It's going well now for Swedish women's golf. Eight players are participating in the Chevron Championship, the year's first major, which is being decided in Texas this week. Madelene Sagström and Ingrid Lindblad have also won the last two LPGA tour events.
But there's no golf boom on the girls' side in Sweden.
Quite the opposite.
The total number of golfers in the country increased to record levels last year, but among girls and young women up to 21 years old, the trend is negative.
Only 9,451 players are in this category, compared to 66,024 boys and young men.
In the long run, it's not sustainable; we need to increase the volumes. There's awareness about the issue, and the coaching staff and PGA had this as a theme during their major conference, says Ola Lindgren, who succeeded Katarina Vangdal as national team captain in March.
21 young players per club
But above all, local clubs need to get better at recruiting, according to Lindgren. One club that has succeeded in doing so is Landeryds GK in Linköping, with the country's largest junior activities – not least among girls.
Last year, we had 51 percent girls in "golfkul", the entry level for 6-8-year-olds, says Linda Forsberg, pro and junior manager at the club.
At Landeryds GK, the spiral is positive. Many young people in the activities guarantee many training sessions and competitions – with many friends to share the experiences with.
At clubs around golf-Sweden, the situation is often the opposite. If you distribute the golf-playing girls across the country's 444 clubs, it's an average of only 21 players per club.
I think you can turn the spiral around at many clubs. But it's a long-term effort and can't be solved from one day to the next. It will cost both time and engagement; here, we have a group of enthusiasts working on this daily, says Linda Forsberg.
"Members for life"
She also mentions better collaborations with other sports, schools, and nearby golf clubs as ways forward to succeed.
Such investments will mean some costs when the players are younger, but then they can be members for life. And that's exactly what the clubs want.
Another person working to get more young girls to start playing is golf influencer Johanna Johnson. For a couple of years now, she has been driving golf channels on social media like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, targeting girls as her main audience. She also arranges training camps and boot camps for young girl golfers.
Many girls don't quite find their own context within golf, says Johnson.
I started playing when I was seven years old; I trained and competed a lot until I was 16-17 years old. Then I had to choose. I had all my friends in handball, but only two single friends in golf. Then the choice was obvious.
"Lost many"
Madelene Sagström, trained at Enköpings GK, recognizes herself in the description of how it can be as a young girl golfer.
She expressed herself on the topic at a press conference before this week's major tournament outside Houston:
I've been a bit of a loner and haven't been bothered by being alone. But I think we've lost many girls because they didn't have any friends.
Total active golf players: 525,789.
Men (seniors): 337,592.
Women (seniors): 112,722.
Boys (up to 21 years old): 66,024.
Girls (up to 21 years old): 9,451.
Source: Swedish Golf Federation's statistics from 2024.
