They Didn't Build Just One League. They Built Two.

Imma need to come clean about something you may already know, or feel, but doesn't get talked about enough.

Starting a women's golf league is hard. Like, wildly HARD.

How do I know? I was a founding board member of the Orlando chapter for the Ladies Executive Golf Society, and I started 1930Fore as a beginner-friendly golf league myself. 

Trust me when I say the fear of nobody showing up is real, because you're asking women, busy women at that, to try something that's felt intimidating and a little gatekept for as long as we can remember. 

And the honest to goodness hardest part? Knocking down doors and elbowing your way past a boys' club that's had the run of the place for a century. Let me tell you about exhaustion!

So when I tell you that Par 4 The Girls didn't just pull this off once, but did it in TWO cities in under a year? Yeah. We absolutely need to chat about this today.

Two cities. Not even a year in.

Par 4 The Girls launched in June 2024. And instead of building one league and calling it a win (which honestly would've been plenty), Richelle built two full chapters, one in Charlotte and one in Charleston.

That's not luck, y'all, and definitely not a fluke. That takes something the women in these areas were clearly hungry for, and someone willing to do the uncomfortable work of actually building it.

It was never really about the golf

Here are my honest thoughts on what made Par 4 The Girls click, and what I think grew it so fast.

Golf was the reason everyone joined in on the fun, but it was never the whole point. It's the intentional social circle that formed around it.

Their calendar is constantly full of clinics and scrambles, but they've also added wellness events, dinners, and social outings. Whole gatherings that have nothing to do with your swing and everything to do with the women who attend.

Golf gets these ladies in the door, and everything around it is what turns a group of determined women golfers into an actual friend group. Pretty genius, if you ask me. It becomes a whole community that sticks long after you've loaded your clubs back in the car.

"Less gatekeeping, more girlfriends"

That's directly from them, not me, and I think it’s an extremely powerful, to-the-point mission statement we need to take note of.

They took the old boys' club mentality, the pressure, the stiffness, the random rules you're just supposed to inherently know, and flipped all that shnizz on its head. Less pressure, more laughs. Less gatekeeping, more girlfriends. Same old-school game, completely different feeling around it.

So who's it for?

Every level, top to bottom. Been curious about golf forever but never had the nudge? This is it. Brand new? Perfect. Already love the game and just want better company to play it with? They saved you a seat.

You can drop in to any monthly event across either chapter with zero commitment to feel it out first. And if you fall for it (I have no doubt that you will), the website's Membership tab walks you through joining your local chapter or going Member at Large.

The bottom line

Richelle cleared an impossibly high bar not just once…twice. In two cities that women continually show up for.

It’s proof of exactly how many women were waiting for a place like this.

Find them at par4thegirls.com and follow @par4thegirls to catch the next one in Charlotte or Charleston.