Jillian Mele, Co-founder of LemonRose Golf, learning how to hit out of sand 10 years after picking up a club for the first time. Photo Credit: Brandon Stearns.
March 30th, 2015. The Divi Village Golf Course in sunny and windy Aruba – I remember it like it was yesterday. I didn’t know it at the time, but this one round would quietly shift the trajectory of my life. It was the very first time I stepped foot onto a golf course.
The thought of playing golf never actually crossed my mind up until that point. I was 32 years old and had a busy life. I was a broadcast journalist working the overnight shift and, truthfully, didn’t have time for anything other than work. My schedule was rough: wake up around midnight, go to work around 1:30 a.m., be live on television through the morning shows, come home, nap, get a few things done, and go to bed again around 6 p.m. for that midnight alarm. So, when I tell you that golf was the furthest thing from my mind, I mean it wasn’t even in the same zip code.
Oddly enough, I worked as a server in the grill room at Commonwealth National Golf Club years prior to actually picking up a club, but back then, I didn’t have the desire to play. There was something in the wind that year in Aruba that started to guide me down a new path. My family had gone there for a spring vacation for years. We had a timeshare and always stayed at the same place. Year after year, I watched the men in the group play in their fun (yet competitive) golf outings three times during that week. I thought, “Why is this only men?? I want to play!” So that year, I did. The only female in the group that year, and having barely picked up a club, off I went! My mom and dad helped me pick out an outfit from the pro shop, which I still have to this day but don’t wear because it is the perfect example of the “shrink it and pink it” mentality that was in women's golf clothes for a while. Take a man’s polo and make it pink… yeah, that was my first golf shirt ever. Check out this blog titled “Fashion Has Entered the Chat (and the Golf Course): Here’s Our Why" to learn more about the thought process behind this business.
I happen to have a video of one of my drives that day, and in the background you hear my dad and our friend Marco being so supportive that I just hit the ball and it went forward, which meant the world to me. It is intimidating as a female to start playing. The men I know are stronger than me and can hit the ball farther—it’s just a fact in my life. So being one of the few (if not the only at the time) females playing, having barely any experience, and trying to keep up with the guys can be a lot! But the moment I stepped foot onto the course was the moment I knew that there was no going back.
Left Photo: Jillian Mele, Co-founder of LemonRose Golf, during her first round of golf in 2015 at Divi Village Golf Course in Aruba.
Right Photo: Jillian Mele, Co-founder of LemonRose Golf, with her father after her first round of golf in 2015 at Divi Village Golf Course in Aruba.
Jillian Mele, Co-founder of LemonRose Golf, during her first round of golf in 2015 at Divi Village Golf Course in Aruba.
Over the years, I played as much as I could fit into my busy work schedule (which was not a lot). I was lucky to play a few rounds of 9 holes most years, but I was playing, and I loved it, so that was enough for me. In my early years of playing, I dated someone to be unnamed who was a really good golfer, and I was elated to have this common interest. But I learned that only I was the one excited about this. He golfed every Saturday with his friends, and one day I asked if I could join so that I could see what it’s like playing somewhere new and with new people, and the response was:
“You are not good enough.”
I was crushed.
I knew that I was not great, but at that moment, I felt so small. From that day on, I made it my mission to get good at golf. I am the type that accepts challenges head-on—in fact, I welcome them—and this was certainly one of them. I played with my dad in the rain and in snow. I got my first par on a very rainy July 13th, 2016, on hole 6 at Flourtown Country Club in Pennsylvania. And I got my first birdie ever on par 3 hole 8 at Flourtown Country Club on December 8th, 2018, in icy cold Pennsylvania. I was never going to let anyone make me feel small like that again, so I kept playing.
Left Photo: Jillian Mele, Co-founder of LemonRose Golf, with her first par on hole 6 at Flourtown Country Club on July 13th, 2016.
Right Photo: Jillian Mele, Co-founder of LemonRose Golf, with her first birdie on hole 8 at Flourtown Country Club on December 8th, 2018.
Jillian Mele, Co-founder of LemonRose Golf, with her first birdie on hole 8 at Flourtown Country Club on December 8th, 2018.
Fast forward to 2025—the first year that I have a handicap (albeit not a good one) and that I am playing consistently. Ten years after picking up a club, I feel at home with it. This is the first year that I said “yes” to playing at outings with strangers, it is the first year that I played more than two rounds of 18 holes, and it is the first year that the golf course really makes me feel alive.
I believe in things happening for a reason. I believe that I was supposed to pick up a golf club all those years ago and that I was supposed to have that ex-boyfriend make me feel small when I asked to play with him. I think I was supposed to take my time with the game and flourish when I was ready.
There is a certain peace I get from walking the golf course at dusk on a summer evening, even if it is by myself. I get to look up at the colorful sky as the sun is setting, breathe in, and play my game. There is a certain pride I have in never giving up, even though I had every opportunity to do so along the way. And there is a certain excitement I get at the thought of inspiring other women and girls to try. You never know where it might lead you—all those years after picking up a club for the first time. Never in my wildest dreams, that day in Aruba, did I imagine that 10 years later I would be starting a business for women in golf. It’s a dream that I was so unaware of, until now. But it’s a dream that makes all the sense in the world and I am over the moon to share my passion with you. So, I ask you: What are you waiting for?
Be sure to check out our events page to find out when we might be coming to your area! With LemonRose Golf, you always have a home.
Female Golfers Fuel Cultural Shift. National Golf Foundation. (2025, June 5). https://www.ngf.org/short-game/female-golfers-fuel-cultural-shift
Golf participation: Growing & diversifying. National Golf Foundation. (2025b, February 14). https://www.ngf.org/short-game/golf-participation-growing-diversifying/
Rothman, E. (2025, May 27). Girl power: Young women are golf’s fastest-growing segment. USGA. https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/articles/2025/05/young-women-golfs-fastest-growing-segment.html
Fitzgerald, C. (2025, May 29). USGA invests in women to drive the growth of golf. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinefitzgerald/2025/05/29/usga-invests-in-women-to-drive-the-growth-of-golf/
Levins, K. (2025, June 3). The number of women golfers is at an all-time high. and these three figures point to even more growth. Golf Digest. https://www.golfdigest.com/story/women-play-golf-womens-golf-day-national-golf-foundation