When I founded the Latina Golfers Association (LGA) in 2008, I had no idea the impact it would have on my life. Golf transformed my world and I have seen, first-hand, how it has the power to alter women’s lives both personally and professionally.

Through the LGA, I’m fulfilling my mission to introduce as many women as possible to golf. So far, over 2,000 women—95% of whom have never even held a golf club before—have attended our golf clinics, lessons, and outings in Los Angeles, CA.

Today, they are confidently engaging in social golf outings and have learned to leverage golf as a business tool. The LGA has been on an upswing for the past few years and the start of 2020 brought in the best two months we ever had. But like most of the world, our activities came to a complete halt in March of this year.

While we’re back in the swing of things, the local health orders have drastically limited our programming. We did not, however, let COVID-19 define the LGA, and we put into practice one of our long-range plans, which was to conduct virtual lessons and activities. I could not have asked for a better response. Our sessions have been a hit!

We started with 19th Hole Zoom Happy Hours and are now hosting monthly Zoom Power Lunch gatherings where we feature amazing women who are closely or loosely tied to the golf world. Our guests have included an LPGA Tour Player, powerful women in the business world, and our next guest is the only Latina owner of a golf course in the United States.

We’re hosting “How to Play In A Business Golf Outing” zoom sessions and soon we’ll be conducting virtual golf lessons. We now have women from all over the country attend our virtual events. We have grown our base exponentially and will be rolling out national programming for our new members.

No doubt, these are uncertain times for everyone, but what I know for sure is that when I keep showing up day after day and put my best foot forward, no matter how scared I am by what is happening around me, positive things happen.

We have to create what we want to see happen in our lives and our businesses. As the wonderful living golf legend Nancy Lopez has said, “A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder.”