Golf Vic Vol 60 No 1

Photography: Daniel Pockett Nikki Wilson loves golf. As in – loves, loves, LOVES golf! Ask her what she loves about it so much and her answer is immediate: “It’s everything,” she says. “It’s the mental stimulation – that covers the competitive side of me where I’m able to be competitive – with the game, not with individuals. It’s physically demanding but not so demanding that anyone can’t play. The social aspect is the key one, that’s number one. Making new friends, meeting other people and hearing their stories, having a good laugh. It’s the fresh air, the environment. And when I’m out on the golf course I don’t think of anything else. Life is not always a bowl of cherries for anyone; when you’re out there, you just concentrate on playing and connecting with others.” Such is the level of Nikki’s passion for the game that she wants everyone to have a go. Specifically women and girls, since that’s where she sees the greatest opportunity, both for the game and for women and girls themselves. Somehow that translated itself into Fairway Birdies, a blog she created to encourage more females into the game. Somehow? Well, it was not really in her plans. Nikki’s journey in golf is not an uncommon one. She comes from a golfing family, as many do. Both her parents play and her sister Simone McClure (now Thompson) was an elite player in her youth, representing Victoria in the state team and playing Division One pennant for Victoria Golf Club. But young Nikki wasn’t into it. “I was playing tennis and doing a lot of running, track and field, netball, that sort of thing.” Family conversations at the dinner table revolving around golf seemed boring to her, although she allowed herself to be persuaded by mum Barbara to attend a clinic and made the occasional foray onto the course, if only to be in everyone’s company. The family connection to golf was only strengthened by her marriage to John, himself a golfer. The catalyst to get into golf came, as it does for many women, with the realisation that she wanted to try something new, something stimulating, something challenging, something social. The loss of baby daughter Alana at 13 weeks to SIDS combined with her other two children Jeremy and Hannah starting school created a void that needed to be filled – but with what? Never doubt the power of another mother, in this case her own. “I was just going a bit stir crazy, I needed to get out, and mum just said, ‘right, that’s it, let’s go’ and we went to Ivanhoe and found a clinic and I started there and we had three holes, six holes, nine holes and then I started playing in the ladies' comp on Wednesdays. “And the ladies there were awesome. I’d turn up off a handicap of 45 and played with literally anyone who was in my group and met some wonderful women. They took me under their wing and taught me how to play golf, basically.” What Nikki would later realise was that even though her own entrée to golf was reasonably smooth, that is not necessarily the experience of other women. The mission of Fairway Birdies, indeed of Vision 2025 – Golf Australia’s strategy to raise the participation numbers of females in golf – is to make golf more welcoming and create a great experience. “It has often been intimidating and difficult for women in the past and they’ve walked away,” Nikki says now. “But it can be simple, because you just need an encourager, the encouragement of someone , the inspiration of someone who is an existing golfer.” Nikki was relating this to daughter Hannah on a trip between the Mornington Peninsula and her Kew home in late 2017 when Hannah, channelling the enthusiasm and drive of both mother and grandmother, said: “Well, you should do a golf blog.” By the time they reached Melbourne two hours later, there was up and running a website, an Instagram account, a Facebook page and a funky logo. The response was very positive from family and friends, who all shared Fairway Birdies through their own social media. Great start, but still local. Ah, but then came the power of another medium – television. In August 2018, Nikki was approached to be part of a lifestyle feature on the Sunday morning edition of the Today show, hosted by journalists Peter Stefanovic and Allison Langdon. Nikki remembers being approached by one of the show’s producers. “They wanted to set up a live cross. I was in the car, just freaking out, and thinking, ‘are you serious’ and at the same time thinking ‘if I say no, my daughter is going to kill me,’ so I was shaking my head no and saying yes! Anyway, it was awesome because Peter plays golf and it was quite funny and very relaxed.” The impact was immediate and huge. Over three and a half thousand hits on her website, 70 new subscribers and widespread commentary from around the country on her Instagram page. “I had ladies from Perth, New South Wales, Queensland all commenting, saying, ‘we’re watching you now’, and I didn’t know any of them.” From this came clinics, also not part of the plan hatched in the car with Hannah. “The clinics just evolved. At the start it was just a blog, I was just going to write articles on having a bit of fun, on my passion for golf, but I started getting all these messages from women saying, ‘you’ve inspired me, where do I go’? So then I was doing research and looking for places for them to go.” One of these women was sent to Golf Australia’s Get On Course program, run by Erica Kreymborg, from where she went on to Sandringham. “She met a whole lot of girlfriends there and has already been to Noosa playing golf. It’s all about the integration. They need to be integrated with a group.” Nikki next approached the renowned Bann Lynch McDade group at Yarra Bend, near her home, with a view to setting up “IT HAS OFTEN BEEN INTIMIDATING AND DIFFICULT FOR WOMEN IN THE PAST AND THEY’VE WALKED AWAY. BUT IT CAN BE SIMPLE, BECAUSE YOU JUST NEED AN ENCOURAGER, THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF SOMEONE, THE INSPIRATION OF SOMEONE WHO IS AN EXISTING GOLFER.” Golf Victoria 47