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LPGA-USGA Girls Golf: Developing Self-Confidence

By: Hailey Tucker - Jul 16, 2019

“Men are handed the world,” said Juliette, regarding her enthusiasm for the chapter. “If we give girls that extra push, and get them working on themselves and their vision, I think they will have a strong impact on this community.”

Getting more girls on the course can be easier said than done, but the SCGA Junior Golf Foundation launched the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf of Southeast LA chapter to accomplish just that. With over 100 girls participating in the first six months, the chapter has been able to find fun ways to engage with girls both on and beyond the course to get them golfing.

The program is uniquely led by a Girls Leadership Team, headed up by recent high school graduate Juliette Ruaux.

“Men are handed the world,” said Juliette, regarding her enthusiasm for the chapter. “If we give girls that extra push, and get them working on themselves and their vision, I think they will have a strong impact on this community.”

Juliette is an SCGA Junior scholar and will be attending Occidental College in the fall where she will compete on the women’s golf team. Juliette also loves the fact that golf brings girls together and creates friendships.

“It’s all about connecting with everyone,” she said. “It’s important to know that you don’t have to be at the top of the game to play, or especially to come here and participate in our activities. This is a safe outlet to make new friends and have fun without the pressure of practicing all the time.”

Girls Golf of Southeast LA hosts monthly outings that always include a social aspect as well as a golf activity.

“It’s important that we make golf fun for these girls by creating opportunities for them to enjoy themselves and make friends off the course, too,” said site director Jennifer Seislove.

The activities are always free to attend and open to girls of all ages and experience levels. Off-course activities have included creating vision boards, a positive body image and self-confidence course and a college night. Scholars and mentors play a huge role in the monthly events. Scholar alumna Samantha Rocha led the self-confidence session and scholars from Harvard, Cal Baptist University and Whittier College, among others, were on site to lend their advice to their younger counterparts at college night.

“We’re focused on giving our girls role models who understand them,” Seislove said. “It’s important to have someone to look up to on and off the course.”

LPGA-USGA Girls Golf is the only national junior golf program that specializes in providing girl-friendly environments for juniors to learn the game of golf. By making the game fun, girls learn more than just stance and swing, they learn valuable life skill like confidence and perseverance.

The Foundation isn’t stopping here though and plans to introduce even more girls to the game of golf through an additional chapter in the San Fernando Valley.

There are always opportunities for you or your club to get involved with girls golf programming. From volunteering at an event to hosting girls at your club for an outing, if you’d like to learn more about how you can help inspire the next generation, please email Jennifer Seislove.

Member Outings

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Latina Golfers GC

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LA County Fire Golf Association

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Inspiring Girls at Pechanga Resort KORE Pro-Am

By: Brian Robin - Jun 13, 2019

As many of these wonderful things happen, this started by pure happenstance.

Three years ago, right out of the blue, Great Oak High School girls’ golf coach Rachel Reif received a call that the KORE Pro-Am at Journey at Pechanga GC-- located right across the street from her campus -- needed scorers. It didn’t take Reif 30 seconds to not only say yes, but see the possibilities such an opportunity presented.

Happening every April, right after the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, the KORE Pro-Am is an annual invitation-only pro-am for guests of Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, Calif. Each foursome is paired up with a LPGA player, who relishes the relaxed, fun atmosphere set amid the picturesque Journey at Pechanga course.

And going along for the ride is a Great Oak High golfer, who gets to spend a day picking the brain of one of the best players in the world. In turn, the program serves as a fundraiser for the high school’s program that helps send the team to more tournaments around Southern California.

“This affords us the ability to add to our schedule and play those people we’re going to see at the end of the season,” Reif said. “We’ve gone the deepest we’ve ever gone as far as individuals and as far as team play, I know this works.”

It works for the teens as well in terms of relationships. Senior Kaila Higgins attended the LPGA event at Wilshire Country Club as a guest of one of the players. Her boyfriend caddies for Ryann O’Toole and Higgins spent the practice round inside the ropes, walking, talking and learning.

“It’s crazy. You learn so much from this opportunity and from that opportunity,” Higgins said.

At this past April’s KORE tournament at Journey, Higgins’ mouth dropped to the floorboard of the golf cart as Cheyenne Woods hopped in next to her.

“The pros are wonderful about that. They exchange phone numbers, they text back and forth and when we were at Palm Desert for a tournament, they’re texting the girls,” Reif said. “They’ve really taken them under their wing because they know, hey, that was them five, six, seven, eight years ago. They know how much of an important role they play in the mentoring of them.

“So I take my hat off to the ladies out here. They’ve really done a great job about taking my high school girls and all the high school girls that come out here under their wing and having that relationship. Creating one, basically. You can’t get this experience anywhere else.”

The KORE Pro-Am is an annual event hosted at Journey at Pechanga with the next event slated for April 2020.

“It’s crazy. You learn so much from this opportunity and from that opportunity,” Higgins said.

At this past April’s KORE tournament at Journey, Higgins’ mouth dropped to the floorboard of the golf cart as Cheyenne Woods hopped in next to her.

The KORE Pro-Am is an annual event hosted at Journey at Pechanga with the next event slated for April 2020.

