Grace Kim has never been one to shy away from pressure. Last year she proved it in front of the world, holing out in a playoff to claim the Amundi Evian Championship, one of golf’s five major championships, on French soil. Now the 25-year-old Sydney product is channelling that competitive drive into a cause closer to home: getting more Australian kids off the couch and onto the fairway.
Golf Australia has announced Kim as the newest and sole female ambassador for MyGolf Powered by Ripper GC, the national junior participation program for children aged 5 to 12. Her appointment arrives at a pivotal moment. Women and girls are now the primary engine of golf’s participation growth in this country, with around 1.7 million women picking up a club in Australia last year alone.
“Golf has given me so much, and I’m passionate about showing young girls and boys just how fun and rewarding the game can be. It’s a sport you can play for life.”Grace Kim
Kim, who first swung a club at age 10, joins an ambassador lineup that already includes her fellow Aussies Cam Smith, Elvis Smylie, Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert, as well as the LIV Golf Ripper GC contingent, who came on board when MyGolf formalised its partnership with the team in 2025. But Kim’s role is distinct: as the program’s sole female face, she is tasked with reaching the girls, driving a remarkable grassroots surge.
The numbers behind MyGolf’s female participation story are striking. Girls’ enrolment is up 27 per cent year on year, growing at twice the rate of boys, and now accounts for a third of the program’s 40,000-plus annual participants. For a sport that has historically struggled to attract young women, it is a genuine inflection point.
Chris Crabbe, Acting General Manager of Participation at Golf Australia, says Kim is the perfect person to keep that momentum going. “She is a proven winner on the world stage and as our standalone female ambassador, she is going to help us inspire more girls, as well as boys, across the country to play golf,” Crabbe said. He also highlighted the program’s impressive retention figures: nine in 10 MyGolf graduates continue playing after finishing the program, and 18 per cent go on to become club members.
Kim’s credentials as a role model are hard to argue with. Beyond her Evian triumph, claimed in a thrilling playoff that had golf fans across Australia watching through their fingers, she was part of the Australian team that won the International Crown in Korea in October, and climbed to a career-high world ranking of No. 21. It has been, by any measure, a breakout 12 months for the LPGA Tour member.
Her ambassadorship will take her beyond the ropes, into junior clinics, digital campaigns and national activations designed to showcase golf as accessible and, above all, fun. “MyGolf has introduced golf to thousands of Aussie girls and boys to our sport,” Kim said. “It’s the perfect pathway for young Aussies to pick up a golf club for the very first time.”
“Grace is an incredible role model. She is a proven winner on the world stage.”Chris Crabbe, Golf Australia
MyGolf Powered by Ripper GC distinguishes itself through game-based learning built around confidence, friendships and life skills, delivered by both PGA Professionals and National Program Deliverers. It is, in essence, designed for kids who have never seen a scorecard, which makes Kim, a self-described passionate advocate for the sport’s inclusivity, a natural fit.
For a generation of Australian girls watching Kim compete at the highest level, the message may be simpler than any coaching manual: if she can do it, so can you.
