Andy DevaneyEngland Golf’s Respect in Golf Pro-Am will make its debut this summer during a landmark week around the Women’s English Open, with The Manchester Golf Club hosting five days of participation, career inspiration, community activity and professional tournament golf from 6–10 July.
It is an ambitious little cocktail, this one. A measure of elite women’s golf, a splash of celebrity Pro-Am sparkle, a proper dose of grassroots engagement and, mercifully, a point that stretches beyond who has the tidiest short game under pressure.
England Golf is staging its first women’s professional championship, with the Ladies European Tour Access Series also central to the week. That alone gives the event weight. But the wider programme is where the story grows legs, puts on waterproofs, and heads out with purpose.
A New Week For Women’s Golf In England
The Women’s English Open is being framed as more than a tournament. Across the week, England Golf and LETAS will bring together young players, newcomers, professionals, partners, industry figures and the local community.
That matters because golf, for all its virtues, has occasionally made itself look about as welcoming as a locked changing room door. This week appears designed to throw the doors open, switch the lights on and let people see there is more to the sport than handicaps, hushed whispers and someone in the four-ball explaining the rules with unnecessary relish.
The opening day will focus on participation and career inspiration, with beginner-friendly sessions delivered by the Golf Foundation and England Golf. LET professionals will also be involved in meet-and-greet opportunities, giving young people and first-timers a chance to encounter the game without feeling as though they have wandered into a private conversation.
Careers, Pathways And A Game That Needs Fresh Faces
One of the sharper elements of the schedule is the Careers in Golf session with a local college. Students will be introduced to the range of roles across the golf industry, supported by a panel featuring representatives from England Golf, a golf club manager and LET professionals.
It is a useful reminder that golf is not only played. It is managed, coached, marketed, greenkept, administered, broadcast, organised and, on certain days, emotionally survived.
For young people considering sport as a career, that breadth is important. The industry needs players, certainly, but it also needs leaders, operators, coaches, media voices and decision-makers who reflect the communities golf says it wants to serve.
The First Respect In Golf Pro-Am Adds Star Power
At the centre of the week sits the first Respect in Golf Pro-Am, a flagship event built around connection, culture and the idea that golf can be competitive without behaving like a museum with bunkers.
The field will include Dame Denise Lewis, Billy Monger, Paul Scholes, Hannah Davies and Brian McFadden, alongside celebrities, influencers and industry leaders. It gives the day an obvious public-facing lift, but the better point is how the event uses familiar names to pull attention towards a broader conversation about access and respect in the sport.
That is where England Golf’s Respect in Golf Pro-Am has its strongest search and editorial angle. It is not simply another Pro-Am with recognisable faces and a buffet afterwards. It is being positioned as a cultural marker within a week designed to connect beginners, juniors, professionals and the wider golf industry.
LETAS Talent Brings The Competitive Edge
After the community and Pro-Am activity, the week concludes with three days of LETAS tournament play. That brings some of the world’s most promising female golfers to The Manchester Golf Club and gives the event its competitive spine.
The amateur-to-professional pathway is often spoken about as though it is a neat corridor with helpful signage. In reality, it can be expensive, complex and faintly brutal. By placing participation, career development and LETAS competition inside the same week, England Golf is at least drawing the map in a more visible way.
For young girls watching, trying golf for the first time, or meeting players during the week, the message is not abstract. There is a route. There are people already walking it. And there may be room for them too.
Why Manchester Matters For The Moment
The Manchester Golf Club gives the week a strong regional setting, and that matters. Growing women’s golf cannot be left to occasional statements from boardrooms or distant championship venues. It needs local visibility, accessible entry points and the sort of activity that allows families, students and newcomers to see the sport at close quarters.
This is where the Women’s English Open can do more than crown a winner. It can help show what a modern golf week might look like when participation, performance and culture are treated as parts of the same conversation rather than separate departments with separate lanyards.
Richard Flint, England Golf Chief Operating Officer, said: “We’re thrilled to be hosting our first-ever Respect in Golf Pro-Am as part of a very special week at the Women’s English Open.
“By bringing together industry stakeholders, partners, players and the wider community, we’re creating a powerful platform to celebrate progress, inspire new audiences and champion a more inclusive future for our sport. This week reflects our commitment to widening access, strengthening the talent pathway and showcasing the incredible potential of women’s golf.”
A Serious Step, With Room For A Smile
The real test, of course, will be whether the impact travels beyond one well-meaning week in July. Golf is excellent at ceremonial beginnings. The harder work is continuity: keeping new players involved, supporting young talent, opening career routes and ensuring the word “respect” survives contact with the car park, clubhouse and first tee.
Still, this is a notable move by England Golf. The blend of LETAS competition, the Women’s English Open, community activity and England Golf’s Respect in Golf Pro-Am gives the week substance as well as optics.
And if the game is serious about becoming more welcoming, more representative and more alive to the people it has too often left standing outside the ropes, Manchester may prove a useful place to start. Not with a whisper, either, but with a proper tee shot down the middle.
