GAINESVILLE, Va. — Emily Donohue and Maureen Conway flew in from Ireland earlier this week to watch the Solheim Cup, the crown jewel of the LPGA. They arrived at the Jiffy Lube Live parking lot at 6:45 a.m., eager to spend the morning on a wild first tee at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it through the gates until 9:15 a.m. The father and daughter, who were ahead of them in line, left the building after waiting 30 minutes. Countless fans turned around and never came back after hearing that wait times for the shuttle buses were two to three hours.

The first tee at Friday morning’s Solheim Cup, which this year seats 2,000, was a shadow of what it has been for decades. It’s arguably the best place for women’s golf all season. But not this time. Fans who had waited months, even years, to be part of what was supposed to be the greatest Solheim Cup of all time were left in the parking lot.

Solheim Cup: Scoreboard, Teams | Photos

To make matters worse, the portable toilets in the parking lot were locked. And they paid for parking – $30. In addition to the tickets, the flight, accommodation and time off work.

“People with disabilities, people with young children, it’s not fair to them,” Donohue said. “They want a big crowd here. I don’t know how they didn’t foresee this.”

Fans of Team United States on the first tee during the first round of the 2024 Solheim Cup at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club on September 13, 2024 in Gainesville, Virginia. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)

What happened on Friday at the 19th Solheim Cup reveals a systemic problem with the LPGA. Simply put, they are not ready for prime time.

In the first half of the 2024 season, Nelly Korda had a run of historic proportions, and the Tour failed to capitalize on that moment. Korda’s incredible performance, winning six out of seven events, including a major, didn’t get the attention it deserved. There were a number of factors for that, but the bottom line remains the same. The Tour waited a long time for an American star to make a run like that, and not much came of it.

Fast forward to this week, which has been marked on the calendar as a great opportunity to advance the women’s game, now is the time to attract fans who don’t normally follow the tour but are drawn in by the passion and patriotic fervour.

Instead, fans who were considering coming to the event this weekend may decide to stay home. Fans who have already purchased tickets for tomorrow’s round said Golf Week they won’t come back. Some want their money back.

The Daffodils have been coming to the Solheim Cups since 2011: Tricia O’Brien, Lynne Gwilyn, Ruth Leonard and Pauline Halliday (Golfweek photo)

The Daffodils, four women from Wales who have been coming to the Solheim Cup since 2011 and wear floral yellow costumes, arrived at 5:20 a.m. on Friday to find that there was not a single bus in the parking lot. They had been told the day before that the first bus would be loaded and ready to leave at 5:45 a.m. so it would be there when the gates opened at 6 a.m.

The Daffodils say the first bus didn’t arrive until 6:10 a.m. and the first three buses were filled with volunteers who had to get to their posts. They also noted that security was questionable at the beginning, with only two security officers conducting random bag checks.

Throughout the day, officials allowed fans to take an Uber from the parking lot to the main entrance. One fan who took an Uber with several others said their luggage was never checked, only their tickets.

Fans described the mood in the huge line as solemn and subdued. The air was filled with disappointment.

@LPGA @SolheimCupUSA @TheSolheimCup This is really bad. We’ve been waiting for the shuttle to the Solheim Cup for two hours now and we’re still over a hundred yards from the pick-up point. There are people in wheelchairs a quarter mile away. pic.twitter.com/DJIz4BVGib

— Bill Belcher (@Belcherwm) 13 September 2024

The LPGA released a brief statement apologizing for the shuttle challenges and noting that they had brought about “significant changes to our transportation system.”

Beyond that, however, nothing further has been said, despite repeated attempts by the media to get details about what went wrong and how the tour can assure its fans that everything will be sorted out for Friday afternoon or even the weekend.

After all, fans had to wait up to two and a half hours after the opening ceremony and the concert on Thursday evening before they could board the bus. The tour gave them no reason for optimism.

Transparency and accountability are paramount in a failure of this magnitude. LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux-Samaan should have met with the media on Friday and answered questions. She should have gone out into the parking lot with water bottles and jewelry in hand and talked to fans. Maybe she should have even brought some of her own.

The line to exit the building is currently so long that it almost reaches the main gate. A man in line started running his stopwatch.

There is only one transporter for disabled people. One man from Arizona estimates that he has to wait 90 minutes. The transporter only fits two wheelchairs at a time. pic.twitter.com/RKPU5pfmTl

— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) 13 September 2024

Fans were not alone in their early morning frustration. When players arrived to warm up around 6 a.m. this morning, only two lights were on on the driving range. Teams had to huddle on one side of the range and use the lights on their golf carts to see the golf ball.

It was a week of firefighting, even though it was supposed to be a week when the LPGA was stirring up excitement in the sports world.

ESPN sending a push notification about the Solheim Cup that had nothing to do with golf is a stain on the tour. Not even the presence of former President Barack Obama could make up for the day’s debacle.

It’s time for some difficult conversations.