The course at my university had “Ladies Twilight Night”, on the first Wednesday of every month. They basically shut down the course around 5, and only allowed the women who were signed up to play. I think it was around $50, and included green fees, a cart, and a social dinner in the clubhouse afterwards.
On a semi-related note, once a semester they also had night golf. It was really fun, they supplied your team of four with one plastic golfball with a hole drilled through the center. You’d break one of those little luminescent light (whoah, talk about illiteration!) sticks and put it in your ball so you could find it. The flags all had large luminescent light (there I go again…) sticks tied to the small flag, so you knew where the hole was.
Speaking of the small flag mounted to the flagpole, here’s a piece of golf “trivia” I didn’t realize until I’d been golfing for nearly 10 years: The vertical position of the flag denotes how close to the edge of the green the hole is. This is useful if you can’t see the actual green, but can see the flag. For example, if the small flag is close to the bottom of the flag pole, the hole is on the near side of the green. It follows that if the flag is high up on the pole, the hole is on the far side of the green.
Man, you describe yourself as a beginner, but there are a whole bunch of hacks out there who haven’t yet learned what you have!
Leagues vary tremendously in terms of competitiveness. In my experience, as a general rule ladies’ leagues may tend towards more of a social aspect (tho make no mistake, they will often have their share of competitors who can speed around a course and register a low score.) IME, the ability of a golfer is nowhere near as important as whether they keep pace, are good company, and know basic etiquette such as raking traps, replacing divots, tending the flag, marking their ball, standing where they won’t disturb others, being quiet when they should be, etc.
Just about every league is always looking for new members. Folks who will show up reliably and participate with good attitudes is more important than golfing prowess.
You may find that a lot of “beginners” leagues are geared towards kids. There are also “couples’” evening leagues - generally 9 holes. Might be fun for you and BF.
What you don’t want to be is someone who not only hits a ton of horrible shots, but then bitches about those shots, loses your ball, etc. If you put a small amount of effort into it, within a couple of months you will be at a point where you should be able to play with just about anyone. I’ve played some of my most enjoyable rounds with folks who put up astronomical scores - or didn’t even keep scores, such as really old men or women. I don’t care what they shoot, as long as they move along and are good company (or at least not unpleasant company.)