After 27 years of unequal access, Henbury Golf Club transformed its culture in just twelve months — and the golf industry has taken notice.
Henbury Golf Club has been named the winner of the Women in Golf Charter Club Award at the 2026 England Golf Awards, recognition that marks one of the most significant equality shifts in the club’s 134-year history.
The Bristol club signed the Women in Golf Charter in 2024, and what followed was remarkable in its pace. Within a year, full equal weekend course access had been approved for the 2025 season — ending 27 years of disparity during which women members paid the same fees as men but did not enjoy the same rights to the course.
Weekend competitions open to all members increased from five to more than 20. Women gained access to the Captain’s Bowl for the first time. Female representation on the Board and key committees rose from 9% to 30%, with women stepping into senior leadership roles and equality and diversity now embedded across the club’s governance.
The Ladies’ Section became the Women’s Section. Saturdays — once largely off-limits — are now shared and active, with integrated events, expanded roll-ups and six competitions on the traditional Women’s Day now open to all members. Preparations are also underway for Ability Tees in 2026.
“I’m just so proud of everyone”
The momentum behind these changes began with Jill Thorpe, former Women’s Captain at Henbury, who initiated the club’s Women in Golf Charter commitments.
“It’s really special because for 27 years, the women in the golf club paid the same as the men and didn’t have equal access to the course at weekends, equal representation on committees, on governance, and the general running of the club,” she says. “So to actually transform that in a year — which is what we’ve done when we signed up to the Women in Golf Charter — it’s only taken us a year to do it, and the club got right behind it. It’s so impressive to do that so quickly. I’m just so proud of everyone.”
Thorpe is candid about the fact that the club needed an outside nudge to recognise what it had achieved.
The award, she says, validates the effort of everyone who pushed for change. “To get that recognition from England Golf saying you’re doing the right things and what you’ve achieved has been brilliant — it’s just fabulous for everyone at the club who’s put the effort, time and energy into making this happen.”
Culture first, then recruitment
For Thorpe, the sequence matters. Getting the culture right is not just good in itself — it is the foundation for growing the women’s game at club level.
“In terms of getting women and girls into golf, the most important thing is to sort the issues out first,” she explains. “If you want to attract younger women and girls into golf, they can’t walk into a club that’s antiquated. They need one that feels modern, welcoming, and has the sort of culture that would encourage and want women to take part. If we can address those areas, we can do a major drive to get more women and girls into golf — which is our plan for 2026.”
That plan is already taking shape. The Women’s Section has grown to 140 members, representing 21.5% of total membership, with a board-agreed target of 25% by 2030. A taster day programme is in development, a working group is reviewing the Club Captain structure — including whether to move away from separate Club Captain and Women’s Captain roles — and the club intends to use its award profile to attract women golfers who already play.
“We will try and attract women into Henbury who already play golf because we can prove that we’re heading in the right direction and doing the right things,” Thorpe says. “Having won this award will make that a lot easier.”
What Henbury’s win means for the wider game
Henbury’s story is one that many clubs across the country will recognise — long-standing structural imbalances that felt entrenched until someone decided to act on them. What makes the Henbury example useful is the speed of it. Signing the Women in Golf Charter in 2024 provided, as the club put it, the framework and confidence to tackle inequalities that had previously seemed out of reach. One year later, the club had overhauled weekend access, governance representation, competition structures and its own identity.
The 2026 England Golf Award is the formal acknowledgement of that work. But the real measure will be what comes next — the taster days, the membership growth, and whether Henbury can demonstrate that a club that puts women at the centre of its plans becomes stronger for it.
All the signs point that way.
