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GIRL
POWER
Girl Power
Women Share Passion for Game
Many high profile women share a passion for
golf and a desire to encourage other women
and girls to get involved in the sport.
For them, the game presents a competitive
challenge, a social network, great exercise and an
opportunity to spend quality time outdoors with
family and friends. Paul Prendergast reports.
Interview By Paul Prendergast
N
Photos by GETTY IMAGES
etballer Sharelle McMahon’s
Roots in the game of golf run
deep. The nation’s second
highest capped netballer is
connected to the game by
birth and marriage.
McMahon’s introduction to the
game came via a well-worn rite of
passage for many, running amok
as a child around the local club at
Bamawm in country Victoria while
her parents were out playing.
“Mum and Dad played every
Sunday and everyone who played
used to bring their kids down,”
McMahon said.
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“We would just terrorise the
clubhouse and then we’d go out and play
a few holes when they finished. We used
to spend hours and hours there.”
For McMahon and sister Kate, the
time on the sand-scrape greens at
Bamawm endeared both to the game
over the longer term. While Sharelle’s
sporting pathway took her to the
very heights of netball, Kate became
an outstanding golfer and is a scratch
marker in Ballarat, recently breaking
the course record at the club.
A veteran of 118 Tests, McMahon
retired from netball at the end of the
2013 season and gave birth to her
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second child, Ruby, in late 2015, for
the time being forcing a hiatus from
golf and just about any other time
consuming activity
“Over the last few years, I’ve
barely played at all. My son is three
and with one fairly keen golfer
(husband Brek Mansfield) in the
house, it’s pretty hard to have two.
Now I’ve got another baby so it’s
certainly put the brakes on things.
“I play a bit around Latrobe Golf
Club (in Melbourne) and when we
go home for Christmas, we play up
there a bit. Spending time together
on the golf course with my family is
special time. We’re spread out across
the country a little. So getting back
and having that time together on the
golf course is always great.”
“Growing up in the country and
moving to Melbourne when I was 16
to play netball, the things I love about
being on a golf course are the open
spaces and the peace you can get. I
love that aspect of golf and it kind of
reminds me of being home a little bit.”
Like all elite athletes, McMahon
has high expectations of herself
when playing sport and would go
out to play golf once or twice a
month and expect to play well every
time. “And I could do that maybe
only a couple of times a round. So
that used to be a bit frustrating for
me,” she laughed.
“It’s quite a different competitive
challenge for me because you’re
competing against yourself, whereas
I’ve spent most of my time playing
netball with a direct opponent that
you’re trying to beat.
“I’ve always liked and enjoyed
challenging myself, so that was
another great thing for me about
golf, that personal challenge and
trying to push yourself on that level.
“Golf is a unique thing in a way
because you have that time to have
fun with the people you’re playing
with as well. I love that social aspect
of golf.”
Fifth generation winemaker
Stephen Henschke of the acclaimed
Henschke Cellars in South Australia
is an avid golfer but he has long
conceded that his wife andHenschke
viticulturalist, Prue, is the golfer in
the family.
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DRAGAN RADOCAJ.
GIRL
POWER
Sharelle McMahon shoots for goal
“IT’S QUITE A DIFFERENT COMPETITIVE
CHALLENGE FOR ME BECAUSE YOU’RE
COMPETING AGAINST YOURSELF”
Among the vines: Prue Henschke
Prue Henschke is as passionate
about the game now as she was
when she first plucked up the
courage to enrol in junior clinics at
the Glenelg Golf Club in Adelaide
during her first year of high school
at age 12.
“I went along with my hickory shaft
sticks and got involved,” she said.
“Golf clicked with me mainly
because you weren’t fighting to
get into a team. I played a lot
of tennis and was trying to get
into the hockey team at school
and didn’t make it. So golf took
that place as my winter sport.”
Prue, who maintains her Glenelg
membership to this day, progressed
quickly into a junior squad. This
allowed her access to the course on
Sunday mornings in addition to
regular coaching clinics.
“I ended up representing South
Australia in the Burtta Cheney Cup,
which was a competition between
Victorians and South Australians.
