This time last year, we were all bracing ourselves for the Ryder Cup as the PGA Centenary course at Gleneagles was turned into the kind of boisterous, bawling battleground that made the Colosseum look about as frenzied as a night at the Forgandenny floral art club.
The stands and the structures have long since disappeared, of course, and tranquillity once again reigns supreme in this corner of Perthshire but the enthusiasm for the return of top-level, transatlantic team tussles to Gleneagles remains.
Over the next couple of days, the various high heid yins involved with the Solheim Cup will be birled around the plush resort’s abundant charms as the wooing process begins in earnest. The 2019 Solheim Cup is the object of the desires for those entrusted with bringing major events to these shores and there is a confidence that this two-day charm offensive can lure the biennial bout between the leading ladies from Europe and the US to the home of golf.
Sweden, another nation with a strong Solheim Cup pedigree, is the only other country in the running for the 2019 showpiece but Paul Bush, the director of events with EventScotland, believes the home bid will be tough to top.
“Hosting an event like the Solheim Cup is the next natural step after last year’s Ryder Cup,” said Bush, ahead of the Gleneagles push to become the third Scottish venue, after Dalmahoy in 1992 and Loch Lomond in 2000, to stage the contest. “We've got huge respect for Sweden obviously, having successfully hosted the event twice since 2003. For us, though, we have huge Scottish Government backing and we showed at the Ryder Cup that we were able to pull that whole Government machinery, whether it be Transport Scotland, Police Scotland, VisitScotland or SportScotland together and make it work. I think that is unique in European terms as I feel very few countries can do that. Without being arrogant, we probably delivered two of the best events ever last year in the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup. So for the Ladies European Tour we are a safe pair of hands."
While the economic value of a Solheim Cup is estimated at around £15-20 million, compared to the Ryder Cup which brought in over £100 million to the coffers, Bush believes the Solheim Cup brand 'is ready to explode positively'.
“We believe we can give the Solheim Cup back - not that we own it, of course - to the Ladies European Tour with a stronger brand value than when we receive it,” added Bush. “The European Tour left Gleneagles after the Ryder Cup in a very healthy state, having received great TV viewing figures and great numbers through the gates.”
Bringing a new generation of young female golfers through the gates in four years’ time and bolstering participation at that level is key to the bidding process.
“One of the main drivers of the bid is equality,” said Bush. “Can we build the family golf product, which I know that the Scottish Golf Union is keen to do, and get more girls into golf? There are some real challenges for the game For instance, what is the 2020 version of golf? The game can take four or five hours at the moment, which is quite long. Could we entice more young people to play the game if it only lasted one or two hours? There must be something we can do. Were we to be successful, we’d be aiming to seize the opportunity.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here