Will Europe’s Solheim Cup triumph boost female participation?
ver the last decade, the biennial Solheim Cup match between Europe and the USA has consistently produced nail-biting drama and an exceptional display of competitive golf played with immense tenacity and pride.
This year’s match at Inverness Golf Club in Ohio served up another thriller that delivered down-to-the-wire excitement, with emotions swinging back and forth.
Europe headed into the final-day singles with a 9-7 lead and proceeded to post the first three points, before the USA staged a fightback, claiming points from the next five matches. But the efforts of the American side were too little too late and Europe retained the trophy by a slim margin, winning 15-13. This took the tally of wins for Europe up to four out of the last six matches, and it was only their second victory on away soil in the history of the event.
More records were broken in Ohio with Scot Catriona Matthew becoming the first European captain to win the Solheim Cup twice. Europe’s standout player, 26-year-old Leona Maguire, also made history by becoming the first rookie to play all five sessions and remain unbeaten, as she contributed four and a half points to the European cause on her debut appearance.
Riding the momentum
The Solheim Cup is the pinnacle of women’s professional golf. It creates compulsive viewing, and this match will undoubtedly have helped to further boost both the game and women’s sport.
However, to make a real impact on women’s golf, which historically has faced greater challenges than other sports in widening its audience appeal, it is crucial to keep the momentum going and use it to gatecrash women and girls into golf.
How can we forget the incredible 2019 Solheim Cup match at Gleneagles, when Suzann Pettersen holed a ‘putt of putts’ at the 18th to clinch victory over the USA by a solitary point?
Sadly, the impact of this fantastic showcase on women’s golf was short-lived. A few months later at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show, Matthew was only interviewed briefly and a highlights reel lasted under a minute. It is fair to say, though, that since 2019, whether playing, competing or working in sport, the landscape for women has continued to shift in a positive direction.
There’s still a long way to go, but women are less likely to be deemed poor relations to men now. For example, for the first time in 125 years, Team GB took more women than men to the Olympics in Tokyo.
It’s a chicken-and-egg situation and the expression “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it” is used frequently when referring to the lack of exposure of women’s sport through mainstream media.
Indeed, there are clear indications that there is now an appetite for more opportunities to access women’s sport either through media or live events.
Growing interest
TV audiences for women’s golf continue to grow. Sky Sports recently announced a three-year extension of its existing rights deals for both the LPGA and LET, allowing Sky Sports Golf to be the home of the five Majors plus the Women’s Scottish Open and Solheim Cup.
Meanwhile, The Hundred cricket tournament was introduced this summer with a goal to accelerate growth and interest in the women’s game. It certainly did that. According to the England and Wales Cricket Board, 267,000 people attended women’s games throughout the competition, which is the highest ever attendance for a women’s cricket event globally.
But... is it too much to ask for golf and other sports to achieve the Emma Raducanu effect? The 18-year-old’s journey through qualifying to lift the US Open trophy and become the first British woman to win a Major tournament in 44 years was mind-blowing. She now has the world at her feet, is a media and marketing dream, but most importantly, is an exceptional role model and at the forefront of driving the next generation of tennis players for years to come.
The point is that, while we know that sports require investment to attract the masses, the way in which Raducanu’s new-found star status and personality have been capitalised on means that there is a new buzz around tennis and participation is booming.
On her return to the UK, she revealed that she had struggled to book a local tennis court! Young female professional golfers are no less inspiring or entertaining than Raducanu, but they need to be exposed at every available opportunity to help promote the game, and then perhaps more women and girls will begin to flock to our golf courses.
There have been so many success stories this year to boost women’s sport and give it the spotlight it deserves. Surely Raducanu will be the winner of the 2021 Sports Personality of the Year Award and the European Solheim Cup players will bag the team prize? Let’s wait and see!
“This match will undoubtedly have helped to further boost the game and women’s sport”