The Truth About Sun Protection

By: Marcela Smith - Jun 13, 2019

Now that we’re finally enjoying some Southern California sun, we should be thinking about protecting our skin from the sun’s damaging rays. When I was younger I really didn’t think much about the long-term effects of sun damage, but now that I’m in my 50’s I can see the sun spots on my face, neck and hands, not to mention the risk of different types of skin cancers that can actually be life-threatening.

I hear from at least one friend a month who has to undergo painful and sometimes disfiguring Mohs surgery to remove a growth from their face or neck. Mohs surgery is a procedure to treat carcinoma. The surgeon will remove small amount of the growth and while you wait the labs tests the skin for safe margins. If cancer cells remain the surgeon will go back in and dig deeper a second and third time, and as many times (and as deep into your skin) as necessary to produce a skin sample that has clear margins.

So we lather up with sunscreen, thinking we’re doing the right thing, but most of us aren’t aware that many sunscreen products might be causing other harmful effects to our bodies. I was shocked to learn that many chemicals absorbed into our skin from the sunscreen lotions we apply can actually be measured in blood samples and breast milk. In May, The Journal of American Medicine reported results from a randomized clinical trial found avobenzone, a very common ingredient in sunscreen, appeared in the bloodstreams of the study participants in as little as six hours from the first application of the product. In fact, three studies reported significant associations between exposure during pregnancy and birth outcomes.

The FDA is proposing that the products in our sunscreens be tested for safety, including whether the ingredients absorbed into our bloodstream can cause unintended health problems such as endocrine disruption or cancer. The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment, reports that the two most popular sunscreen chemicals, oxybenzone and avobenzone can interact with human sex or thyroid hormones. One study found that adolescent boys with higher oxybenzone measurements had significantly lower total testosterone levels (Scinicariello 2016). While the research is still inconclusive, it certainly gives us a reason to consider mineral sunscreens and protective clothing as possible alternatives.

Solutions

The EWG has a website that enables you to type in a brand of sunscreen and learn their rating on its safety and effectiveness. It may be prudent to check out all the products in your home and do a bit of research to make sure that you and your family are using the safest and most effective products while you’re out on the course, the beach, or in the car. The studies have shown that titanium and zinc oxide appear to be the safest active ingredients, so look for those while shopping for sunscreens.

Girlfriends Guide To Golf Top Picks

1. Aveeno Baby Continuous Protection Sensitive Skin Broad Spectrum SPF 50 comes in a stick formula and I keep one my purse to roll on my neck and face throughout the day as needed.

2. Coola Mineral Body Sunscreen Lotion SPF 50 is fragrance-free and goes on light. Note that some of Coola's other products do contain Avobenzone, so check the label.

3. Coola Mineral Liplux Organic Tinted Lip Balm contains moisturizer and 30 SPF and gives a shimmery look as it protects your lips. I use the color Summer Crush.

Wear It Well

We can also wear sun protective clothing to help screen out the sun’s damaging rays. I spoke with Kevin Knight, owner of SanSoleil an active clothing brand, who shared some insight into two basic types of fabric protection.

“Some companies create UV fabrics by using a topical “plastic” spray to create sun protection, which will wash off quickly. SanSoleil’s fabrics protect against 99.5% of the Sun’s UV rays and are made of technical fabrics with sun protection embedded in their fibers, which do not wash out.”

Knight went on to say SanSoleil also infuses microscopic Jade particles in all its fabrics to create a cooling effect. “Jade has been used for thousands of years by Chinese miners to keep themselves cool, and it doesn’t wash out.”

I’ve actually found that wearing long sleeve sun protection shirts feel much cooler when I’m out on the course than I would have thought and I love the colorful prints from SanSoleil.

As I mentioned earlier, most of my friends’ skin cancers are on their faces and necks, so wearing full-brimmed hats is a much better option than just a simple visor. I really like the Seabird Sport Watership hats by Imperial Hats for their light weight fabrics and full coverage. And I love the large bill visors from XXIO, they even come with a matching scrunchie.

Even though they might not be the most stylish choices, the safari and “duck-style” sun hats, along with mineral sunscreen and long-sleeve shirts will help keep you protected while you’re out on the course this summer.

Known as the Rules Diva, Marcela found that most recreational players aren’t interested in reading the entire Rules of Golf book, and prefer learning by “doing.” Marcela provides On-Course Rules Experiences where participants learn golf rules and strategies in real life scenarios, which helps them gain more confidence, lower their scores and have more fun. Marcela blogs on all things golf at GirlfriendsGuideToGolf.com

References:

https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/report/the-trouble-with-sunscreen-chemicals/

https://www.sungrubbies.com/blogs/news-articles/90201091-spf-vs-upf-what-is-thedifference

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2733085?guestAccessKey=e1ad4492-fe70-4f53970dd63bfa1cdccd&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=05062019

Imperial Hats: https://www.imperialsports.com/product/wssea-seabird-sportsun-protection-hat/

XXIO visor: https://www.xxiousa.com/us/accessories/xxio-ladies-cap/MWXC.html?dwvar_MWXC_color=Navy