It’s true.  At the close of business on Monday, July 7, Conde Nast announced that the last issue of Golf For Women would indeed be the final issue.  The magazine has been around for twenty years and has a ratebase of about 600,000.  Charles H. Townsend, president and CEO of Conde Nast Publications claims that the magazine will not serve the company’s “long-term business objectives.”

The golf blogosphere has reacted by reporting the event.  I first heard about it from Patricia Hannigan’s “Golf Girl’s Diary” (thegolfgirl.blogspot.com) on the morning of July 8th.  Patricia was a regularly featured blogger on the magazine’s website.  Commenters to her post were concerned as some had recently purchased subscriptions to the publication via the website.  Indeed, as of Tuesday morning after the announcement there are still ads on the site offering a free tote bag with purchase of a subscription.  In fact, there is no announcement on the GFW website about the publications future as of July 8th.  It is unknown at this time whether there will be a continued web presence.

At a time when women golfers believed the golf world was noticing them more, this is an interesting twist.  I personally reported here recently that a rep from Nike told me the company had realized they were missing out by not catering to women more.  In fact, this lady golfer thought she was seeing an increase in attention to women’s golf.  Maybe I was mistaken?

Perhaps this is a move to make a more balanced publication?  Maybe Golf Digest or GolfWorld, also published by Conde Nast, will produce more content for women.  I can’t be sure of this but will take note of future issues.  Hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come as far as golf products for women.  I am particularly worried about those new to the game and hope something like this does not discourage them.  Meanwhile, I know that I will continue to blog here at Golf WRX and support the camaraderie of golf for women and men.