To create, organize, and host a season of golf events, from “Margaritas and Mulligans” to “Bogey Nights” to the world renowned “Candy Corn Classic” has packed a lot of scheduling responsibility onto their plates.
Let the record show, however, that the ladies of Grueter Golf never flinched. They were that committed to bringing golf to the masses.
OK, perhaps not to the masses, but surely this foursome of friends who met at Boston College in the fall of 2009 – Jen Corcoran, Erin Donnelly, Kirsten “Kiki” Grueter, and Haley Hillesland – identified with a massive group of young women who are looking for a real adult hobby. Golf, they thought, could “give people a sense of belonging,” said Corcoran.
First, though, they had to present golf in a light that wasn’t so traditional, wasn’t so rules-centric, wasn’t so stuffy and exclusive. Grueter Golf was where “no one was going to be asked to hand in a score,” where you could skip the first hole if you were nervous and go directly to No. 2 tee, and where you were going to experience that emotion for which the game exists.
Fun. Lots and lots of fun.
To say they succeeded is a major understatement and you can feel that for yourself by perusing their website – gruetergolf.com – or perhaps taking the time to watch an entertaining video produced in conjunction with No Laying Up last fall that captures the personality of this vibrant group of women golfers. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgFeecGw5Fs)
Certainly, Grueter Golf has connected on many levels, from attracting a loyal following across various platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Podcasts) to generating consistent attendance at their events from Boston to New York to Washington, D.C. to Cincinnati and Chicago. They have a popular “brand,” as they say, and on the NLU video, that group’s self-called “Merch dame,” Casey Landman, suggested that Grueter Golf was the “female version of No Laying Up.”
High praise, indeed, which becomes only more impressive when you consider just how this “founding foursome” stumbled into all of this in a most serendipitous manner.
We’re not talking country club kids here, although truth be told, Jen Corcoran was a cart girl at the Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster, Mass., which is managed by Corcoran Jennison Hospitality & Hotel Management. But that is not where she developed a serious interest in golf, however.
“Honestly, I thought golf was goofy. I didn’t get it,” said Jen. “It’s not like I saw a lot of young girls out there (playing golf), so it never clicked with me.”
A true Bostonian whose grandfather, the late Joseph Corcoran, was an icon for helping turn property developments into stable flourishing communities, Jen Corcoran became fast friends with Donnelly, Grueter, and Hillesland the first week of college in 2009. For four years, they shared the fun of college life, but never a peep about golf. Ditto their first three years out of college as they settled into their professions – Corcoran in real estate and living in Boston; the other three in Manhattan working as a corporate lawyer (Donnelly), a nurse practitioner (Grueter), and in advertising (Hillesland).
That changed three years later when Grueter and Hillesland visited Corcoran on Cape Cod and they randomly chose to go to a local driving range. “When it’s breezy, swing easy,” someone told them that day, and given that they actually put club face on ball after hearing that, naturally the decision was made. “Haley and Kiki said, ‘Let’s play nine’ and so we went out the next morning,” said Corcoran.
“At the ripe old age of 25, the whole thing was comical, so funny. We started it totally as a funny thing.”
There is a t-shirt that commemorates that glorious summer when an idea was born – “Getting Girls on the Greens Since 2016” – and the ride has been invigorating and thoroughly entertaining.
“We started playing and we just kept playing,” Kiki Grueter tells NLU on the video, “and every time we went to go play we were like, ‘Let’s try to get as many people (as possible) to join us’ and it just snowballed from there.”
By 2018, Grueter Golf involved four golf outings and five golf-themed parties per year, plus two podcasts a month, and Twitter and Instagram postings when the mood hits them. (One set of Tweets by Corcoran on the group’s account – @GrueterGolf – while watching the U.S. Women’s Open during the height of Covid in late 2020 led to a memorable appearance on BBC. Seems that without fans and reporters on site, the UK network wanted reaction and were amused by Corcoran’s tweets. Next thing you know, there was a zoom set up and just like that, the young woman was on BBC, offering commentary to the world.
Mind you, as much as all of this was intended to get women interested in the game without the intimidation levels that are part of the typical golf scene, Jen, Erin, Kiki, and Haley built such a popular attraction and marketed it so well on their social platforms that more and more men wanted in.
A Jimmy Buffet-inspired golf event, “Margaritas and Mulligans,” became co-ed and the word was out. Grueter Golf was a happening. When GG received support from Five Iron Golf New York, an indoor golf experience, “it was crucial for us,” said Corcoran. “They helped with clinics and events.”
Post-pandemic, things have remained on an upswing, thanks in part to No Laying Up’s support. But changes are coming as Erin, Haley, and Jen are all engaged to be married in 2023, Kiki in ’24.
Wedding planning is demanding a lot of their free time so Grueter Golf in ’23 will likely be scaled back. There’s talk of treating GG less like “a Fortune 500 company” and more like they did in the beginning.
“We’ll talk and we’ll find our groove this winter,” said Jen, “but we’ll keep it going; we’re not going anywhere.”
That is good news to Grueter Golf fans – and for the game of golf.
