National Golf Month launched by Solheim Cup Captain and Surrey Ladies Champion in Wimbledon

Lauren Horsford, the new Surrey Ladies golf Champion, has helped to launch National Golf Month, which aims to encourage more than 100,000 people to try golf for the first time.

The month-long campaign teed off at Wimbledon Common Golf Club on Thursday when Lauren played a nine-hole exhibition match alongside Carin Koch, the 2015 Solheim Cup captain. The Solheim Cup is the ladies equivalent of the Ryder Cup - Europe v USA.

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The course is a stone’s throw from Lauren's own club, Wimbledon Park, and she was able to rub shoulders with Koch, as the pair chatted about the Swede’s experiences on the women’s tour.

The venue was apt given that, until 2005, Wimbledon Common was an all-male club. Now it has a flourishing women’s section and ladies’ academy.

Research commissioned by Syngenta, a golf course turfcare specialist, in 2014 revealed that five per cent of women in the UK already participating in at least one other sport or activity said they would be interested in taking up golf, equating to a potential 640,000 new female golfers.

On National Golf Month's bid to get more participants, Lauren said that “there should be more” young women golfers playing the game.