Solheim Cup part of plans to make Yorkshire an international golfing hotbed

Welcome to Yorkshire, the same organisation that made the Broad Acres a premier destination for cycling over the last decade by luring the Tour de France and creating the annual Tour de Yorkshire, want to do the same for the White Rose region’s reputation in international golf.

The Solheim Cup – golf’s bienniel match contested by the women’s teams of Europe and the United States – is rapidly becoming one of the biggest sporting events in the world. While not as prestigious or as economically-impactful as the men’s Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup still has the potential to give the host region a significant boost.

The most recent event at Gleaneagles in Scotland last year brought more than 90,000 fans to the Perthshire coast for the week-long event. Five thousand of those were junior visitors. A television audience of millions across 200 territories watched the action, making it a huge market place to promote that part of Scotland.

Eight years ago, few would have envisaged Yorkshire would become a cycling capital of the world, but in the space of six years this county was visited by millions of people and seen by many more as it staged the Tour de France, cycling’s road world championships and five editions of the annual Tour de Yorkshire.

The key difference between cycling and golf, however, is that people can watch a bike race for free, but a golf event costs a lot of money for people to attend.

Sport and tourism organisations have had to cut their cloth accordingly during coronavirus, with Welcome to Yorkshire no exception given the financial trouble they were encountering before the global pandemic struck.

New chief executive James Mason now wants to test whether golf is a viable growth mechanism for the region’s recovery.

The ambition is to test the feasibility of hosting golf events with a seniors pro-am headlined by Ian Woosnam at Ilkley Golf Club next month, which will be repeated the following autumn.

After that, Welcome to Yorkshire and the promotions company they are working with, SGH Sporting Events, will branch out into staging a Ladies European Tour event in Yorkshire in 2022.

“The ambition with the Ian Woosnam Senior Classic in Ilkley next month is to test the concept with a tournament that is attracting some big names from the world of golf,” said Mason.

“We’ve got to prove the concept first, develop the model, make sure it’s economically viable before going after the big events.”

If they do that, they will look towards the Solheim Cup. The earliest available date for the event to be staged in Europe is 2027, with the Cup also scheduled on this continent in 2031 and 2035.

That first date is understood to be too close at this stage, given it takes about four years to put a bid together and win it, and with the uncertainty that remains regarding the regional and global economy. That means 2031 would be the first feasible option.

It is not the first time Yorkshire has expressed an interest in hosting female golf’s premier event. In the wake of the successful staging of the Tour de France, Welcome to Yorkshire launched a late bid to bring the 2019 Solheim Cup to Ganton near Scarborough, but failed. Yorkshire has a rich history of hosting major team events in golf. Moortown in Leeds was the first British host of a Ryder Cup in 1929 while Ganton hosted it in 1949 and Lindrick in the south of the county eight years later.

All three remain prestigious venues, but Yorkshire has not hosted a professional golfing event of such stature since Fulford in York put on the Benson and Hedges International Open for the final time in 1991.

The European Tour is hosting six events in England and Wales this summer, but none are in Yorkshire. Lancashire has three Open venues and the North East has Close House which has become a regular venue for events.

Mason said: “I don’t like the fact international visitors arrive at Heathrow and then fly over Yorkshire to get to other golfing destinations. We need to change that.”

This new agenda around golf does not mean a death knell for the county’s recent partnership with cycling. The sixth edition of the Tour de Yorkshire, postponed in May, is still scheduled to go ahead next Spring.

Mason added: “I believe in the future of the Tour de Yorkshire, but we cannot be a one trick pony. I want us to have a selection of high-profile events, whether they be sport or something else.”

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