‘I believe in equality – we have to close that gap’

As one half of golf’s power couple, Kate Rose has spent the last 20 years giving back to good causes and running the Kate & Justin Rose Foundation. But it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that she really made her mark in the women’s game as the driving force behind the Rose Ladies Series. Now she has emerged as one of the most powerful voices in the women’s game at a time when it needs it most.

What inspired you to set up the Rose Ladies Series? Initially, our motivation was to help the players on the LET. I read a piece in the Daily Telegraph, which said they were struggling to find anywhere to play. Meanwhile, Justin was preparing to go back out on the PGA Tour to almost a full schedule of events after a three-month break due to Covid. When we realised the discrepancy of playing opportunities between the male and female golfers, it didn’t sit comfortably with Justin or me. So I contacted Liz Young, the female pro featured in the article, to ask how we could best help. She had mentioned trying to organise a one-day roll-up for the women, but that they needed more financial support. We agreed to do that and I also suggested we could expand to more than a oneoff event. With Liz’s blessing, we set about creating a series of eight, one-day events for the summer of 2020. In less than a week, we announced the full schedule in the paper.

At the time, did you maybe underestimate how much the ladies needed the Series?

It was a real eye opener for us. In all honesty, neither Justin or I had ever really taken much notice of the real problems facing female golfers, given our own commitments. But once we were given a little nudge and we saw what was going on, it was kind of full steam ahead. It was exciting to introduce our concept to exceptional courses like Royal St George’s, which had not yet had the opportunity to showcase their club and their support of the women. Then I was contacted by companies like American Golf and Computacenter, and they matched our financial donations to increase the purse sizes on offer. Each event attracted the highest purse for a one-day women’s event in the country, which totally surpassed our goals and original expectations!

Was it always the intention to bring it back again last year? We intended our support to be a one-off, Covid reactive gesture to show solidarity with our fellow female golfers. We wanted to give the women a chance to play some competitive golf, for a decent purse, at what was really a very difficult time. We also intended to create as much exposure as possible for the women to potentially attract more and other sponsorship. We felt so strongly about the importance of media coverage that when we were unable to secure exactly what we needed, we went back to our sponsorship group and we all agreed to increase our donations to be able to pay for coverage that Sky was able to use.

Does it feel like change is happening in the game now?

There have been huge improvements in the amount and level of events now on the LET schedule. This year the purses were stronger than ever, so we simply held our Rose Ladies Series in April as a springboard, a way to sharpen the tools before the ‘proper’ season began. We’ve also created the Rose Ladies Open, which just took place as part of the LET Access Series. It’s something we’re so excited about and one of many ideas we have to grow the game in this country.

How easy or difficult has it been to attract sponsors?

In the early days, when we were in lockdown and there was nothing on TV, the sponsors found us and that was brilliant. As we’ve grown and added the Access event, our sponsors have increased their donations as well, but it isn’t easy to find appropriate sponsorships, in this country especially. I think that lack of investment comes down to a lack of broadcast coverage, particularly on terrestrial TV where golf is almost ignored.

People may know you because of your association with Justin, but you’ve achieved a lot in golf and the charity sector over the years. Where did everything start for you? Justin and I met when I was working for IMG back in the early 2000s as part of the management team, but I actually found the glass ceiling in golf quite frustrating, and perhaps that’s influenced my passion. Then, when Justin got his PGA

Below Hayley Davis won the third event of the 2022 Series, at Brockenhurst Manor.

Tour card, we moved to America and I very quickly joined the PGA Tour Wives Association. I served on their board for five years, helping to create and organise about 15 various charity outings for the women on Tour each year. It was through those contacts that we came across Blessings in a Backpack, a charity which provides food each weekend of the school year to children in food poverty. This resonated strongly with both of us, and I also set up our own charity as a fundraising vehicle, which continues to provide backpacks of food to more than 5,000 children in central Florida every weekend. To say that we have been able to provide more than 650,000 ‘hunger-free weekends’ to children in need is a source of great meaning for both of us.

You’ve also made a big commitment to junior golf with the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship and the launch of the Justin Rose Academy. Is it hard to keep on top of everything?

It is very, very busy. We love the Telegraph Junior Championship, but five years ago they couldn’t find a sponsor and it looked like it was going to have to stop. Justin is a past champion, so they came to us as a last resort, and we committed to keep it going and sponsor it ourselves. As we have got involved in all these initiatives, the next goal would be to create a pathway from beginners into our Academy Initiative, through to supporting aspiring professionals.

