Solheim Cup stars Suzann Pettersen of Norway and Morgan Pressel from the United States officially launched “The Road To the 2011 Solheim Cup” at Killeen Castle in Ireland last week.
Killeen Castle is the venue for the biennial match between the European and American Solheim Cup teams in 2011 over a new Jack Nicklaus Signature Design course.
“From what I’ve seen, the course looks absolutely stunning,” said Pettersen, a veteran of four Solheim Cup clashes. “This place looks fantastic and I can’t wait for 2011 to come.”
Pressel, who made her debut in the event at Halmstad in Sweden in 2007 added: “It looks beautiful. It looks like a really first class spot. I think it will be a great host to the 2011 Solheim Cup. When we played in Sweden we had a lot of fun and even though it’s overseas we still had a great time. Hopefully we can come back overseas and win again.”
Also in attendance at the launch on Wednesday were Colm Doherty, managing director of AIB Capital Markets who earlier this year signed up as a Global Partner of The 2009 and 2011 Solheim Cups, John Solheim, CEO of PING Golf and founding sponsor of The Solheim and Emma Sweeny, golf development officer for Fà¡ilte Ireland, which played a key role alongside AIB in bringing the most prestigious international team event in women’s professional golf to Ireland.
John Solheim said, “Golf is really special here. Some of the greatest players came from Ireland and the level of the course at Killeen Castle is phenomenal.”
Killeen Castle www.nicklaus.com/design/killeen