The Future of Women’s Golf Apparel: Fore The Girls

Margaret Wentz graduated from Sewanee in 2022 with an IGS major and a lot of plans for the future. Since she was a kid, Margaret has been surrounded by golf and that caused her to quickly pick it up. As she grew up, the sport became a larger part of her life, eventually gaining her a spot on the Sewanee Women’s golf team. However, one issue Margaret had with the sport when growing up was its apparel. She found that women’s golf apparel was very limited, restrictive, and not very appealing. 

Fast forward to today, Margaret has taken matters into her own hands with her business partner, Cailyn Henderson, and created Fore The Girls. The purpose of this company is to provide more clothing options to young girls and women golfers as well as spread their love for the game. Although, this business idea is not a new one. These two women played golf in high school, causing them to both bond over their frustration with the women’s golf apparel they were given. This is when the idea for Fore The Girls first began. When Covid happened in 2020, that was when the ball really began to roll. By 2022, Margaret and Cailyn had their first product designed. The idea was something simple:  a more comfortable and feminine women’s bucket hat. When I was talking to Margaret about this first product idea, she explained that there are no bucket hats designed for a woman's head so they made one themselves. After months of research, planning, and designing, Fore The Girls launched on March 1, 2023. 

Their product is in eight different golf clubs as well as sold domestically and internationally. Some of the golf clubs include The Boulders Golf Club, Crooked Stick Golf Club, Lancaster Country Club, Bent Creek Country Club, The Bridgewater Club, and Sycamore Hills Golf Club. The company is based in Indiana where both Cailyn and Margaret are from, and their golf community quickly took interest in their product. Since their launch, they have sold hats to 11 countries and 48 states. In March 2024, they are launching a golf dress line. The dress line will be followed by a younger girl’s golf dress line, more hat colors, and summer golf clothing sets.   

While discussing the company and the difficulties of beginning such an idea from scratch, Margaret talked about how the experience at Sewanee helped immensely. She explained that having her IGS major provided her with a better mindset regarding being flexible to ideas. Along with flexibility, her writing skills from Sewanee made her a more organized and professional entrepreneur. Margaret said that one piece of advice she would give to graduating seniors is to go with your gut feeling, your gut feeling is always right. 

Fore the Girls has a bright future ahead of it as a company and the Sewanee community can’t wait to see what they have in store. Margaret and Cailyn have many different project ideas, which they hope to launch soon. Congratulations to Margaret C ‘22 and Cailyn on their entrepreneurial endeavors. Please make sure to check out their website (forethegirlsgolf.com) and follow their Instagram and TikTok: forethegirls_golf!

Interview with Lucy Lamb (May 2023)

Lucy Lamb (C’22) was a member of the Women’s Golf team here at Sewanee for two years. Lucy transferred from Drew University in New Jersey after her Sophomore year, where she quickly made a home at the Course at Sewanee. At Drew, Lucy was named Landmark Conference Player of the Year (2019) and All-Landmark First Team (2018/2019). While on the mountain she received All-SAA Second Team in 2022 as well as tying for Medalist against St. Catherines during the difficult COVID season in 2020-21. While growing up in Locust Valley, NY, Lucy was always exposed to the game of golf and fell in love with it at a young age. 

Since leaving the mountain, Lucy has been striving to achieve a lifetime goal of going Pro. Joining the Women’s All Pro Tour (WAPT) this past year, Lucy has been playing all over the South East against some of the most skilled players in the country and world. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lucy about her post-Sewanee experiences and how her Pro golf journey is going.

After receiving her degree, Lucy moved back to Locust Valley, NY where she worked three jobs to support herself while beginning her new golf career. She began working at a restaurant, a small business and teaching young kids at a local golf course. On top of juggling a busy work schedule, Lucy was playing in as many tournaments as possible and practicing all the time. When I asked her how the experience of teaching kids has affected her game, Lucy explained that teaching has helped her tremendously. She learned more about her game and how to be more patient with herself. However, New York began to get too cold for golf and that is when Lucy made the decision to move to South Florida.

After moving to warmer weather, Lucy continued to work multiple jobs: One at St. Lucie Trail Club and the other at Don Law Golf Academy, again, teaching kids. Being able to practice at these courses as well as work, Lucy explained, was extremely helpful. Her employer's flexibility allowed her to travel as needed for the Women’s All Pro Tour. Lucy has played in six tournaments now, with hopes to play thirteen. 

To give a better understanding of how impressive this tour really is, I asked Lucy to walk me through the tour and her average tournament day. The WAPT is a developmental tour so if a player successfully places in the top 15 or wins a certain amount of tournaments she goes to the EPSON Tour. The EPSON Tour then leads straight into the LPGA. An interesting part of Lucy’s experience, as she told me, is that LPGA players may play poorly and end up back in the WAPT Tour. Lucy said that being surrounded by so many different skill levels was surreal. She said that being able to meet so many “cool and experienced players” was extremely valuable, and that the group is, “All women who are insanely badass.” 

However, the traveling and support system a player needs to create is difficult and extensive. Lucy’s caddy is her mother or “mommager” as she likes to call her, Daria Lamb. On top of that, she has a swing coach, mental coach and a massive support team from the clubs where she works. 

After learning more about Lucy’s journey through the Pro golf world, I asked her how she thinks Sewanee helped her get to where she is. Her response was that the Sewanee Women’s Golf team promoted a ‘joy for the game’ for her. She loved that everyone on the team came from differing backgrounds and mentalities. She said it, “taught me that each of our approaches to the game was built off different motivations… I think the Sewanee women's golf program is the most unique program in the country because of that.” The way the team worked with each other as well as individually is what made it so special for her.

The last question I asked Lucy was one that all athletes can learn from.  What piece of advice would you, Lucy, give to golfers or college athletes in general? Her response was “Remind yourself of the cliches”(meaning don’t sweat the small stuff), advice originally given to her by other Pro tour players. Along with that was, “Be yourself through and through.” She believes that being proud of yourself for the small things and hyping yourself up can never be overkill. These are two points of advice that do not necessarily need to be just for golf, they can be used in any situation or sport. 

Lucy will be playing all over the South East so make sure to watch for her on wapt.bluegolf.com.