I was going to lead off this blog by opining: "Though these disparate groups of women are from stations in life that are worlds apart, golf unites them...."

Thankfully emerging from this smothering cliché, I thought:  “What a way to focus on differences, rather than similarities.”  How about: "Two groups of women, both facing barriers to career advancement, head to the golf course to enhance their employment opportunities."

Golf is one of the many extracurricular activities offered at The Care Center in Holyoke, Mass., where low-income pregnant and parenting teens earn their GEDs.  Fashioned after the learning rich environments of college prep schools, the program works:  85 percent of the students who earn their GEDs go on to college.

For female Harvard MBA students, learning how play golf at Stow Acres Country Club, in Stow, Mass., was seen a way to thwart exclusion from informal networking environments - golf is No. 1 - that are key to building business relationships.

And the old boys: