Aug. 22—Toledo is no stranger to great moments in women’s golf history.
Take your pick, be it the 1954 Inverness Invitational — a thrilling four-ball competition headlined by Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Mickey Wright, and the pioneering greats of the game — or the highlights of the 37-year-old Marathon LPGA Classic.
There was Se Ri’s historic runaway in 1998, when she went 23 under to capture her first of five titles here by nine shots, and Annika’s edge-of-your-seat playoff win in 2000. There was fan favorite Paula Creamer opening with a tournament-record 60 on the way to victory in 2008 and the three-woman playoff before a sea of fans and a million-plus viewers on CBS in 2016. There was …
Well, we could keep going and still forget most of the hits.
We’ve pretty much seen it all.
And yet …
As we prepare to ring in the Solheim Cup, we’ve seen nothing yet.
No one has.
The 17th playing of the biennial match-play tournament between all-star teams from the U.S. and Europe is expected to be the biggest edition of the biggest event in women’s golf.
While travel restrictions mean there will be fewer visitors from across the pond, the Solheim Cup remains on a record course, replete with unprecedented corporate support and the promise of more singing and flag-waving fans than have ever attended the sport’s showcase festival. Expect the turnout to surpass the mark set in 2017, when 124,426 fans packed Des Moines Golf and Country Club in Iowa.
“We want to make sure we put on an event that is the best ever,” tournament director Becky Newell said, “and that’s what we’re striving for.”
Here’s betting on it.
It would hard for a city to wrap its arms around an event any tighter than Toledo has around the Solheim Cup.
I think back to the spring of 2016, when Inverness stated its case to host the Solheim Cup in 2021.
The club pulled out all the stops to impress the three LPGA officials on the selection committee, arranging everything from a flyover by the nearby 180th Fighter Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard to a performance from a bag piper named — we kid you not — Donald Ross. But it was the substance of a two-hour presentation that blew the LPGA away.
With respect to the other finalists — Scioto Country Club outside Columbus, Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn., Oak Tree National in Edmond, Okla., and Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club — the decision was a no brainer.
Inverness not only had a world-class course perfectly suited for match play but a community that was head-over-spikes for the event. Incredibly, when the club won the bid in November 2016, it had locked up $5.75 million in corporate commitments, including $1.25 million from Marathon. All told, the amount exceeded the sponsorship goals for … the 2017 Solheim Cup in Iowa.
It was a remarkable show of teamwork from companies across northwest Ohio, and, since, the support has only kept growing, as has the excitement.
Now, finally, it’s here, our international close-up and the biggest sporting event to roll through Toledo since the 1993 PGA Championship, the most recent of the six majors contested at Inverness.
If you’re a casual golf fan who’s been to a tournament in the past, forget everything you remember, most of all the “Quiet Please” signs. At the Solheim Cup, it’s a non-stop party, beginning at the first tee, where golfers will make a raucous stadium entrance and take their first swings surrounded on three sides by double-decked hospitality suites and 2,500 bleacher seats.
“This is the most special and coolest event we have,” Toledo-born LPGA star Stacy Lewis said. “From the first tee, it’s rocking, It’s as nervous as any of us ever are out on a golf course, even just trying to get the ball on a tee. … When we’re out at the range in the dark, you can already hear the songs. It’s just so cool. It’s unlike anything in sports, really.”
Don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.