Women have been involved with golf since the earliest known dates of the sports creation, and none more so than Mary Queen of Scots in the 16th Century. A huge  presence in the game at that time, Mary was an exponent of both billiards and golf and it is said that two weeks after her second husband Lord Darnley’s murder in 1567, Mary was seen playing golf on the links at Seton Palace near Edinburgh.

It would be 300 years before the start of organised golf in Scotland and by the end of the 19th Century, women’s golf was gathering momentum.

Although the first known women’s golf match involved the Fishwives of Musselburgh in 1811 it was not until 1867 that the first women’s golf club, the Ladies’ Golf Club of St Andrews, Scotland, was formed and the following year the women’s game moved “south” with the formation of the ladies section at the Royal North Devon Club. Despite having their own club at St Andrews, women were not allowed to become members of the R&A until 2014, some 450 years after Mary Queen of Scots’ pioneering days on the links around Edinburgh.

The women’s game went international in 1888 when it was introduced into Sweden and, following the formation of the Ladies Golf Union (LGU) in1893 the first first Ladies’ British Amateur Championship was held, followed by the US equivalent two years later.

The leading women’s team event, the Curtis Cup was launched in 1932 and in 1934 Helen Kicks made history as the first female  professional golfer after she signed a contract with the Wilson Sports Goods Company.

The period after World War II saw a growth in the women’s game with the formation of the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) in the USA by 13 professionals in 1950, succeeding the Women’s PGA that ran from 1944-49. It was not until 1973 that the women’s PGA in the UK was founded, 21 years after the formation of the English Women’s Golf Association.

Like the men’s game, women’s golf also has its Majors but has one more than their male counterparts with the addition of a fifth one, the Evian Championship, in 2013. Also, like the men’s game, the women professionals have season-long Tours with the LPGA Tour in the USA and the LET (Ladies European Tour) being the leading ones.

There are also women’s team competitions, like the Solheim Cup and Walker Cup, but details of these are not included in this section. They can be found in the Team Events section which includes both men's and women's team events.