(From left) Anna Sleeker, co-captain Emma Dixon, Claire Akin, Campbell Sullivan, co-captain Grace Anne Haggerty, Eliza Hershey, Adelaide Goolsby, Adele Hudson, Sophia Carter and Coach Janet Phillips of the St. Catherine’s golf team
Janet Phillips has been golfing since she was 8 years old, growing up in South Side Richmond. “I wanted to be outside playing sports like my brothers,” she says. “I surely didn’t want to be in the kitchen.”
After a successful career as a player, golf pro and club owner, Phillips is teaching a new generation of ladies about the game and how to play with the boys — and win — as the coach of one of the few all-girls prep golf teams to compete in Virginia. At St. Catherine’s School, the Saints just finished eighth in the state, placing the varsity team among the commonwealth’s top high school teams.
“We’ve taken the gender element out of the equation,” Phillips says. “Everyone in the state knows we’re for real. This group of gals has really elevated our program and has changed the landscape of high school golf.”
The Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association is home to 16 Division I golf teams. Of those, four are all-girls teams, including St. Catherine’s and Collegiate School in Richmond, Oakcrest School in Fairfax County and Chatham Hall in southern Virginia. In high school competitions, six players represent each team and the four lowest scores are submitted. St. Catherine’s finished its season with a record of 12-4, missing the state tournament by a few strokes. With no graduating seniors, all plan to return next season.
“It’s pretty fun playing against the boys teams,” varsity player Grace Anne Haggerty says. “We don’t really care who we’re playing as long as it’s good competition.”
Because golfers may tee off from six starting points, players of all levels can compete equitably on the fairway. On a typical course, professional male golfers play off the black tees while more experienced men start from the middle white and blue tees. Women drive from the red tees, while seniors play yellow and youth play green, which is closest to the hole.
“We set up tees 15% less than where the guys tee off, and our goal is to have similar clubs hitting into the greens,” Phillips says. “We’re not going to compete in a long drive contest against some of the better guys, but we can be more accurate and hit right in the fairway. We also work on our short game. Our forte is putting and chipping.”
A Unique Approach
Saints player Eliza Hershey says she was a little nervous at first, but that quickly changed with a pep talk from Phillips. “Coach Janet took me aside and said, ‘You deserve to be here — you earned this spot,’ and that completely changed my mindset,” she recalls. Hershey says winning is gratifying when the boys underestimate them. “They’ll think it’s going to be an easy win, and we come out and beat them.”
The nine varsity players say they are grateful to have Phillips as their coach and mentor. “We’re lucky to have a coach who’s actually a golf pro,” Saints golfer Adelaide Goolsby says. “And because she’s very involved with the LPGA, she understands the rules, answers our questions, helps with our golf swing and is very encouraging,” player Emma Dixon adds.
Golf has been so good to me, and this has been an opportunity to give back.
—Janet Phillips, St. Catherine’s golf coach
After graduating from Monacan High School in 1984, Phillips played golf for James Madison University, then professionally for three years. She later moved back home, where she co-owned and ran Windy Hill Golf Course for 32 years. She also started the women’s golf program at the University of Richmond as well as Richmond’s first Special Olympics for golf. In 2006, she was awarded the PGA President’s Award, and the following year, the LPGA named her National Professional of the Year. She agreed to coach the St. Catherine’s team for just one season but ended up staying on for the last 16 years.
“Golf has been so good to me, and this has been an opportunity to give back,” she says. “It’s wonderful seeing these girls love the sport and get really good at it, and we couldn’t do it without Athletic Director Julie Dayton, who knows the value of golf for these players and runs the program like a college.”
Growing the Game
Girls 18 and younger are the fastest-growing sector of golfers in the country. Since the pandemic, millions of females have flocked to the sport. According to the National Golf Foundation, they represent 41% of beginner golfers. Girls represent 37% of junior players, compared with 15% in 2000.
The sport hasn’t always been welcoming to women. Thought to be the first female golfer, Mary, Queen of Scots, was shunned in the 16th century for playing golf too soon after her husband’s death. In the late 1800s, Scottish judge Lord Moncrieff suggested that women drive the ball no more than 70 yards because a full swing was “not particularly graceful.” St. Andrews Links in Scotland, the birthplace of golf and one of the world’s most famous courses, didn’t permit female members until 2014, ending its male-only policy after 260 years.
(From left) Team captains and rising juniors Emma Dixon and Grace Anne Haggerty
The U.S. has faced its own gender-equality problems. The LPGA was founded in 1950 to make golf more diverse, accessible and inclusive for women, and in 1972 Title IX required females to have equal access to sports in schools. Augusta National Golf Club admitted its first female members in 2012 and hosted its first female tournament in 2019. In 2022, LPGA players competed for over $95 million, an exponential increase from $974,000 in 1972.
Golf also pays dividends to women off the course. According to Forbes, CEOs who regularly play golf are paid 17% more than their non-golfing counterparts. In addition, 90% of Fortune 500 CEOs play golf, and 60% of female golfers report playing with clients.
Opening Doors
Varsity Saints golfer Claire Akin says Phillips connects what the girls are doing on the course to everyday life and future success. Her teammate Sophia Carter also sees golf as an important tool for creating business partnerships and is interning at a golf course this summer to start networking.
“Golf opens more doors than any other sport,” Phillips says. “You get to be with your boss or your client for five or six hours, one-on-one. Women who get out there and play get more invitations and get ahead in job potential.”
Not only is golf good for business, it teaches life lessons like hard work, endurance, honesty and integrity. At one tournament, Anna Sleeker’s ball moved a few inches after coming to rest. Though nobody was around to see it, Sleeker didn’t hesitate to comply with rules requiring her to take a penalty stroke. “We take being honorable in golf very seriously,” Sleeker says.
Phillips says many of the players have college aspirations and have the skillset for earning a golf scholarship to an NCAA Division I or Division II school. While the girls think about their futures often, golf allows them to live in the moment, playing one stroke at a time.
“At the end of a long day, it’s really fun to be together and play and get your mind off everything else,” golfer Campbell Sullivan says.
Her teammate Adele Hudson agrees. “It’s really awesome to have that mental break after school and just focus on the game,” she says. “Being with everybody and spending time outside is a gift.”
