The R&A Women in Golf Charter has been taken up in droves across Australia, with 116 clubs and facilities becoming signatories and pledging to enable more women and girls to maximise their potential at all levels of golf.

Australia's smallest state is punching well above its weight, recently reaching the 20 mark of clubs and facilities that have become signatories when Wynyard Golf Club in the state's north-west pledged its allegiance recently.

With only 77 clubs and facilities in the entire state, 20 signatories is an encouraging percentage take-up, but Golf Participation Manager for Tasmania, Simon Weston says this is just the beginning.

"It is something we're very proud of and it's something that we're very thankful and grateful for our clubs for making that commitment," said Weston.

"There's more work to do though. We want more clubs to buy into the vision, but it's been really good the last three years.

“We are working towards 30 signatories as our next milestone.”

Wynyard was proud to be the 20th signatory, and Women's Club Captain Maria Bull says the club is ready to embrace the change.

"We'd always been interested in getting more women involved and girls if possible, playing the sport, but also being on the board and in other roles. Everyone's really supportive here," said Bull.

"We nearly have 50 women as members, which we're really pleased with for the size of our club.”

This year Wynyard is also celebrating its 100th year, and Bull says it is a honour to become a signatory in such a significant year.

"We're having a laidback sort of celebration in October for people to come to, but hopefully have things like a tree planting and we're also looking at putting a time capsule in the ground," she said.

ABOUT THE R&A CHARTER

The charter was launched by the R&A six years ago and since then more than 1600 clubs and organisations in the sport have become signatories.

The charter aims to:

• Strengthen the focus on gender balance and provide a united position for the golf industry

• Commit national federations and organisations to support measures targeted at

increasing participation of women, girls and families in golf

• Call on signatories to take positive action to support the recruitment, retention and

progression of women working at all levels of the sport

• Set individual targets for national federations for participation and membership and

annual reporting of progress

• Develop an inclusive environment for women and girls within golf

R&A Martin Slumbers has described the charter as “a strong statement of intent from the golf industry that it has to change and a commitment on behalf of all of us to take measures designed to achieve positive change for women, girls and families”.

Golf Australia encourages Australian clubs and facilities to sign and offers a service to help clubs reach the goals and targets that need to be met to become a signatory. More than 100 clubs and facilities have so far signed on.

For information, click HERE.