Wales Golf Help Launch Welsh Summer Of Women’s Sport

Wales Golf has helped launch the Welsh Summer of Women’s Sport, while also unveiling a Give Golf a Go campaign for the sporting stars to try. 

The event was a celebration of the biggest summer for women’s sport in Wales, including the AIG Women’s Open becoming the biggest female sporting event ever hosted in Wales. 

Wales Women footballers have qualified for the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 next month, while the Wales Women’s rugby team will be in the Rugby World Cup in England starting in August which is expected to be the biggest ever event in women’s rugby. 

Glamorgan Women are enjoying success in their first season, while Welsh Fire will be hoping to go one better than reaching the final of The Hundred last season, and Cardiff Dragons have just finished their first season in the revamped Netball Super League. 

Wales Golf got representatives of those sports together to Give Golf a Go at the Vale Resort, training base for Wales Women rugby and football as well as the home of two golf courses. 

They included cricketer Bethan Gammon, rugby players Sian Jones and Molly Reardon, netball players Elle McDonald, Leah Middleton, KC Chawane, Wales Golf squad member Harriet Lockley and Natalie Powell, the first British female judoka to reach the world number one ranking, who now works for Wales Golf. 

“This was a great opportunity to turn the focus towards women’s sport in Wales because this really is an incredible summer of action coming up,” said Hannah McAllister, Wales Golf chief executive. 

“Golf is central to that with the AIG Women’s Open bringing the world’s best players to Royal Porthcawl, in the biggest female sporting event ever hosted in Wales. 

“So while the world’s best will be coming to Wales to play golf, Wales’s footballers will be going to Switzerland to compete against many of the world’s best in the Euros, their first ever major championship. 

“Then Wales’s women rugby players will be closer to home in England at the Rugby World Cup, which is expected to be the best supported women’s rugby event ever. 

“We are hoping this summer will be a chance to promote golf to women and girls and boost the numbers playing. 

“One of the beauties of golf is that someone can excel in another sport but still take up golf and learn to play. 

“This launch was a chance to give players who excel in their own sports the chance to have a bit of coaching, practice on the range and then go out onto the course at the Vale Resort to have a bit of fun. 

“It was nice to see players from different sports interacting and enjoying giving golf a go.” 

Wales rugby scrum-half Jones is a keen golfer and enjoyed the experience. 

“It is different with female athletes in Wales getting together, talking about our experiences and striving as female athletes in Wales," she said.

“I started playing golf when I was 10. It is difficult to balance playing two sports, but playing golf always takes your mind off playing rugby and it is nice playing with my Dad and my brother. 

“We have just had the off season, so it has been a case of balancing the training they have given us, but a few rounds of golf have crept in.” 

Wales hooker Reardon was trying golf for the first time. “It is a fresh start, so it has been good and nice to get a new sport in the bag, I need a few more practices,” she said. 

“It is nice to get other women’s insights, we all play sports, it is a busy year for women’s rugby so it is nice to get a day like today up and running.” 

The AIG Women’s Open will be played at Royal Porthcawl from 30 July – 3 August 2025. Tickets to watch the world’s best golfers in action are available to purchase from £20 at aigwomensopen.com with children under 16-years-of-age free when accompanied by a paying adult.   

For more information about the AIG Women’s Open, please visit www.aigwomensopen.com.