Solheim Cup: How do you follow the Ryder Cup? It's tough, that's for sure, but Ireland - both north and south - has shown there is no desire to sit back and rest on any laurels after the golfing extravaganza at The K Club in September by making two separate submissions to the Ladies' European Tour to play host to the 2011 Solheim Cup.
The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are two of seven bids submitted before the deadline for applications to stage the Solheim Cup in five years time. England, Italy, Norway, Scotland and Spain have also bid for the match, which is staged biennially between Europe and the United States. Next year's match will be held in Halmstad in Sweden, when Europe will be attempting to regain the trophy and win for the fourth time in five stagings. It was held in Barseback, Sweden, in 2003 on the last occasion it was staged in Europe.
A decision on where the 2011 match will be played is due to be announced later this year, after the respective bids have been reviewed. "I can confirm that we are planning to confirm a country and course at the same time. The reason for not announcing venues at this stage is so that the individual venues can make their own announcements, which we expect many of them to do so in the coming days," said Mark Casey, the European Solheim Cup director.
Ireland previously bid to stage next year's Solheim Cup, but were unsuccessful. After the huge success of the match in Barseback, where record crowds attended, it was again decided to award the match to Sweden for 2007 . . . a decision that cause great disappointment to the Irish bidders.
Northern Ireland's bid to stage the Solheim Cup is being spearheaded by the Sports Council of Northern Ireland, while the Republic's bid is part of the International Sports Tourism Initiative which was introduced by the government in 2000 with "the objective . . . to sponsor sporting events that will contribute to moving target consumers in key source markets." It is believed that a number of new golf resort developments - among them The Heritage at Killenard in Co Laois, the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at Killeen Castle in Dunsany, Co Meath, due to open next year, and Carton House in Maynooth, Co Meath, which has held the last two Irish Opens - would be interested in staging the Solheim Cup here, should the Republic of Ireland's bid be successful.
Yesterday it was confirmed that Lough Erne Golf and Spa Resort in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh has bid to host the event for Northern Ireland.
Of all the major team events in golf, the Solheim Cup is the only one which has yet to be staged in Ireland. The Ryder Cup, of course, takes place at the K Club this September and the World Cup (when known as the Canada Cup) was held at Portmarnock in 1960. The Seve Trophy was held at Druids Glen in 2002. In amateur golf, the Walker Cup was held at Portmarnock in 1991 and next year's match will take place at Royal County Down. The Curtis Cup, the women's equivalent, was held at Killarney in 1996.
The Solheim Cup is the most prestigious team event in women's professional golf. It is a biennial matchplay team competition featuring 12 of the top European-born players from the Ladies European Tour (LET) and 12 top American-born players from the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Annika Sorenstam, the world's number one, has been the dominant player in the competition.
