightly longer qualifying course for ladies. This means handicap cards can be submitted from these tees.

We have already added the blue tees to some of our club events including the Golf At Goodwood Order Of Merits – the Valdoe Trophy last year, and any future Club Stablefords where the men are to play from the purple tees.

For lady specific events, during Summer, all qualifying stablefords on The Downs Course now have the option to play from either Green or Blue tees for ladies.

The events should increase awareness with the hopes of having an only blue tees event later in the year.

Buddy System

1 - All ladies like the idea of re-introducing the buddy system which will help integrate other ladies into the club as well as encourage other ladies to gain an official handicap and enter competitions.

We are currently working to research this with the help of England Golf and other golf clubs, to ensure we find the best way to implement a buddy system. It is something we are looking to offer, however may take some time in set up. Once we have further details, we will look to communicate this to members.

2 - The idea of different member categories playing golf together seems to be popular among the ladies, having a mixture of GIG, Credit, Braid and beginners playing golf together.

Craig Gardner who looks after our Get Into Golf members, has introduced an event which will see a lady member joined with GIG members on course. He is also further developing the GIG member events for the year. This will then be communicated and viewable on a poster for members to reference.   

3 - Buddy system competitions can also be introduced if the buddy system goes as well as planned.

Once we have started the buddy system, we will look into this.

4 - Integrating into the club as a lady seems to be difficult for the ladies section. A buddy system will help to improve that.

As noted above, we are looking into implementing a buddy system and utilising this to help improve integration at the club.  

Matches

1 - Ladies are not aware of the different division matches and handicap limits within the divisions.

There are two pages on Intelligent Golf that give information about matches, one we have created and another that is automatically generated by Intelligent Golf.>

The one we have created can be found:

Home > Menu > Information > Club Matches

We have recently added more information under each of the links to confirm the eligibility of handicaps.

While the IG generated page is under:

Home > Menu > Competitions > Matches

On the generated page it brings you staright to upcoming matches, but also give the options to ‘View all squads’. Here you can view the various teams, with details about the handicap criteria to be eligible.

2 - Friendly matches need to be organised so that the ladies who cannot play in the divisional matches can play in the friendly matches and gain exposure to competition golf.

Communications have been sent to a number of local clubs in the aim of setting up friendly matches

If you are a member of another club or know a contact of someone who may be able to help set this up, please email us at golfevents@goodwood.com.

One match is confirmed in the diary for 2025, once we have further details, we will communicate to lady member who are eligible to play.

3 - Can we organise 9 hole matches for the ladies that only play 9 holes. Perhaps some friendlies with other clubs.

Match wise, we can absolutely create a 9-hole knockout to give the chance for match play golf over 9 holes.

However, in terms of friendly matches, once we have the 18-hole matches against other clubs in place, we can look at whether it’s feasible to add 9 holes, and if other clubs are happy to travel/ play in these.

Any Other Business

1 - A high number of members are not receiving the Members Newsletter. We need to post a news item explaining how ladies can sign up to opt In to marketing emails so that the ladies can receive the newsletters. Some ladies were unaware that the monthly newsletters were so detailed and informative.

We have since posted a news item, detailing how to sign up to received our newsletters.

Click here to find out more.

2 - Can we include Pauline Seniors contact information into the new lady members welcome email? Maybe one to speak to IRG about?

We are happy for this to happen; we are in the process of updating the new member email template. We will liaise with Pauline ahead of this being sent to confirm it explains the communication correctly.

3 - Why don’t we have ladies handicap index on both courses? Is this something we are willing to look into or to just leave it as is?

We appreciate there is a high demand from this from those who were present in the meeting, and can therefore see, if the change is made, it would make more ladies confident in playing in the mixed club events. Therefore, we are looking into the logistics of making this change. As it would involve re-printing all scorecards in circulation a lot of planning will be involved so it will take some time but we are looking into all options.

4 - Ladies would like to go some big events as an away day, such as the Women’s Open? Is this something we can organise? Izzy and Zhane can host?

This is something we would like to do. However, it will need further research to confirm the logistics.

