by Marco Natale
We all know that women’s sport across the board, golf very much included, has suffered from a chronic lack of investment, sponsorship and media coverage.
But it’s exciting to see that things may finally be changing.
Ratings agency, Nielsen, released a report earlier this year that demonstrated that interest in women’s sport is growing, among both men and women.
And we are beginning to see media responding to this. In the UK, for example, the national newspaper The Telegraph launched a dedicated Women’s Sport section this year, and others are following suit.
The shift is in part due to the public simply waking up to the fact that the level of skill and performance in women’s sport is just as high as in men’s. But there’s another interesting side to this: the research shows that many people find women’s sports more “inspiring” and less “money-driven” than the men’s game.
The feeling that the major sporting leagues are driven entirely by money is something you will often hear banded about in bars and stadiums, amongst fans of almost any sport worldwide. This is why, in the United States, the college sports leagues are followed more fervently by many fans than the commercial leagues – because it’s more about the game.
Part of the reason that The Ryder Cup and The Solheim Cup are probably the most beloved events in men’s and women’s golf respectively, is that they manage to transcend all of that and engage with our patriotic spirit.
For Club Car, being able to support our 5th Solheim Cup with a fleet over 250 golf cars provided by Carryway this week is an especially proud moment, and one of the genuine highlights of our year. Not only have we been able to supply top of the range Tempo vehicles to transport these icons of the women’s game around Gleneagles in their gleaming red and blue team cars, but a fleet of our utility vehicles has been supporting every aspect of the event behind the scenes.
A wide range of our vehicles have provided everything from security, personnel and VIP transport, to mobilising hospitality, food and beverage around the site where needed. Rules officials, TV network personnel, greenkeeping staff and many more have depended on Club Car vehicles to get them where they need to be and keep the event running smoothly.
For us, it has been an honour to be a part of it, and to see our name up there with some the best in the sport as they did battle at Gleneagles has been simply inspiring.
If the public and the media are indeed waking up to the quality of women’s sport, as the reporting suggests, then this breathtaking week at The Solheim Cup is exactly what the game needs, and hopefully will provide a powerful boost to that forward momentum.