History
Golfers Recognizing Opportunities for Women, Inc. was founded in 2007 and was approved as a 501c3non-profit organization organization two years later in July 2009.
Mission
The mission of GROW- Golfers Recognizing Opportunities for Women, Inc. is to train and provide developmental opportunities for women through a mutual interest in the game of golf. We target minority golfers to bridge the divide and lack of representation of women golfers. We also provide organized training to various affinity groups, allowing their membership to have exposure to the game.
The GROW training curriculum consists of 8 hours of golf training that is taught by a professional golf instructor. Training sessions are designed for various levels of learning – beginner and intermediate and class size, various formats, including Lunch & Learn sessions, private lessons or group lessons, exclusive sessions for an organization’s membership, etc.
Participants are from a broad range of public and private industries, representative of corporate, civic, and entrepreneurial backgrounds. They can apply through a GROW member, their company, collaboration through a non-profit agency, or self-interest.
Direct Message About the History of GROW from the Founder
President & Founder, Tracy Pointer
In Spring of 2006, while volunteering at a golf tournament, I was in conversation with several players who suggested that I should be playing, and they were right. I coordinated charitable contributions and awarded grants for my employer. My role in Community Relations included coordinating attendance at various special events including luncheons, dinners, and golf tournaments. But at golf tournaments, I noticed something was wrong with the picture. I hardly ever saw women playing and very rarely minority women. I NEVER considered playing myself, although I had slight interest in the game and even owned golf clubs (from a conversation about eight years prior).
I recall seeing only one female player at the tournament that spring day. She was an African American woman, but I had a feeling that there were several other women like me who had a desire to play, but just had not really taken the initiative to learn the game. I had a brief discussion with a community colleague who told me of a few other women that were interested in learning to play golf. I met with one of them for lunch and while driving back to the office, it suddenly occurred to me that the whole conversation focused on GROWing and networking. I am typically creative with acronyms and that's where the name GROW (Golfers Recognizing Opportunities for Women). I am also passionate about growth, as I had purchased a desk plate for my home office a few months prior that read GROW!
From there, we exchanged dialogue, had great chemistry, and said we'd invite a friend or two for lessons. A logo was drafted, we tossed around ideas about scheduling lessons. Lessons for Fall 2006 were not scheduled. However, in early 2007, at the first information session, there were six attendees. We met at The Vinny Links Golf Course and then immediately had 3 lessons. The first one was offered April 24, 2007.
After those lessons, the word spread, and more ladies were interested. I hosted a Networking Mixer at my home on July 12, 2007. I called it Clubs and Cocktails. At that event, there were 21 ladies. How impressive! From there we went on to have a second round of 3 clinics and we were working on our game. Some even began taking private lessons and playing in scrambles.
By the end of the second year, there were over 60 members. In 2009, I began the application process for GROW to be recognized as a 501c3 non-profit organization.