Gainesville (United States) (AFP) – Too many golf fans and not enough shuttle buses from parking areas to the Solheim Cup caused thousands of people to miss Friday’s start, with an apologetic LPGA vowing improvement. There were hundreds of empty spots in the 2,000-seat grandstand at the first tee when morning foursomes matches began at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, and thousands were in line waiting for a bus ride to the course.
“We recognize and deeply apologize to all fans affected by the challenges with shuttling from parking to the golf course,” the LPGA said in a statement. “We’ve made significant changes to our transportation system to mitigate these issues moving forward, and we’re working on ways to express our regret to those impacted.” Early morning brought social media complaints of hour-long bus waits and half-mile lines, raising concern over what the final two days might bring.
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World number one Nelly Korda of the United States saw crowds slowly get larger during her 3&2 victory with Allisen Corpuz over Europe’s Charley Hull and Esther Henseleit. “Obviously you notice the stands aren’t full, but what matters is everyone is out here now cheering for us loud,” Korda said. “We have no part in the transportation issues.” Except they are the world’s top women golfers, and growing interest in all women’s sports brought record attendance projections this week in suburban Washington, beyond 130,000 who watched at Toledo, Ohio, in 2021.
“With the amount of people that are coming in, I know they’re breaking records with the amount of attendance. It’s going to be tough to get everyone in smoothly,” Korda said. “So I think it’s a learning curve, and hopefully they can improve every single day. But the crowds right now are amazing, and we heard them loud and clear from the first hole.”
– ‘Good energy’ –
Corpuz said crowds picked up midway into the front nine. “Even on the front nine, like fourth or fifth hole, everyone started trickling in,” she said. US rookie Lauren Coughlin was not expecting huge early crowds either. “It’s Friday. It’s early morning. I wasn’t necessarily surprised there wasn’t a ton of people out,” she said. “They’re showing up now, so that’s all that matters.”
Ninth-ranked Rose Zhang, in her first Solheim Cup on US soil, was pleased with the crowd that did arrive in time to cheer at the start. “There were a decent amount of people already, so it wasn’t like there was no one. It was still good energy,” Zhang said. “It’s difficult. There’s so many people, a lot of logistics. Should be resolved now, so it’s not really a big deal.”
American Ally Ewing is counting on US supporters in the crowd to provide the boost players need to win the Cup for the first time since 2017. “The fans on US soil is really special,” Ewing said. “The more and more fans we hear, the better. Crowd interaction — there’s nothing like it.”
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