The R&A admits a "fundamental shift" in golf's culture is required to tackle gender imbalance after launching a new inclusive charter.
The Women in Golf Charter aims to increase the number of females playing and working in the game.
The Ladies European Tour, the European Golf Association, and the Professional Golfers' Association are among the organisations to have already committed to the document, along with the governing bodies of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Read more: Nick Rodger: Firing a warning shout should be par for the course in golf
"Signatories call on everyone involved in golf to play their part in developing a culture that values women's involvement in every aspect of the sport, from participating to pursuing a career," states the charter.
"Our aim is increase the number of women and girls playing and working in golf.
"To achieve this goal and to enable women to flourish throughout golf, we recognise the need for a fundamental shift in culture.
"There is a clear ethical need for change and the potential economic benefits of growing the sport through more women and girls playing are substantial."
The sport has been beset by controversies of gender inequality regarding the issue of female membership at golf clubs.
In 2016, Scottish club Muirfield voted against allowing women to join before the decision was reversed in a second ballot the following year after the R&A opted to remove the club as a host venue for the Open Championship.
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers believes involving more women, including in key decision-making roles, is vital to the growth of the sport.
"I see that the future development of our sport depends upon achieving a stepped change in the number of women working in all levels of golf and particularly the senior positions," said Slumbers, speaking at the charter's launch event at The Shard in London.
"Clubs have a fundamental role to play in changing this culture."
Read more: Nick Rodger: Firing a warning shout should be par for the course in golf
He added: "If we can change, there is a huge opportunity for golf, but we have to change and we have to change fast.
"Creating a product that families together want to experience from clubs will be the catalyst to take golf forward for the next 50 years.
"If we don't change, then we will suffer the consequences. We have to encourage everyone involved in golf to play their part in this change."
Adoption of the charter requires national federations and other golf bodies to develop new initiatives specifically designed to encourage women.
The charter also wants to set individual targets for national associations in terms of participation and membership, with annual progress reports.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here