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1100+ Women Ready To Throw for the 2014 Women's Global Event

1100+ Women Ready To Throw for the 2014 Women's Global Event

Friday, May 9, 2014 - 15:38

Two years ago, the PDGA created and hosted one of the most important new events for the sport of disc golf, the Women’s Global Event. It took months and months of planning, but when it was all said and done it was deemed a huge success. 636 women from 24 states in the USA joined forces with women in Norway, Finland, and Australia to compete in what we now consider one of our most cherished events.

On Saturday May 10th, we get to experience it all again, with record breaking numbers. The total number of registered players is already well over the 1100 mark and that number will only grow, as many of the events are allowing day-of registration. Multiple nations are once again involved for the 60+ PDGA sanctioned events. We are extremely proud to have great nations like Germany, Finland, Canada, Japan, and Australia join in on the fun!

How It Works

On Saturday May 10th, women from all around the world will play two rounds of disc golf at their local participating Women's Global Event. Scores from the first two rounds of each participating tournament will be submitted by the individual tournament directors and rated by the PDGA. These round ratings will be totaled and averaged to determine the player's "Global Score." For the rounds to qualify, the event must include two rounds and have at least three ratings propagators playing on the same course layout each round for ratings to be calculated as accurately as possible. The Global Scores will be updated throughout the day to determine our Women’s Global Event Champions. The winner in each division will receive a memorable trophy to go with their global victory.

Women Disc Golf Stats

This event serves as a fantastic way to help promote the sport of disc golf to a demographic that we would love to see more of out on the courses and playing in tournaments. A recent study put together by Nicholas Blahna #53133 shined some light on some very interesting statistics involving women playing the game today. The study was done for a Quantitative Methods class at the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota’s Schools of Graduate & Professional Programs. The study in its entirety, titled "Women's Participation in Competitive Disc Golf", is available in PDF format on PDGA.com. Let’s take a look at a few of the outcomes.

The chart below is based on the entire history of the PDGA's membership data. At the time the study was done, there were roughly 64,000 members Crunch the numbers and that means of the roughly 64,000 members we’ve had here at the PDGA, only about 5,400 of them have been women. That’s one heck of a gender gap for a sport growing at the rate ours is. It’s something we are constantly striving to find an answer to, and the WGE is one of the ways we are trying to combat this trend.

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As the sport continues to grow at an incredible rate, the number of active PDGA members grows with it. As you can see in the chart below, also taken from Nicholas’s study, the level of growth in active members for men compared to women is noticeably different. “Despite appearances, the growth of the population of women members in the PDGA is increasing. While the numbers associated with active women PDGA members seem to be experiencing linear growth, the population of active men seems to be experiencing exponential growth.”

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Linear growth certainly isn’t a bad thing. It’s still…well, growth. However, what we are striving for is to get the women members, and disc golfers in general, increasing along a similar mathematical curve. There is no simple answer. No one formula that will solve this problem. We will continue to push forward and lead the fight to get more and more women throwing discs out on the courses. And of course, we are always open to suggestions and ideas.

Most of the PDGA staff will be helping out at the International Disc Golf Center this weekend at The Magnolia Open, a WGE C-tier run by your PDGA Membership Manager, Sara Nicholson #33589.  If you have photos from your event feel free to tweet them to @PDGA or simply tag them with #2014WGE. Cheer on your favorite women disc golfers from around the world tomorrow and don't forget you can check on the results as they come in on the WGE results page