The Founders

The Founders is an empowering story of female liberation. In 1950s America, female athletes faced many obstacles and they were seen as less legitimate than male athletes. Specifically, in golf, women didn't have any sanctioned tournaments and no way to compete and make a living professionally. The 13 founders of the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) worked to change that. This documentary recounts the organization of the LPGA as told by several of the founders themselves. This film is an honest and narrative account of the stereotypes they faced and how they were able to overcome them and lay the groundwork for the future of women athletes. Its combination of modern-day interview footage and old videos and photographs makes you feel like you are right there with them. You travel with them from their humble beginnings to their legendary successes and truly get to understand these women. This film is inspiring and empowering. They changed the future of sports for all women! Lovers of golf, history and feminist film will love this movie.

The Founders is an inspirational documentary that tells the tale of the founding of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, or LPGA. The organization was founded in 1950 – a time when women were not accepted as professional athletes. 13 women came together to start the organization, and at the time of filming only 4 were still alive. I loved the film's use of interviews with the remaining ladies, hearing a first-person account of their efforts and travels was fascinating. It was heartwarming to hear them recount everything they went through with their friends to create the legacy that they did. The film taught me a lot not only about the history of women's golf, but golf in general. They explain the way amateur tournaments differ from professional, an important distinction that held back a thriving women's amateur golf scene. Setting up a professional tour for women's golf in 1950 is an impressive feat, but that was only the beginning of the women's accomplishments. The scene where they recall Louise Suggs being the first woman to play against men in golf – and then winning – was great. Towards the end, the film features interviews with modern golfers and footage from recent women's tours that the women visited, showing the enormous impact that the founding women had. The Founders is a great film for any fans of golf and anyone who wants to see just what determined women are capable of.

This is for the most part a well put together documentary of how the original 13 ladies Professional Golfers put together something that eventually turned into the LPGA we know today. A couple of the producers are Stacy Lewis and Karrie Webb, LPGA golfers still active and who have screen time in this program.

In interviews with many of the original ladies still alive it gives good glimpses of competitive golf life back then and some of the clashes of personalities, but through it all they stuck together and found ways to cooperate and keep it going.

An issue that always comes up is pay disparity, back in 2015 when this was being produced top earning PGA golfers made roughly 5X as much as top earning LPGA golfers. Naturally the ladies want better parity but to play golf well no inherent value, it is entertainment and PGA golf gets more TV viewership thus more revenue for commercials this more prize money for the entertainers, the PGA golfers. I suspect it is related to the power game, while an LPGA golfer might bust out a 270 yard drive, a PGA golfer will bust out a 380 yard drive. As much as it is "the same game" it really is a different game.

I found this to be a good documentary, it was good to see old film of old competitions. I found it streaming on the Kanopy site via my public library's subscription.

The Founders is an amazing documentary that does a deep dive into the intricate and fascinating history of the LPGA's founding. Being the first professional women's sports league ever, there was a lot of pushback and it was not an easy journey. Personally, I found it very inspiring to hear firsthand from some of the founders including their point of view and experiences. Juxtaposed with those incredible interviews, are some very high-quality archival footage that was just fantastic. Very few documents have been able to immerse me in a time period like this one due to what must have been a long hard search for the perfect shots. Equality for women has come a long way since the LPGA and although it's not perfect yet, I think the modern feminist movement has a lot to thank these brave trailblazers for. And as audience members, we have a lot to thank these filmmakers for because their film is not only a great learning experience but also a riveting story from start to finish, therefore, I recommend seeing it for yourself.

The Founders is an eye-opening and important piece of documentary filmmaking. Spanning decades, the film tells the story of the founding of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). I personally knew nothing about the start of the LPGA or its 13 founders highlighted in the film before seeing it and now I have a great respect and appreciation for them. These women showed determination and a pioneering spirit to get the Tour off the ground and make it possible for women to play professional sports. It is hard not to be in awe of these women as they recount the events, like clinics and fashion shows, they had to do to raise awareness for their competitions. These are things male golfers did not have to do, by the way. The fantastically pieced together archival footage and reenactments capture the era incredibly well and can be very interesting from a historical perspective. The best part of the documentary though is the interviews with the surviving founders. Being able to hear Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork, Louise Suggs and Marlene Bauer Vossler recount personal anecdotes and feelings elevates the footage and the emotional impact of the film. Some moments will make you laugh, like Suggs and Vossler recounting a strange incident on the road, while others will make you tear up, like hearing about Babe Zaharias' battle with cancer. The Founders is a film that carriers weight, telling the history of something that most people have not thought to tell before and paying tribute to not only sports heroes, but feminist heroes as well. This film was deeply affecting and I highly recommend seeing it.