Bruce, I think you're on the right track here - TIME seems to be a huge factor in determining women's recreation choices.
I've never seen a women's BB pickup game on the local courts - and certainly not at my health club - but tennis is like a magnet for older athletic women. And - whether playing singles or doubles - all seem to play for around *two hours.*
Nearly every club in the San Joaquin valley has full tee sheets for the weekly "Ladies Nine Holer" - but I don't see many groups making the turn and continuing on.
My observation is women tend to do things in organized groups - tennis, luncheons and I can hear the power walk/joggers coming down the block, all chatting at once, morning and evening.
But once they hit around 50 - even the jock chicks start to wear knee and elbow braces because tennis is hard on your joints. If golf is going to grow, poaching healthy, athletic wifeys off the courts and onto the first tee seems a prime target demographic.
Gotta say I have been impressed with the number of women who get together at Topgolf - maybe this is the "gateway drug" we've been looking for.
If we just nudge a paradigm shift away from "full sized, 18-hole courses," we'd gather up a lot of gals who otherwise find golf intimidating. And let's face it - said the aging guy, gimping around with a laundry list of broken parts - reprising something like Women's National GC is equally suited to older gentlemen and juniors.
When Neal and I were scratching out different green complex ideas, my first thought was invariably "Okay, how does my Dad or Mrs. Havershire (that was a name I made up one day) going to play this hole?"
Putting the obvious issues of drainage aside, sharply elevated greens - especially ones bunkered to require an aerial approach - eliminates half the women and seniors. In response to a column some years ago, the Lady Captain at Musselburgh hand wrote me a letter that touched upon - amongst other things - her lament that golf courses in America are largely too long and too hard to be enjoyable for women.
Kind of shocking, but I also received an unsolicited note from Michael Bonallack, making similar points. Still not sure how my piece got from the San Mateo Times/ANG Newsgroup to the Kingdom of Fife, but that is another story.
Most women are playing what amounts to a different game than men. That wedge or 9-iron I (used to) zip over the front bunkers is a 7-iron or more for Dad and Mrs. Havershire's group - and the balls don't bite, so into the back bunker or down the slope they go - leaving a downhill chip over and over and over until tennis starts to look good again.
Unless it is Laura Davies, the fairer sex don't carve rabbit pelts with their irons after age 50, so step #1 might not be figuring out where to put the women/senior tees, but how to leave a doable path to run the ball onto the putting surface. Fairways that seamlessly blend into the green - or the fun of playing to a punchbowl - seems a good start.
If I had my way, there would be no "rough" on any golf course - so dial back the maintenance expectation (budget) and give everybody some width to work with. It would speed up play, that is for sure - and eliminate one of the main reasons golf can be discouraging and frustrating for our target demographic . . . . . luring girls off the courts and through golf's turnstiles.
You also don't need 125 acres to build a downsized, nine hole golf course. I remember playing behind two elderly married couples at Old Greenwood in Truckee - typical indulgent, Nicklaus dogshit; ribbons of rock-hard putting surfaces, surrounded by bunkers that would feel at home at WF West.
It was literally painful to watch - and it was also clear all four of these seniors still had solid chops, just not enough bat-speed to solve 18 impossible riddles.
Later on, we saw them having late lunch in the clubhouse - slumped down in their chairs and exhausted. In other words, it was only 3pm and they were wiped out for the rest of the day.
The Lady Captain was only 100% correct - and until we quit building idiotic, indulgently difficult golf courses - and more gems like Deep Cliff in Cupertino (another Clark Glasson) - girls and women will give up the game at roughly the same rate as they take it up.
Obtaining new players and retaining them as steady customers over a lifetime are two completely different concepts. Right now, we are accomplishing neither in America very well.