Through our Academy with American Golf, we’ll be giving out 5,000 free lessons over the next year and we’re aiming to bring 18,000 more youngsters into our junior programme over the next five years. They’re big goals, but with the partnerships we’ve made I think we can achieve a lot in growing the game.

You’ve become a voice for change, especially in the women’s game. Was that always your intention, and what legacy are you hoping to leave behind? That was never a goal, but I would never shy away from being that voice if it’s needed, as it’s important to have these conversations. I believe in equality for women and I’m going to speak from the heart. We are not doing this for our own entertainment – we only want to be involved if we can make a difference. We want to do something tangible that is helping to close the gap between men and women in golf.

The Jazzy Golfer takes her title of social media influencer seriously. Best known for her jazzy leggings and equally colourful personality, Jasmine left behind a job in finance to lead the charge in growing the women’s game. Her content has already inspired hundreds of women and girls to get into golf – and now she’s building an online community to tackle some of the biggest barriers to participation.

Growing up, golf never seemed like a sport for me. I used to think it was a sport for old, white men. I didn’t take it up until I went on a family holiday to Portugal five years ago and I got bored driving a buggy around. I can still remember hitting a pitching wedge 10ft from the pin and that was it. I was totally hooked.

I feel like some of my experiences at golf courses were the catalyst for me starting my Instagram account. I had just moved into a different area of London and there was a golf club about a 15-minute walk from me. I went there one afternoon in April and I got whistled at. One guy said it was nice to have some young, fresh meat in the golf club. I was disgusted by it. Golf is such a fun, enjoyable game but based on my experiences, I felt the culture just didn’t marry up with that.

At the time I worked full time in finance, so I could only play golf after work or at the weekend and my local club didn’t make that easy. I wasn’t allowed to play on a Saturday until after 3pm. I couldn’t enter competitions unless it was a Tuesday, which doesn’t take into consideration women who work or girls who are at school. The more I realised that this was happening, the more I wanted to speak out. That’s when I set up my Instagram page and started documenting my journey as the Jazzy Golfer. Within two years, it became my full-time job.

My coolest experience was hitting putts next to Tiger. Another highlight was presenting the Solheim Cup for Visit Scotland and getting to play the course the day before. I’ve had so many amazing experiences, like working at the Majors and being a member of the R&A panel for the Women in Golf Charter. It’s hard to pick just one.

I’ve always felt like I should be doing more to promote the women’s game. We all should.

I don’t necessarily feel like we’ve got a problem getting people into golf, but the real issue is keeping them in the game. When I was working at the Women’s Open at Carnoustie, people were coming up to me, asking for advice on how they can find other women to play golf with. That got me thinking about how I could bring female golfers together in a safe, fun and welcoming environment. That’s how the UK Women’s Golf Community was born.

We had our first pilot event last November. Without any publicity, we went from having five people the

Below The Jazzy Golfer (second right) and friends at one of a growing number of organised events. first week to 20 people the second. There were only 19 bays available, so we had people doubling up on the range. That was really inspiring.

I set-up the UK Women’s Golf Community (facebook.com/ groups/ukwgc) in January this year. To date, we already have nearly 2,200 members. It’s grown so much that we’ve got 12 locations across the UK where women and girls can regularly turn up to driving ranges or golf courses, wear what they want, pay somewhere between a fiver and £10 for a bucket of balls and a drink and, most importantly, meet other women and girls.

If I’m honest, I never expected the community to reach so many people so soon. We haven’t got any funding, so each session is being run by volunteers or pros who work in golf. We call them our ‘hub heroes’ because without them, it wouldn’t be possible. We’ve had children as young as six turning up and saying it’s really helped their confidence.

What’s really encouraging is that we’re starting to see a willingness from clubs to provide better access and opportunities for women. We’ve got around 40 venues on the waiting list to host meet-ups and that fills me with confidence that we’re going to get where we want to be.

We hosted a couple of meet-ups at Muirfield and I found out that a lot of women in Glasgow have already created their own Whatsapp group and are playing together all the time. That’s thanks to our Facebook group. I’d love to get to the stage where we have an app – similar to Parkrun – so people can find events locally and meet up with like-minded people.