LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan took responsibility Saturday for the transportation fiasco that kept fans from arriving at the Solheim Cup in a timely manner on the opening day of the event.
Fans who paid $30 to park in the event-designated lot reported waiting two hours or longer for shuttle buses they expected to take them to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va. As a result of the delay, many fans missed much of the morning foursomes session.
“I don’t want to get into exactly who, the details of the responsibility,” the commissioner said when asked who was in charge of transportation planning. “At the end of the day, I’m the leader of the organization and I have to own it. We have a tournament team that runs all of this, but I’m sitting up here in front of you as the leader of the LPGA, and I need to own that.”
Marcoux Samaan did not specify how many buses were in use Friday morning and then later in the day.
“The exact numbers, I can’t tell you at every hour what we had, but let’s just suffice it to say there were not enough,” she said.
In addition to not having enough buses, Marcoux Samaan said they didn’t have enough staff in place to load the buses and communicate with fans, and that the staging area wasn’t sufficient or efficient.
Fans arriving Saturday morning found plenty of buses to shuttle them.
“I think the fans when they got here, they had a great time,” Marcoux Samaan said. “Yes, it was disappointing. We’re not happy with what happened. I don’t think it’s going to be long-term damage to us. We have to make sure our fans know how much we care about them and how much we whiffed.”
Golfweek reported that fans who were impacted received an email with an apology and two complimentary weekend tickets. Many fans requested a refund for both the parking and the entry fee. Golfweek said event tickets, that did not include parking, were $110.
–Field Level Media
