MOST days you’ll find Kaye Hosking at Beerwah Golf Club, cleaning woods and irons, sorting them into sets, making phone calls, directing golf professionals and club officials, organising schedules, and introducing dozens of ladies to the joys of golf.
Dale Williamson, golf and membership manager at the Sunshine Coast hinterland club, describes her as a ‘force of nature’ and says without her, Beerwah’s Ladies Pathway Program would never have got off the ground.
Kaye, who says she is fanatical about golf and about ladies playing it, designed the program herself, and launched it in mid-2024.
She says it’s based on teaching women the fundamentals of the game, showing them how to play, and gently encouraging them in a friendly, stress-free environment.
It involves a three-step progression over three months, from Beginners, to Advanced Beginners, to becoming nine-hole social players. At the first two stages, they attend clinics, heed the advice of PGA professionals, and play four-hole Ambrose-style events.
Finally, they get to play social golf over nine holes, the games timed to finish when the ladies competition matches conclude – members and newcomers then mingling in the clubhouse over drinks and snacks.
Kaye felt it was important that women doing the program felt supported throughout the entire program, and she said the backing from Beerwah Golf Club and its members had been crucial in her participants remaining committed.
“We had 39 go through the Beginner session this January,” she said. “Thirty-five of them progressed to the Advanced Beginners, and 70% went on to play the nine-hole social golf blocks,” she said.
Kaye Hocking (standing, second from left) joins program participants after a round of golf at Beerwah.
A total of 87 women have so far completed Beerwah’s program, with 27 of them going on to become Club members.
Kaye appreciates the help of PGA professionals Rob Foster and Ash Nisbet who attend every clinic.
Though there is a membership waiting list for men at Beerwah, if you’re one of Kaye’s graduates your position is secure. As well, you’ll receive a $500 discount on your nomination fee.
And everyone who completes the program is able to play nine-hole social golf for three months at a discounted rate.
Kaye says the women in the program are welcomed by existing members, who responded generously when she put out a request for them to loan or donate surplus clubs to get the newcomers started.
“I was able to put together 25 sets of clubs, which are put aside for the use of my participants,” she said. “I clean them after use, and sort them out so they are a good mix.
“Then by week seven or eight of the program, when they’re thinking about getting their own set of clubs, maybe a nine-club set, we talk to the professionals about getting those sets.”
Kaye’s novice golfers are aged from 21 to 75, and she estimates that 75% had never previously played the game.
“I’m passionate about women getting into golf,” Kaye said. “They’re wives, mothers, carers and grand-mothers who have given so much to others throughout their lives.
“Now it’s time for them to do something for themselves. It’s about empowerment and passion,” she said.
Kaye attends most of the sessions, held on Wednesdays and Sundays, and acknowledges that running the program takes time and effort.
“But I love it,” she said. “I get so much more out of it than I put in. They’re all my girls.”
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