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The young Aboriginal woman playing an 'old man's sport' — and winning
Skye Lampton accidentally stumbled into golf as an adult and has now become the most successful Aboriginal female player in Northern Territory history, breaking down stereotypes with every win.
Published 10 January 2023 4:41pm
By Laetitia Lemke
Source: SBS News / Laetitia Lemke
Image: Sky Lampton with a Northern Territory Country Championships trophy. (Instagram / Skye Lampton)
Dressed in red and driving a cream golf cart with monsoonal clouds behind her, Skye Lampton cuts an unusual figure on the Darwin Golf Club fairway.
She smiles broadly as she negotiates a corner at pace and pulls up sharply at the clubhouse verandah, the golden rings in both sides of her nose glimmering as she steps out in thongs.
The 27-year-old Dagoman, Wardaman and Gurindji woman may not look like your typical golfer, but she clearly belongs here.
Skye Lampton at Darwin Golf Club. Source: SBS News / Laetitia Lemke
“Even at home, I have a little putting station. When I'm cooking dinner I'll run over, do a putt … and I have these blinds that come down and I'll chip [the golf balls] into them.”
Growing up in the regional town of Katherine, three and a half hours drive from the Northern Territory’s capital Darwin, Skye wasn’t exposed to golf as a child.
Skye Lampton was 19 when she first tried golf. Source: Supplied / Darwin Golf Club
“Living in Katherine, I had no idea what golf was, except for the movie … Happy Gilmore, that was it.”
The 1996 comedy starring Adam Sandler follows a failed ice hockey player who takes up golf to save his grandmother's house, using his unique run-up swing from the ice rink on the fairway with considerable success.
Adam Sandler in a scene from the 1996 film Happy Gilmore. Source: Getty / Universal
“I came from a softball background, so, you know, I was holding it up like this,” she says, clasping her hands together up above the right side of her head, “like baseball or softball, so it was funny.”
“But the golfing community was so lovely … Random people would say, ‘hey, try this’ and it worked out really well.”
In 2019, she started playing regularly.
“Skye first came down to a group we call ‘Thursday Business Ladies’, which does a nine-hole social [golf game] on a Thursday afternoon,” Darwin Golf Club captain Amy Griesbach says.
“She just started coming down, played a few games and then went on to bigger competitions, and now it's just taken off.”
“It's quite a small ball to be able to hit with a big swing and she's just naturally got that skill, and she can hit it a country mile.”
Syke Lampton with some of her golf trophies. Source: Supplied / Skye Lampton
“I just love to smash the ball,” she says. “It's a game where you’re just playing against yourself, really.”
Breaking new ground
Lampton is now so good she’s qualified to battle it out against the 156 best women in the nation at the Australian Amateur tournament in Sydney this week.
“There's been about five other females that have gone to the Australian amateurs from the Northern Territory, but Skye is the first female Aboriginal person to represent the NT,” Griesbach says.
“I'm very proud to be the first and hopefully I can come back every year,” Lampton says.
The 2022 NT Men's & Women's Foursomes Championships in Alice Springs. Source: Supplied / Golf Australia NT
The tournament attracts between 80 to 100 players each year, but Lampton wants to see more people like her in the sport.
“I do want to see more Aboriginal women actually playing golf. This is a good community to get into. They're all very supportive … and it's just something that I think most women will love to get into,” she says.
I do want to see more Aboriginal women actually playing golf. This is a good community to get into.- Skye Lampton
Last year's Census found 3.8 per cent of Australia's population identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, compared to just over two per cent of people who attended Golf Australia's entry-level golf participation programs in 2020/21.
Skye Lampton stands and Darwin Golf Club captain Amy Griesbach. Source: SBS News / Laetitia Lemke
“She's really showing other young Indigenous girls what they can do and what they can be - and not just Indigenous girls but girls across the country, from whatever background they come from,” she says of Lampton.
Women make up just 19 per cent of golf club memberships in Australia. Female participation rates are higher when looking at playing rounds of golf on a course, mini golf and simulations.
It’s hoped a junior girls golfing scholarship launched by Golf Australia in 2020 will help turn that around, with free membership at participating golf clubs and 24 free golfing and tuition sessions.
“Traditionally, golf has been seen as an elitist sport … it can be quite expensive … so this is an opportunity to break down one of the barriers to entry,” Cherry says.
Golf memberships are more popular with men in Australia. Source: SBS News / Laetitia Lemke
Griesbach is the first woman to be voted club captain of the Darwin Golf Club and says she’s determined to help Lampton take the next step in her career.
“A lot of the golfers that are on the pro tour now … have picked up a club since they were little. Skye hasn't had that exposure.”
“She really needs to take that next step, because she's won pretty much everything else in the Northern Territory and to get better now … she needs to go interstate.”
Skye Lampton at the Darwin Golf Club. Source: SBS News / Laetitia Lemke
“We all want to win, but at the end of the day, we're just coming out here to have fun.
“That's what I did; came out here and had fun, and I'm lucky enough that I had the best support system from the club and from everyone really.”
“I just really liked playing golf.”
The 2023 Australian Amateur is being held 10-13 January at the New South Wales and St Michael’s golf clubs in Sydney.
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