GAINESVILLE, Va. — Emily Donohue and Maureen Conway flew in from Ireland earlier this week to watch the Solheim Cup, the crown jewel of the LPGA. They arrived at the Jiffy Lube Live parking lot at 6:45 a.m., keen to spend the morning on a raucous first tee at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it through the gates until 9:15 a.m. The father and daughter who were standing in line in front of them left after waiting for 30 minutes. An untold number of fans turned around, never to return, after hearing that wait times for the shuttle buses were two to three hours.
The first tee at the Solheim Cup on Friday morning, which seats 2,000 this year, was a shell of what it has been for decades. It’s arguably the best place to be in women’s golf all season. But not this time. The fans who’d waited for months, even years, to be part of what’s been billed as the biggest Solheim Cup ever, were left stranded in the parking lot.
Solheim Cup: Scoreboard, teams | Photos
To make matters worse, the porta potties in the parking lot were locked. And they paid for parking – $30. On top of the tickets, airfare, lodging and time away from work.
“People with disabilities, people with small children, it’s not fair on them,” said Donohue. “You want a big crowd here. I don’t know how they didn’t anticipate this.”
Team United States fans on the first tee during the first round of the Solheim Cup 2024 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club on September 13, 2024, in Gainesville, Virginia. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
What happened on Friday at the 19th edition of the Solheim Cup reveals a systemic problem with the LPGA. Simply put: They’re not ready for prime time.
For the first half of the 2024 season, Nelly Korda went on a run of historic proportions, and the tour failed to capitalize on the moment. Korda’s incredible play, winning six of seven events, including a major, didn’t get the spotlight it deserved. A number of factors went into that fact, but the bottom line remains the same. The tour waited a long time for an American star to go on a run like that and not much came of it.
Fast forward to this week, which has been circled on the calendar as a colossal chance to push the women’s game forward. This is the time to reel in fans who don’t normally follow the tour but are drawn in by the passion and patriotic fervor.
Instead, fans who thought about potentially coming to the event this weekend might…
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