Golf, Growth, and Community: Amaya Athill’s Vision for Black Women on the Green

Amaya Athill fondly remembers competing in a regional competition in St. Kitts as a junior golfer.

Antigua, her home country, defeated their longstanding sporting rival at the adult, senior, and junior levels. For Athill, the highlight of the competition wasn’t the victory; but the celebration that followed.

“As Black people and Caribbean people, we are ‘extra’; we are dramatic. So, the way that we were getting on, even as a junior, just being ‘extra’ with our celebrations, was something I won't ever forget,” she said.

As time passed, Athill had to determine where golf would fit within her career aspirations. With the collegiate golf route in the United States looking to be too costly, she left the Caribbean at 16-years old to pursue a law degree in the U.K. She thought that she had walked away from the sport.

Over a decade later, she has devoted her life to expanding the golf community in a new country and has been recognized as the Warren Crosbie Community Leader of the Year by the PGA of Canada for her efforts.

Golf: Part three

Athill “briefly dabbled” in the sport when she finished law school, competing for Team Antigua in 2013 and 2014. After a short period, a busy life in law once again pulled her away from the course.

“[Golf] part two was, ‘I'm stuck into this new law career, but golf is kind of still there,’” she said.

“I don't even remember what clubs I was using at the time.”

In 2019, Athill moved back to the U.K. to work in - what she thought - was her dream job. Just a few months later, the COVID-19 Pandemic struck.

After six months of isolation in her apartment, Athill desperately needed to get outside. The golf itch was still there. She picked up a set of clubs and started playing at her local municipal course, Brent Valley.

Almost immediately after getting back into golf, Athill noticed something that would inspire her work moving forward. One of few Black people – and even fewer Black women – who golfed at Brent Valley,

On one of her first visits, Athill was interrupted at the hitting nets by a man looking to improve her swing.

“It's that patronizing feeling,” she said. “There will be people who actively think they know more than you and can come over and tell you what to do when nobody asked you.”

“I felt so intimidated. As somebody who had always played golf and never felt intimidated walking up to a pro shop, I suddenly started feeling like, ‘Whoa. What the heck is this? Am I meant to be here?’”

Less than a year after she started playing again, Athill was inspired by a mentor who had been running “taster classes” for Black women to learn how to play golf. She connected with a Head Pro at a London, U.K. course and organized one of her own.

She called friends who called friends and posted on social media, and 20 women showed up. Some had tried golf at a driving range, while many had never picked up a club.

The golf professional at the club led the lesson, running the women through different skills, and Athill watched as they figured out what to do with the clubs in their hands. After the class ended, there was a discussion period where participants could ask questions and share their experiences.

“What was distinct for me was stepping onto a golf course for the first time and feeling isolated. But then this contrast of seeing this group of women come together and do it together,” she said.

As great as it was for those who took part in that first taster class, Athill said it changed the trajectory of her life. She quickly realized that she could apply her civil litigation lens to expand the reach of golf and to break barriers.

“This is true to the work that I want to do,” she said. “I want to work on racial equality. I want to work on issues of folks not having access. I want to be able to empower people with information and help them step into a space more confidently. It felt so seamless.”

To do this, Athill decided to move to Canada.

A New Home

Arriving in Canada in April of 2022, Athill elected to leave law to become the manager of First Tee Ontario with Golf Canada, where she still works today.

Athill was working to improve access for junior golfers with First Tee, but her passion with working with women remained. To learn how to do this in a new country, she had to do what she did in that first taster class: sit back, watch, and learn.

During her first year in Canada, Athill connected with communities in the Black golf space, worked to understand the industry and learned where the gaps were in the golf world.

Athill uses “confidence” to describe her second year in the country. She began by organizing simulator meet-ups with women from the Caribbean Canadian Amateur Golfers Association (CCAGA). These sessions were filled with laughter and conversation, but a common denominator among the women was the feeling of isolation as Black women in golf.

The only one in the room who had a less isolating experience with golf was Athill, the lone immigrant, who envisioned how things could and should be; the way she grew up in Antigua. She saw a better future for Black women in the sport and worked for it. She created Black Women Golfers (BWG) in late 2022 to break barriers within the sport.

In 2023 she became a PGA of Canada apprentice professional and, that summer, began rolling out “intro to golf” clinics and other sessions through BWG.

“We’d invite twenty to thirty women to a golf course, and we would host different types of skills. For example, half swing, full swing, and putting,” she said.

In its first year, Brampton’s Lionhead Golf Course became the go-to course for BWG events, and Athill began leading sessions alongside other golfers she’d recruited to coach.

According to Athill, 2024 was the year of explosion for BWG. It hosted multiple “intro to golf” clinics, learn-to-scramble events, nine-hole rounds, indoor simulator sessions, and an end-of-year party.

“We’re super connected as a group, super excited to be together,” she said. “I now have a volunteer committee. I’ve got five amazing women who are all beginner golfers, too, that want to help and have helped in 2024.”

Since its inception just over two years ago, Athill said the group has seen tangible results with those participating. Members have formed friendships and are now golfing together outside of events, and they feel more comfortable and confident playing corporate scrambles. The space for discussion remains at the end of every event, where members ask questions and share knowledge to help each other navigate the golf world.

On top of managing First Tee - Ontario and BWG, Athill writes for SCOREGolf, where she works to shine a light on marginalized communities in the sport.

“I couldn’t find a catalogue recording our Indigenous and Black history in golf. I wanted to find those people and hear what life was like for them,” she said. “It's important, because nobody cares about these stories, except us. So, who else is going to do it?”

PGA of Canada Award Recipient

Named the 2024 Warren Crosbie Community Leader of the Year for her endeavours with First Tee -Ontario, Black Women Golfers, SCOREGolf, and more, Athill says she was honoured to be recognized for her work.

“It shows that there is, at least, a celebration of a space that’s being created for a specific demographic,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”

As she acknowledged in her acceptance speech, however, these spaces for marginalized communities are just blossoming, and “difficult and necessary” conversations are needed to make the sport more inclusive.

Athill said the grassroots communities – like BWG – are actively working towards a better future in the sport. Now, it’s time for the wider golf world to buy in.

“I want to see more investment into diversity in those [development] pathways,” she said. “There needs to be something that has these folks buying in at each one of these levels [beginner, intermediate, and advanced] to allow kids that don't have the opportunities to be part of that.”

Ultimately, Athill has one goal. “I want to live in a world where, when I walk onto that golf course, black women are participating like it ‘ain't no thing’,” she said.

But achieving that goal isn’t simple. Athill said that outside of barriers like cost, representation, and access, there is a historical exclusion of minorities in the sport that persists to this day.

This coming year, Athill hopes to put more clubs into the hands of black women by keeping BWG costs low, partnering with affordable and accessible courses, and working to get discounts on equipment – which the group provides at events.

“I feel like there is a lot of demand in the space. Black women want to learn the sport,” she said.

Looking back on that joyous day in St. Kitts as a junior, Athill became emotional.

“I feel really proud of what we do,” she said. “I think about the end of each event when everybody is high fiving each other and having a good time, or when somebody makes a putt and how they celebrate with each other. I can't believe we created that here, and I didn't see it for my life. I didn't know that this is where it would be.

“I didn't know what to expect moving to Canada three years ago. This is beyond my wildest dreams.”

You can follow Amaya here, and you can follow Black Women Golfers here.