There is more than one way into golf, and this season at Eagle Ranch offered a good reminder of that.
Lesley Atkins came to the course with years of competitive golf behind her and a World Long Drive title to her name. Jordan Biegel brought a different perspective, sharing the round as a multi-sport athlete still finding her way through the game.
Both brought their audiences along with them. And both ended up with a reason to remember the 18th.
When Lesley Atkins arrived at Eagle Ranch in late July, she had a goal for the finishing hole: make birdie on 18.
The first day, it did not happen. Neither did the second. So she came back for another try.
On day three, the putt dropped.
Anyone who follows Atkins knows persistence is not exactly new territory. She grew up in Scotland, represented the Scottish Under-18 national team and won the Scottish Girls Championship before moving to the United States to play Division I college golf at Florida International University and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
More recently, she has taken that competitive background into World Long Drive. In 2024, her first season on the circuit, Atkins was named the Women’s Division Rookie of the Year after making her debut with a 321-yard drive.
She is now based in Calgary and has built a sizeable audience around golf, long drive and the life that happens around both.
Still, none of that guaranteed the birdie.
That took three days.
Jordan Biegel’s round looked different.
Based in Calgary, Biegel is a multi-sport athlete whose content moves between hockey and golf. She shares the learning curve along with the good shots, which makes following the round feel less like watching a finished product and more like being there while someone figures the game out.
At Eagle Ranch, she shared the full experience as she went, from arriving at the property to getting out on the course.
Then came 18.
Where Atkins had been chasing birdie, Biegel had a different number in mind. She played the finishing hole for par and got it.
Two golfers with very different backgrounds. Two very different rounds. Same finishing hole worth remembering.
Their visits come at a time when more women are finding their way into the game.
National Golf Foundation data shows that the number of women and girls playing on-course golf in the United States grew by 45 percent between 2020 and 2025, reaching more than 8.1 million players. Women and girls accounted for 52 percent of the net growth in on-course participation over that period.
There is another part of the data worth noticing too. Women now represent 28 percent of on-course golfers in the United States, the highest proportion on record.
Those are American figures, so they do not tell the Canadian story on their own. But the broader change is easy to recognize on the course and online. More women are playing, learning, competing and sharing the game in ways that look increasingly varied.
That matters because there has never been only one kind of golfer.
Some grow up competing. Some find the game through another sport. Some are chasing distance. Some are trying to make par on 18.
There is room for all of them.
Atkins and Biegel came to Eagle Ranch with different games and different goals. What they shared was a course worth coming back to and a finishing hole that gave each of them something to chase.
The 2026 golf season continues through October 12.
Book a tee time and see what 18 has waiting for you.
