Schools out for summer, Chicks With Sticks season finale in UAE

As another season draws to a close for the all-female golf community of Chicks With Sticks, Gulf News exclusively sat down with founder Jenny Hennessy to get the low down on how the past season has been.

Jenny, great to catch up again. Can you tell us a bit on what event Chicks With Sticks is running today?

So today we're at the Els Club, Dubai for the Chicks With Sticks second annual Summer Party. The format is a team of four scramble, so it's very friendly for beginner golfers. We have approximately 40 ladies playing today. So thrilled with the turnout!

And it looks like everyone is having a great time!

Yes! Everyone seems to be having a great time out on the course despite the 40 degrees temperatures! Some people have even dressed up as there’s some costumes out there. There's even a team dressed up as the U.A.E flag!

So, yeah, it's great to see everyone gaining so much enjoyment out of the sport. And we're finishing off a great year of golf here at the Els Club with this season finale party.

How do you think the ladies have got along this season?

They're getting on great. It’s amazing to see girls who just started golf in the last few months out here today, playing on the course, playing with other ladies who they didn't know a few months back. It's great to see all the ex-pats and people from all over the world, you know mingling together and coming together to play golf. It's great!

What do you feel you've achieved this season goal wise?

As you know Harry, Chicks With Sticks kind of happened very organically. It was never meant to be a thing. So I'm kind of trying to keep on that trend not try to push things you know. Just see where we grow naturally.

But goal wise, I suppose it's still “on trend” in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which is amazing! Our numbers have stayed very steady and our merchandise is almost up and running and that was a huge goal of mine because I love a pop of style!

My main goal though is to see the ladies enjoying the sport and that still remains on trend as well. So yeah, I'm thrilled.

Have you seen significant growth in other ways?

So the numbers have remained really steady in both Dubai and in Abu Dhabi, which is great. And honestly, it's a credit to the amazing coaches in the Claude Harmon Academy here at the Els Club and all the teaching pros in Abu Dhabi Golf Club. They're amazing! So a big thank you to them.

In other ways we've developed well as well. We're very good at the social element, as you know! We're building on that all the time.

We’re looking at having monthly social gatherings, not just at golf events, but other leisure facilities across the UAE. Looking at building on the wellness and fitness side of the community as we've had some yoga events and our running events. So yeah, let's see where that goes.

As you mentioned, the community aspect is a huge part of the whole thing isn’t it.

Exactly, I guess we've created this like community of like-minded women. And all my friends in Ireland are dying to have Chicks With Sticks back there, so stay tuned!

I guess I really want to build on the merchandise as well as I love my style, so I would love to see that go a bit further.

People are always asking me, am I going to grow to more locations in the UAE, and people who know me well know I'm an open book and I don't know, I might. Let's see, if the interest is there, I definitely will.

I just really want to keep growing on the momentum that we have here going at the moment and just keep having a good time!