The Solheim Cup had a rocky start, with the opening ceremony disappointing fans due to “awful camera angles, poor sound feed, badly timed walk-ons.” While many hoped to get things better with Friday’s foursome matches, it didn’t happen. Instead, the situation seems to have become worse, and this time the transportation management of the tournament is the culprit.

On the first day of the Solheim Cup, Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz made history after they became the first American duo to win three consecutive foursome matches as they were undefeated in 2023 as well. While they celebrated this, many fans were frustrated with the LPGA Tour because they were unable to witness the achievement. Many struggled to even get to the course, let alone watch the tournament, due to the limited availability of only five to seven buses at the venue for thousands of fans, causing delays of 1-2 hours in the bus lines.

Witnessing this recently, the LPGA Tour shared a post on X apologizing to fans and revealing that they have made the necessary changes to improve the condition. “We recognize and deeply apologize to all fans affected by the challenges with shuttling from parking to the golf course. We’ve made significant changes to our transportation system to mitigate these issues moving forward, and we’re working on ways to express our regret to those impacted,” read the post.

Despite the apologetic and regretful statement from the Tour, fans have no plans of forgiving the management. As the post went viral, the comment section was filled with a lot of anger and frustration from fans. Some are criticizing the LPGA Tour, while others are asking the tour to return their ticket money.

Fans want a ‘refund’ for their Solheim Cup experience

This fan not only talked about themselves but also expressed the frustration of other spectators, saying, “2 hours and 15 minutes from the time we got in line to arriving at the course. This is ruining the Solheim experience for thousands of new fans and is unacceptable given that you knew how many tickets had been purchased ahead of time. My 4th Solheim Cup—worst experience ever.” Speaking of new fans, reports suggest that nearly 100,000 fans are expected to attend the 2024 Solheim Cup throughout the week, compared to 65,000 last year’s. Despite being aware of this substantial increase, the LPGA Tour failed to make early preparations to manage the crowd, which ultimately spoiled the experience for many fans.

The general ticket price for the competition round of the tournament was $110, while it was $65 for the practice round. After this fan was unable to witness Korda and Corpuz making history on Friday, they straight up asked for a refund, saying, “How about refunding Thursday tickets since we all missed the morning session?” Expressing similar thoughts, another added, “Be interested to see how you ‘express your regret’. Money back is always good,” also adding that it would be a better way of apologizing instead of simply sharing a post.

One fan took a jab at the Tour and sarcastically asked a question: “You folks really underestimated interest and tried to do this on the cheap, right?” Despite expecting over 100,000 fans at Robert Trent Jones GC this week, around 2,000 seats remained empty in a grandstand at the first tee as many fans couldn’t reach the course on time on Friday as per reports from Golf Week. Considering that, this fan felt that the LPGA Tour’s transport management system neglected fans’ interests and failed to provide adequate facilities, as they only provided 5-7 buses for thousands of fans. LPGA Tour, in general, has been under scrutiny over arranging subpar facilities for the golfers. It happened at last year’s Solheim Cup as well when golfers flew commercial, and Danielle Kang lost her golf bag.

This fan not only expressed their frustration about the transport but also the negligence of the workers toward the situation, saying, “We were there at 5 am. Didn’t get on a bus till almost 6:30. The worker said she didn’t care and that people could fight it out, and whoever wins gets on the bus. The bus supervisor sat in his Mercedes, not doing anything!! Unacceptable!!” Meanwhile, this fan highlighted the fact that the Solheim Cup happens once in two years, saying, “Not good enough you had a year to play even longer,” even though people’s experiences were ruined first by the opening ceremony, where the camera angle and the sound system ruined the experience, and then the transportation management did the same.

What are your thoughts on the incident? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!