Friday morning session. The most anticipated moment of a Solheim Cup or a Ryder Cup. The start moment. The tee of hole 1. Nerves on edge, the crowd committed. The excitement of playing at home, the pressure of the opposing crowd. This Friday morning all of this has been reduced to ashes.
A third of the stands of the first hole of Robert Trent Jones Golf Club empty. A desolate image, truth be told. Moreover, many of the earliest fans were Europeans. At times it felt like the tournament was being played on continental soil. The attendees looked at each other in astonishment, not quite understanding what was happening. The situation has gradually become clearer. The parking lot where the shuttle was located was in utter chaos.
As the fans were arriving, I was able to ask them about their feelings. “We were thousands of people queuing and they told us there were seven buses going up and down for a ten-minute journey. It’s absurd. They knew the number of people who were going to gather and the queues have been endless,” said George as soon as he entered the tournament entrance. It was 10:30 in the morning and he had parked almost three hours earlier.
Given what happened, Jeff‘s words were not surprising either: “I’ve been going to tournaments on the Tour for twenty years and this has never happened to me. I go to Phoenix every year which receives hundreds of thousands of people and I’ve never had an experience like this. I didn’t make it to the tee. I was in the parking lot at 6:00 and I entered at 8:30. Surreal.”
Jessica and her three friends couldn’t believe it either. In their case they didn’t intend to get up so early, but they ended up entering the venue at eleven when they were at the bus stop at eight in the morning: “What saddened us the most were the hundreds of people who turned around because it was not clear if the problem was going to be solved,” confessed the quartet who missed almost the entire foursome session.
The truth is that this didn’t completely catch the press off guard. In the hotel where some journalists are staying, only a ten-seat minibus leaves every hour. This morning the first one left at 6 and the tee was at 7.05. On Thursday, several of us expressed the fear that we wouldn’t fit and wouldn’t make it in time. The hotel is about 30 minutes away. Finally, it seems that they have chartered some more vehicles.
However, it seems that the organisation has got to work and the problem seems to be solved. It has apologised, although it hasn’t given much explanation. Once the public managed to access the tee of the afternoon shift, it was everything expected in the morning. To Caesar what is Caesar’s, the atmosphere throughout the afternoon has been incredible. Lots of people, electric and fun show. To put a downside, the music resonated so much that there was no space for the crowd’s chants.
As the day progressed, there was time to talk to people in more relaxed moments and with the nightmare already solved, although some already brought some resentment from home. “I’ve spent a whole year seeing Carlota’s shot in hole 17 in my head. It was spectacular, but the truth is that it still hurts. I was there at Finca Cortesín and there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t remembered that moment. We were lucky that this time only a year has passed since the last Solheim”. These are the words of Christine, a 65-year-old New Yorker who travelled to Malaga twelve months ago to experience the Solheim and returned with the bitter taste of the final result. She told it amusingly and with a healthy rivalry of a person who enjoys golf a lot, but also with the certainty that she wants revenge and she wants it now.
“In 1871 we kicked the Europeans out of Virginia (the English, specifically) and we will do the same this week”. It sounds like a declaration of war, but it is said, half jokingly, half seriously, by an American fan, local from Gainesville and literally dressed as George Washington. The commander led the American army against the English on that occasion and the city was left only with locals. His wife, dressed as the Statue of Liberty, points out that it’s time to end the streak: “Enough is enough, it’s time for the American team to win again”. A total couple.
A separate chapter could be opened with a section of ‘Spaniards for the Solheim’. There have been quite a few who have decided to travel to the Virginia event. Especially moving is the case of a family who have travelled all the way from Madrid to experience their first Solheim on American soil: mum, dad and two daughters who are barely seven years old and who have thoroughly enjoyed 18 holes with Carlota Ciganda. They will never forget this day.
Another noisy group has been the one of five friends from Bilbao who have travelled to enjoy golf while visiting a friend. They have not stopped cheering for the Navarrese and although she has not scored her first point, she must have felt very supported. The chant with her name has been echoed all over Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. Carlota is very loved on both sides.