“(Former LPGA player and
Women’s Australian Open
champion) Jane Crafter and I were
in a junior squad together. I was
talking to her just the other day and
hope to catch up with her when she’s
home for the Women’s Australian
Open. We still keep in contact,
which is lovely.”
Henschke grew up during what
she calls ‘that dreadful period’
when male and female golfers were
segregated and often girls weren’t
allowed to play in competitions at all.
Without going into too much
detail Henschke revealed that on
more than a few occasions she
dressed as a boy so she could play
in junior competitions. That meant
playing off the white tees alongside
the boys. She admits it was tough
on her handicap but that’s how
dedicated she was as a youngster.
“It’s really important, I think,
that kids don’t see that sort of
pretentiousness in golf anymore. It’s
much, much better now,” she said,
“I play once a week at
Tanunda Pines (in the
Barossa Valley) and there’s
no segregation at all. It’s a
great atmosphere, an amazing
social event when we all get
together. We have a great group
of women and guys and we
just have such a great time.
“The benefits (from playing
golf) are amazing. You get to travel
and meet people, you learn to be
diplomatic; to present and to
congratulate.
“You take the
whole etiquette of
the game on board
and it develops a
lot of social skills.”
Brisbane-based
TV presenter and
all-round bundle
of energy, Sam
Squiers, splits her
time between
a myriad of
activities when
she’s not providing nightly sports
reports or hosting the Nutri-Grain
Ironman and Ironwoman Series
for Channel Nine and Fox Sports.
Sharelle McMahon
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GIRL
POWER
Sam Squiers in action
Sixty seconds into a conversation with
Squiers and you quickly form a mental
picture of the Squiers household being
uncluttered by such niceties as lounge
chairs and other creature comforts.
The daughter of a winemaker in her
hometown of Orange, NSW, Squiers’
idea of relaxation is to pour herself into
marathon running, surfboat rowing,
softball, cycling, netball and basketball
among a list of frenetic pursuits.
Squiers’ introduction to the
game was beating balls for fun at
the Moore Park Driving Range in
inner Sydney, but she has taken her
involvement up a notch since she
and husband Ben moved to Brisbane
a few years ago.
True to form, when Squiers takes
to the fairways these days, it’s at the
challenging Brookwater Golf and
Country Club layout.
“I was a late starter to golf.
I played state softball and I
used to love swinging and
hitting, so I’d go down the
driving range now and then.
“When I was working in Sydney, all
the guys used to get invited to corporate
days but the girls in the office never
did. There was a side of me that wanted
to learn to play because the guys were
doing it and liking it.
“I just hated that we weren’t doing it
because we were girls, so that was a little
bit of a motivation for getting into it.
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IN ADDITION TO
HER TELEVISION
CAREER, SQUIERS
IS THE FOUNDER
OF SPORTETTE,
A WEBSITE
SHOWCASING
WOMEN INVOLVED
IN ALL ASPECTS
OF SPORT.
“I started to get lessons up in
Brisbane and started to get better
and to love the game even more.
After work, we often head out at
night to the range, which I love.
It’s a great way to de-stress after a
hectic day before going to bed.”
In addition to her television career,
Squiers is the founder of Sportette, a
website showcasing women involved
in all aspects of sport. Her passion for
stories about female participation is
abundantly clear and she has a strong
belief that women can be the answer
to some of golf ’s participation issues.
“Every year, you see participation
figures in golf clubs on the decline
because people are time poor and
need to spend time with their
families. If the families aren’t
involved in golf, then golf is the first
thing that will be sacrificed.
“However, if you get your wives or
girlfriends and people my age into
golf and they can understand it and
love it, then you can spend time with
family if the women are involved.
Men are then less likely to give the
game up, so I think a quick answer is
to get more women involved in golf.”
Squiers concedes she finds it hard
to find women in her age group who
play golf and when she does, “I try
to cling on to them and go out and
play.” she laughed.
It’s certainly a situation she’d like
to see improve given women are
participating in a range of other
outdoor activities in droves.
“I hope a lot of women don’t think
that you had to be involved in golf as
a kid to be able to play. If you want to
pick up a club at the age of 30, that’s
not too late to pick up the game.
“It’s never too late to
pick up the game.”
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