Inaugural Delaware High School Girls Golf Invitational a success

An excited crowd of over 30 middle and high school girl golfers enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day at the inaugural Delaware High School Girls Golf Invitational, held Oct. 5 at the St. Anne’s Club in Middletown.

The event came about because of rising interest in encouraging the expansion of scholastic girls’ golf in Delaware, where high school golf is a coed sport. In recent years, girl golfers constituted about 15% of total players across all schools. Most other states field separate-sex golf teams.

The First Tee Delaware and the Delaware Women’s Golf Association stepped up to sponsor the event, a DIAA requirement for out-of-season athletic activities. Participants were charged $10, with the rest of the greens fees and other costs borne by donations to First Tee and DWGA.

The day began with a warm-up session and putting/chipping clinic by Becky Dengler, a longtime LPGA/PGA teaching professional from Wilmington.

“It’s interesting,” she said. “Unlike the boys, the girls need a lot more hand holding and help. We want to make sure we get them comfortable. A lot of the girls are pretty new, don’t know what to do, don’t know what club to hit, how far they go, or anything. We’re trying to make them comfortable as they start with golf.”

Dengler continued, “On the putting green, I love to have them take one ball and chip and putt out, so they’re re-creating play. They go for a score of three or better. I had two girls here today, the first time they did it they both got a two. I said, ‘That’s your new goal.’ As you know, most golfers would love to get a two up and down on any hole. It’s just so much more applicable to playing golf versus when people dump a pile of balls and chip 10 balls. When would that happen out on the course? You’d have to whiff 10 times,” she laughed. 

Some players stuck with putting and chipping practice. More experienced golfers played 18 holes or nine holes in groups of three, while others played a nine-hole scramble.

Ellie Walls, an Indian River High School sophomore, won the 18-hole competition. Maddie Fisher of Most Blessed Sacrament school in Ocean Pines, Md., took second, while Sussex Academy senior Sarah Lester-Stranick took third. 

Tina Turi, a ninth-grader at Cape Henlopen High School, also played the 18-hole contest. She hopes to make the Vikings’ golf team next spring.

Grace Sweeten, a Sussex Academy sophomore, won the nine-hole event. Jordynn Chambers, an eighth-grader at Beacon Middle School, finished second. She plans to play for Cape when she reaches high school. “It was fun!” Chambers said after her round.

Yeardley Allen, another Beacon Middle School eighth-grader, also tried her luck.

DWGA president Lesley Corydon said, “We’re thrilled about this event. The DWGA has been around since 1954. Our goal is to make golf accessible to girls and women, and make it fun. 

“We’ve been talking about something like this for a couple years. We have 400 women playing with us. But we’ve seen there just isn’t enough support for girls’ golf. We see a lot of girls that are getting exposure through First Tee, but they’re not getting the exposure through their schools,” Corydon said. 

“We’ve taken a real interest in trying to help get girls’ golf as a recognized sport at the high school level,” she continued. “We are super excited to be part of this event and future events to try to start to get more interest at the middle school level – girls not only enjoying the sport but also enjoying golf with their friends because they’re a group of social creatures. We [hope in high school] they will potentially pick golf over other sports.”

Scott Allen is a PGA pro and First Tee Delaware’s director of development and programs. He said, “We had a short amount of time to promote the event, and we still were able to get a good group of over 30 girls to attend, with a mix of girls from all three counties. Several girls were heading to an afternoon golf event at Baywood Greens and others were heading upstate to an open house at Ursuline Academy, but they wanted to make sure that they could participate to show their support for the cause.  

“After the competition, it was nice to see many of the girls sitting together and talking and connecting,” he said. “It’s hard to be the only girl (or one of just a few) on a high school golf team. Many of the girls told me that they really enjoyed being able to meet other girls from around the state that they’d seen at tournaments and connect with them. Several asked when we’d be doing this again. First Tee and the DWGA will be working to put together more events like this in 2026, spread out throughout the state, to help the girls connect and feel comfortable,” Allen said.

Bob Norris, First Tee Delaware’s executive director, summed up the day: “This is great. I hope this is the start of something big.”