Golf’s Most Shocking Stories of 2024: The Solheim Cup Transportation Mess

The highly anticipated biennial battle of women’s golf was marred by a shuttle gaffe and the LPGA’s slow reaction to it.

Fans were able to fill the first-tee grandstands for the afternoon session on Friday, but the morning was a different story. / Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

As 2024 comes to a close, SI Golf’s writers and editors reflect on the year’s craziest stories.

The opening tee shot at a Solheim, Ryder or Presidents Cup is one of the most spirited moments in sports. 

But at this year’s Solheim Cup it lacked energy, with the grandstands half-empty. 

That was because of a transportation screw-up. 

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Many fans heading to Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va., used the event’s shuttle service from Jiffy Lube Live, an outdoor concert venue about five miles from the course that was serving as a parking lot. Those fans, after paying $30 for parking and much more for tickets, ended up waiting hours Friday morning in a line that stretched over a mile long.

The outrage was swift. The LPGA’s response was not.  

Much later on Friday, the LPGA issued a statement promising improvements for Saturday. A letter to fans was emailed, offering free tickets for the weekend.

The next day LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan addressed the issue. 

“It’s a complicated question, and again, we were writing spreadsheets and trying to figure it all out,” she said when asked how many buses were available. “We didn't have enough buses in the morning, clearly.”

Robert Trent Jones GC had hosted four Presidents Cups (1994, 1996, 2000, 2005) and the PGA Tour’s Quicken Loans National in 2015. There were no reported transportation mishaps. 

“This was an LPGA issue,” Marcoux Samaan said.

Bob Harig: This was inexcusable and remains so, especially in light of so many logistical issues a year prior in Spain – those were not the LPGA’s fault. Surely the powers that be should have noted that those same issues could not occur at the American venue, but they did anyway.

Jeff Ritter: It was a tough moment for the LPGA and while Marcoux Samaan eventually took ownership, this blunder and her slow response may have sealed her exit a couple of months later. 

John Schwarb: The next chance the LPGA will get at a logistically clean Solheim Cup will be in 2028 at Valhalla, and now we’ll see if a different commissioner can get it right.