WHEN SOME of the best female golfers in the world tee off tomorrow morning in the opening matches of the Solheim Cup at Killeen Castle in Co Meath, it will be another significant step for the development of women’s sport in this country, and golf in particular. Although most Irish golf clubs took far too long to accept women as equal members – which merely granted them the same playing and voting rights as their male counterparts – economic expediency and equality legislation eventually forced a reversal of this outright discrimination in the past 20 years. A blight on golf was removed and, in turn, the image of the game improved immeasurably.
That image is vital to golf in Ireland as it generates in excess of €150 million in tourism revenue each year. The staging of the Solheim Cup offers our tourism bodies a superb opportunity to showcase our top courses as well as underlining that the sport is open to everyone on equal terms. Having world-famous courses can only form part of any marketing drive to increase the numbers travelling to play the sport in Ireland.
Five years after the Ryder Cup was held at the K Club, the Irish golfing landscape has changed dramatically. Green fees and membership rates that would make natives and tourists wince have fallen back to realistic levels. Few tears have been shed for the small number of courses that charged exorbitant prices and now find themselves at the mercy of Nama or administrators.
Against that backdrop, Ireland can now put its best foot forward in the staging of an international event that will draw tens of thousands of international supporters and millions of television viewers worldwide over the next few days. The calibre of the players on view at Killeen will be outstanding and the intensity of the competition is certain to match any Ryder Cup of recent times.
In such circumstances, it deserves the strong support of both golfing fans and the public. Although no Irish players have qualified to play for the European team against the US in the biennial match, local supporters know that gifted Cavan twins Leona and Lisa Maguire could feature on future teams given their extraordinary rate of progress in the amateur game and their participation this week in the Junior Solheim Cup. For them and the rest of Irish golf, the weekend ahead should be a confident statement about the current wellbeing of the sport and why the women’s game should be celebrated with as much fervour as the male side of the sport.