Kerry Pardoe (Lady Captain for 2024 at Caversham Golf Club) is a passionate golfer who has been playing the sport for ten years. She started with golf lessons in July 2014 and quickly developed a competitive spirit. Kerry is known for her determination and willingness to improve, often playing with better players to challenge herself. She is currently the Lady Captain at Caversham Golf Club (Reading, UK) and aspires to become the Club Captain in the future!
Katie and Liz caught up with Kerry Pardoe–Lady Captain for 2024 at Caversham Golf Club for a lively conversation about her experience in golf and role as Lady Captain, and the changing landscape of golf clubs and the need for traditions to evolve.
Katie: We are so excited to talk about Kerry's journey into Golf from Property Lawyer to Fairway slayer!
Kerry: I'm a property lawyer and therefore when looking at a role like Lady Captain I’m also looking at things with a business mindset which is positive.
I think we're quite lucky here in the way the club is embracing the issues business women face in finding time to play golf. We have competitions here where the working ladies can play on the weekend. I've been through lots of different forums where a lot of clubs still only do midweek competitions and won't let the ladies play on the weekend.
Liz: I find it astonishing. It's 2024, people. Yes! Keep up!
Kerry: You know, we have a competition on a Tuesday for ladies but we also run the same competition on the weekend. We have a medal on a Tuesday or a medal on a Sunday or a Stableford on a Saturday. I think as a working woman, when you decide you're going to do a sport that you need to play in the week (like golf), you have to love it enough to consider using a weekend or a holiday day to do it. Some women with family commitments for their 25 days a year find that hard. So in my role I’m enjoying the inclusivity of the club management in making this easier for women.
Katie: So if that’s your mission, how are you achieving that–what kinds of things are you offering?
Kerry: Well, this Saturday, I've organised two taster sessions for ladies in the area. They're both fully booked and the message is loud and clear “come and get into golf”. They're all different age ranges. None of them are retired. We wanted to encourage all kinds of ladies to come!
Some people from my office, some people with their children, (I say 'children' even though they are in their 20's! You know. Very young compared to me. Haha!
But, you know, they're bringing them up to try and get them into golf. They're going to go and have a lesson with Joe the Pro, just to see if they can hit the ball, see how they like it!
Then I'm going to bring them down to the putting green, have a little fun putting competition so they can see if they can win a prize.
Liz: That’s brilliant Kerry–people have such pre-conceived ideas about golf don’t they?!
Kerry: I think people have the idea that it takes too long to play golf because they see the pros on the telly and it's taken five or six hours. But then that's because they're playing for millions of pounds.
Liz: Maybe we can all find the time if we’re playing for that kind of money eh?
Katie: Exactly! We don't have to take five practice swings. We just get on one practice swing and off we go!
Kerry: I want ladies to think, “actually, I can just come and do nine holes if I want to.” We've got a great nine hole loop here. That's a couple of hours out on a Saturday until they're more confident, and they've got more time. There needs to be more out there for working ladies to be able to get into golf without having to feel guilty about family. So that needs to be bite-sized time-wise.
Katie: A subject for another day that one–I mean why does the woman have to worry about the length of time she’s out playing golf–darn sure men don’t!
Liz: We should discuss it on our podcast!
Kerry: On top of the 5 day and 7 day memberships, we also do an Academy membership for members just wanting to start their golfing journey. That’s a really great initiative!
Katie: It's an obsession, isn't it?
Liz: More like a drug! I was so addicted initially!
Kerry: Yes! If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't be doing it. You know, there are times when I can't play, and I get physical withdrawal symptoms! Even my holidays now are primarily golf.
Katie: We talked about what the role of Lady Captain was and how maybe it was not so much done “wrong”, but that there were things that maybe held them back. Could Lady Captains in the past have done more? Or do you think the barriers were just too high?
Kerry: I think the barriers were so high. It's always the ladies, ten paces behind. You know... “Ladies should be seen and not heard, less spoken to”. Even signposts saying “no women”. Some of the ladies here remember, when this club wouldn't allow ladies to play before 11 o'clock on a Saturday!
