Organisers want Solheim Cup to become a '˜bucket-list' event

Paul Bush, pictured with Solheim Cup player Catriona Matthew, wants an end to complacency within Scottish golf.

”I think there’s huge interest in golf events in Scotland, but my worry for 2019 is, will the Scottish public come out?” admitted Paul Bush, EventScotland’s chief operating officer as the baton was handed over for the next instalment in the transatlantic tussle. “Without being  critical, I think there is a degree of complacency in Scotland. We are blessed with so many golf events, week in, week out, but we have to try and make the Solheim Cup a bucket-list event.

“In 2014, people all wanted to go to the Commonwealth Games. They didn’t know what it was. But it stuck out. They felt, we’ve got to go. I think there was some of that with the Ryder Cup, but none of that with the Solheim.

“Some people don’t know the Solheim is coming. They don’t know what it is, and they certainly don’t understand the talented group of athletes from Europe and America.  It is a unique combination.”

Attendances at both the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open at Dundonald Links and the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns last month were pretty poor, though, in fairness, the weather during both events didn’t help in that respect.

“I was really quite disappointed about those two weeks as this is world-class sport,” added Bush. “My  concern looking forward is we’ve got to get to a position where people still consider it worthwhile investing in golf events.

“We are by far and away the most proactive, successful golf nation in Europe in terms of events. We are streets ahead of any other nation, but there is no given that will remain. If people don’t turn up, if we don’t get players playing, if we don’t grow getting more kids into it.

“I think there is this degree of people around the world wondering how we justify so much golf. I’m not saying we’ve got too much golf, but there is a lot of golf.”

At the closing ceremony in Des Moines, the handover process included two members of #Project19, an initiative aimed at getting home players involved in the Junior Solheim Cup at Gleneagles in two years’ time, being interviewed on the stage, where Anna McKay and Eilidh Henderson did their country proud by delivering polished performances in front of a huge TV audience.

“The six #Project19 girls here (Hannah Darling, Rachel Foster, Evanna Hynd and Carmen Griffiths were the others) are a breath of fresh air and we hope this week will give the impetus towards 2019,” said Bush. “We have to find a way of how to get men to come and watch the Solheim Cup at  Gleneagles.

“We’ve got to get the message across that the average fan probably has greater empathy with the female golfer than the male golfer. The percentage of women who play golf in Germany is 45; Scotland is 15 per cent. It’s an institutional change.

“I’m so passionate about the Solheim Cup because I feel it has greater capacity than the Ryder Cup to  make change. More opportunity for what we can do, growing that  percentage from 15 per cent.”