Nichols: Solheim Cup shuttle debacle shows LPGA not ready for prime time

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.”

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 decide to stay home. Fans who already purchased tickets for tomorrow’s round told Golfweek they won’t come back. Some want their money back.

The Daffodils, four women from Wales who’ve been coming to the Solheim Cup since 2011 and wear flowery yellow costumes, arrived at 5:20 a.m. on Friday and noted that not one bus was in the parking lot. They were told the day prior that the first bus would be loaded and ready to go at 5:45 a.m. in order to be there when the gates opened at 6 a.m.

The Daffodils say the first bus didn’t arrive until 6:10 a.m., and the first three buses were filled with volunteers who needed to get to their posts. They also noted that security early on was questionable with only two security officers doing random bag checks.

As the day wore on, officials began allowing fans to take an Uber from the parking lot to the main gate. One fan who took an Uber with several others said their bags were never checked, only their tickets.

Fans describe the mood in the massive line as solemn and subdued. The air was thick with disappointment.

The LPGA released a short statement in which the tour apologized for the shuttle challenges, noting that they made “significant changes to our transportation system."

Beyond that, however, nothing more has been said despite repeated attempts from the media to gain specifics on what went wrong and how exactly the tour can assure fans that it will be fixed for Friday afternoon, let alone the weekend.

After all, fans waited up to 2 ½ hours to get on a bus Thursday evening after the opening ceremonies and concert finished. The tour has given them no reason to be optimistic.

Transparency and accountability are paramount for a failure of this magnitude. LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux-Samaan should’ve met with the media on Friday and answered questions. She should’ve gone out to the parking lot and talked to fans, with water bottles and trinkets in hand. Maybe even shuttled a few back herself.

Fans weren’t alone in their early-morning frustrations. When players showed up around 6 a.m. this morning to warm up, there were only two lights on the driving range. Teams had to pack in on one side of the range and use the lights from their carts to see the golf ball.

It’s been a week of putting out fires when it should be a week the LPGA lights up the sports world.

The fact that ESPN sent out a push notification on the Solheim Cup and it had nothing to do with golf is a black eye for the tour. Not even the presence of former President Barack Obama could overcome the debacle of the day.

The time has come for some tough conversations.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Nichols: Solheim Cup shuttle debacle shows LPGA not ready for prime time