Katie: I know that’s shocking! I just wrote a column on this and ladies were telling me that their club still only allows women to play at 10.30, 10.40 and 10.50 tee time on a Saturday. And if by the Wednesday that's not booked up, then it goes back to the men. I was so shocked! Have we just gone back in time?
Liz: The strange thing is what with the menopause and all that, a lot of us older ladies are up early! Why not get us out at dawn?
Kerry: Absolutely I'll go and play with my husband at 7:00 or 7.30 in the morning. We're back home by lunchtime so you can still get stuff done in the afternoon.
Liz: So what message do you want to get across to ladies?
Kerry: That golf is fun! A lot of people forget that. You know, some people think, “oh God, it's so serious; I've got to do this; I've got to do that”. No! You haven't. You've just got to enjoy it. And if you enjoy it, you'll get better really quickly.
Liz: Have you got some good fun socials planned for this year?
Kerry: The Captain's weekend, Ladies Captain Day, a Charity day on 5th June for Prostate cancer where men can have a PSA test before playing and their partners can come and chat about how prostate cancer will affect them as well. We have 2 Charity days in August to raise funds for ourr chosen charity called New Beginnings. They are in Caversham and they help the homeless and economically challenged. It's a cafe and a safe place for homeless people to go to get a hot meal. They have a food bank. They have families that go there who—although they work—still can't afford to feed enough food to their children and their families.
Liz: I love a marketing event! I've got an idea! A shopping trolley down the fairway with players throwing in bags of rice and tins of beans to give to the charity!
Katie: Liz will come up with all your marketing ideas. She'll send you a list! Haha!
Kerry: A couple of times during the year, we're going to put up, like you say, a trolley or a big box where members can donate... Because the members here are fantastic! Last year's charity raised a phenomenal amount. People are so generous. And we have two charity days now in August. Normally you only have one on the weekend. But our five day members—the seniors—wanted one in the week so they could come too. So we're doing one on Wednesday to accommodate.
Myself and a couple of other lady members do all the baking of the cakes for the cake stall. My firm actually gives me a day off to do all the baking for my charity!
Around August, we're planning an event called “Pimm's O’clock”, where we will take the ladies that have been learning in the academy and they will go out and play with the full membership ladies. Like a buddy system. A fun competition!
Liz: What's would you like your legacy to be once your year is complete? What would you like to have ticked off your list of things that you've achieved?
Kerry: I'd like some of the ladies that are coming along to the taster sessions to join the academy. We've got some ladies last year that did. We don't put any pressure on them that they have to score. So they can have fun. So they don't feel obligated to keep hitting the ball. If they want to pick up, let them pick the ball up.
I think ladies in the past have maybe been a little more “prim and proper”. This is not something you're going to get from me, I'm afraid! I don't do “prim and proper”. You can sense my energy and I want to pass on that energy to women who want to try golf but are put off by thinking it’s stuffy. There are so many young golfers coming through now and now the fashion (like FAMARA) is really making it more accessible and fun for women to look good when they play!
On my golf trip with the club, on the first tee at 10 o'clock in the morning, I cracked open a tin of gin and tonic. And they were like, “what are you doing?” So I said, “well, I'm not driving all weekend, so that means I'm on holiday!” Haha!
Katie: That’s great–that means you'll have changed the story, you've changed the direction that those women are going in.
Kerry: it is actually nerve wracking for someone to turn up on their own to take up a space that is particularly male-dominated. So you say, “this is me! And I want you to come to my Pimms O'clock” or my latest taster session. And then when you do the taster session, I will video that and put it out there with them all laughing and having fun! There are ladies that want to do it, but are much quieter, much more shy, and they feel more comfortable surrounded with ladies of similar abilities. And I think they feel safer as a group rather than an individual. We're lucky to have the course that we have to offer a space for everyone! I'm proud of that.
Every ladies' captain creates a yearbook about what their year's been like, what they've done, and this gives inspiration for the next Captain. I've just been through the ones from the past years, seeing how they've changed.
I’m really proud to have this position in the club and really looking forward to 2024!