A good starting point would be the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth or potentially a more local Women’s Open, if the AIG Women’s Open returns to a venue closer to us this would be ideal.

5 - The Downs 14^th Tee box plates were in the wrong location. These should never be on the second tee box. Tim has already actioned this and spoke to Rob Dyer.

The tee plates for the 14^th have now been moved to their correct location on the forward tee box. There has been a communication through the Downs greenkeeping team to ensure they are all aware of the position the tees should be placed.

Should there be any human error involved through habit, please do ensure you make us aware, or email through to golfevents@goodwood.com for us to rectify the situation.

6 - Both the Downs and Park toilets not in a great state.

A daily checklist has been added to The Park on course toilet, ensuring there is accountability throughout our team on checking and cleaning the on-course toilets. Through this, we can look to maintain the standards and each member will only need to leave it in the same state they found it to ensure it is a useable facility. We are still looking into the best way to improve conditions within The Downs Course toilet.

7 - The Downs course need more ball washers

Greenkeepers have recently ordered six additional ball washers, and will work with the operations team to ensure we are keeping them topped up and useable.

8 - Ladies would like their own area. It was suggested that we close of the putting green for ladies only and provide complimentary tea and cake.

Unfortunately, without further charges there is no way to reserve any exclusive areas across The Kennels or Bar & Grill.

For most member events when food is involved, the cost of the food has been subsiding by Golf At Goodwood by around 20%, which is a commitment we have made to acknowledge the increasing costs of everything. Where possible to do this, we have been, however to offer complementary offerings of food is outside of our ability.

9 - Ladies would like to see more mixed golf events, competitions and knockouts with a social aspect after the events.

As of 2025 we have introduced a mixed knockout, viewable as the Summer Mixed Greensomes Knockout.

We are still in the process of planning out other events to encourage mixed golf and find the best way to gain engagement.

10 - Ladies have asked if GAG can get a list of men who can volunteer to play in the mixed events with the ladies.

In the past we have had pages on Intelligent Golf such as the ‘Looking for New Playing Partners’. However, this no longer fills its purpose and is in need of a revamp.

More research is needed into logistics of this and what it will look like.

11 - GIG events/sessions the same time as the school runs or inconvenient times. Can we provide more flexibility for these sessions/events? And perhaps have some on the weekends?

Craig has already started making changes to the GIG events, we can work together to incorporate this feedback.

12 - Parking issue at the Academy/Park course. Matt answered this in the room that we are doing something about it and are aware of the issue.

This is something we have brought to the attention of the Goodwood Leadership Team and they are aware that it needs addressing immediately. However, it is an estate wide issue and the board are discussing the best course of action.

13 - Park shoe machines not up to standard – Tim has asked Will to get some brushes to improve this in the short term while we look into a long-term solution.

A recent update has been posted on Intelligent Golf:

We are currently looking at a variety of options to improve this, as we are aware that the current shoe cleaning machine falls below the required standard. 

One of the current solutions we are looking at is to move this facility to the area in which the horsebox is located. The benefit of moving it to this area is we would potentially be able to tap into the water source, ultimately benefitting the facility as a whole.

To aid this process in the short term, we have added a shoe cleaning brush to the area, which will aid golfers when it comes to cleaning their shoes.

We hope to provide a further update soon.

14 - Can we make the Park more women friendly, some of the carry’s to fairways are too long and makes it very difficult for the ladies and in particular those who are new to golf or don’t hit the ball very far.

As of the Summer 2025 we aim to have launched our blue tees at the Park Course, yardages ranging from 79 to 325 yards. While this is only over the front 9 holes, it should bridge the gap for those who find the Park too challenging.

15 - Can we run more rules sessions right after a competition day.

While we appreciate the last few sessions have only been attended by ladies, they are open to both men and ladies so we will still add them to alternative weekdays, however a greater emphasis can be on Thursday afternoons. However, members are always welcome to head into the shop and ask the team questions after a competition and either the member or staff can forward to the events inbox to be answered.

16 -Re-introduce the new members/handicap initiative events to help new members gain a handicap and also meet other members.

These events were successfully run throughout Summer 2024, and they will return again for Summer 2025. The aim is for them to return from April.