{"id":8429,"date":"2021-09-30T15:20:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T19:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=8429"},"modified":"2021-09-30T15:39:41","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T19:39:41","slug":"first-womens-match-play-championship-tees-off-in-st-johns-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/first-womens-match-play-championship-tees-off-in-st-johns-county\/","title":{"rendered":"First women\u2019s match play championship tees off in St. Johns County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tiffany Merlo Phelps
mail@floridanewsline.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 14 years, Mark Berman has been on a golf journey with his daughter Hannah as she played golf at the junior, high school, college and elite level (pro). While it was exciting and rewarding, one glaring discrepancy became very clear to him, especially as Hannah went pro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou get to the end of college, and all of a sudden you have been lured by this dream and this promise to be able to play golf professionally \u2014 but for men versus women, it is significantly different,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you get out of college, you are faced with very few opportunities as a woman golfer to grow and to get better.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider this: On the women\u2019s side, there is the LPGA, the Symetra Tour (2019 total money leader $124,000) and three developmental tours with average purses of $30,000 with $7,500 in average wins. On the men\u2019s side, there is the PGA Tour, the Korn Ferry TOUR (2019 total money leader $565,000) and more than 30 developmental tours with an average purse of $100,000 with $16,000 in average wins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is an age-old disparity. It is because there were always so many boys\/men playing golf. It was never really focused on girls and women playing golf until about 10 or 12 years ago when the industry basically said we are focusing on getting girls to play golf,\u201d Berman said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Hannah first began playing, 1,200 young women between the ages of 14 \u2013 18 were ranked by the National Junior Golf Scoreboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow there are 5,000 ranked. And this does not include girls under the age of 14 and college age women,\u201d said Berman. \u201cThere was never the need until all of sudden there was this explosion of girls (the high school classes of 2014 \u2013 2018). They are now starting to graduate college, and that is the explosion. Now we have unbelievable talent, unmatched, unparalleled, innumerable talent. They are absolutely good enough to play in the LPGA or just a year or two away from it, but they need that developmental time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against this backdrop, Berman, managing partner of MediaShare Consulting Group and in the golf industry for 25 years, created the first ever professional women\u2019s golf tournament in St. Johns County and the first in Jacksonville since 1976. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PXG Women\u2019s Match Play Championship will take place Oct. 26 through Nov. 4 at the World Golf Village. It is under the umbrella of the Women\u2019s All Pro Tour. It is one of only three US women\u2019s developmental tours for women and the only one which provides a pathway into the Symetra Tour. It is open to all professional players who are not LPGA players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was my brain child, my dream. I pitched to PXG to be our title sponsor, and they said absolutely,\u201d said Berman. \u201cI am fond of saying that I\u2019m not doing this for Hannah, but I am doing it because of her.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty-four \u201crising star professional female golfers\u201d are set to play in the back-to-back tournament series, which features one 54-hole stroke-play tournament the first week at King & Bear, followed by a Match-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Play event the following week at Slammer & Squire. Berman credits his sponsors for their generosity, which enabled the event to be free. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, though, this is not just about golf. That\u2019s why Generation W, a Jacksonville Beach-based women\u2019s thought leadership organization, will host the \u201cLinks to Leadership Summit\u201d during the event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis event goes beyond the golf course,\u201d said Donna Orender, founder and CEO of Generation W. \u201cLinks to Leadership will be energizing, informative and inspirational. It is designed to create the opportunity for the players and guests to learn from each other, develop personal leadership skills and provide collective connection skills.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah Berman, a 2016 Ponte Vedra High School graduate, is excited to participate in the event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so proud of my dad. He cares about women\u2019s sports more than anyone I know,\u201d said Hannah, now 23 and an associate golf professional in Colorado and at the Sawgrass Country Club on a seasonal basis. \u201cWomen are worth it in sports. There is no reason why we should have anything less than men. Women across the board are worth it and should feel empowered by this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah Berman began playing golf at age nine and became a two-year captain on the Ponte Vedra High School golf team, the MVP and a four-time postseason champion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mark Berman, this event, which will raise money for INK! (Investing in Kids operated by The St. Johns County Education Foundation), is all about creating opportunities for women in golf, in the community and in the golf industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is not a knock against the guys. It is just how do we create more playing opportunities and eventually earning opportunities for these young women so that they can get to their next level.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about this free event, visit www.PXGWMPC.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo courtesy Mark Berman
To help kick off the PXG Women\u2019s Match Play Championship, a Women\u2019s Initiatives Collaboration with Generation W, PXG brought in its marketing team from Arizona and its regionals sales leaders, seen here with the official championship trophy, which was produced by Ponte Vedra Beach non-profit Ocean Sole Africa.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tiffany Merlo Phelpsmail@floridanewsline.com Over the past 14 years, Mark Berman has been on a golf journey with his daughter Hannah as she played golf at the junior, high school, college and elite level (pro). While it was exciting and rewarding, one glaring discrepancy became very clear to him, especially as Hannah went pro.  \u201cYou […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-creekline-st-johns","8":"category-ponte-vedra"},"yoast_head":"\nFirst women\u2019s match play championship tees off in St. Johns County - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CreekLine, Ponte Vedra NewsLineBy Tiffany Merlo Phelpsmail@floridanewsline.com Over the past 14 years, Mark Berman has been on a golf journey with his daughter Hannah as she played golf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/first-womens-match-play-championship-tees-off-in-st-johns-county\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First women\u2019s match play championship tees off in St. Johns County - 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