Wales Golf is ready to learn the lessons from this year’s AIG Women’s Open Championship to help ensure the biggest female sporting event ever held in Wales is a success and benefits Welsh golf.
The best female golfers in the world, including those competing this week in the Solheim Cup, will descend on Royal Porthcawl when the AIG Women’s Open comes to Wales for the first time in 2025.
Representatives from Wales Golf and the Welsh Government were in St Andrews for a fact-finding mission at this year’s AIG Women’s Open.
It will be the first time Welsh golf fans have had the opportunity to watch the world’s top female players so close to home, and a unique opportunity to boost women and girls golf participation in Wales through the legacy plans.
Wales Golf chairman Rob Holt is the former Chief Executive of Ryder Cup Wales, so knows a lot about how to capitalise on hosting a major golfing event to secure an ongoing impact in the sport.
“We want to work with The R&A and AIG, as the event sponsors, to maximise the crowds at the event and to use the event to inspire more women and girls to get into the game of golf “said Holt. “We want to inspire clubs to become involved and think about how female friendly their facilities may be, are there toilets for women on the course, are their clubhouses and changing facilities attractive for women and girls ”
“We are attracting many women and girls to the game through our New2golf scheme with courses run across Wales but the challenge is to keep them and help the sport grow. We want to get as many junior girls and women to the event as possible to they can see and be inspired by the top players, be these people in the future.”
“It’s not just about women, male players of all standards can be inspired by the balance and timing of fantastic athletes such as this year’s AIG Women’s Open winner and Olympic Gold medallist Lydia Ko, as well as the likes of World No,1 Nelly Korda.
“Hopefully there will be some Welsh players to support and we will of course be showcasing one of Europe’s finest links courses Royal Porthcawl and encouraging people to come to Wales to play our many wonderful courses.”
The fact-finding mission in St Andrews extended away from the on-course activity to the logistics of the event, and the festival village with something to do for all the family, including a sell-out concert by Tom Grennan on the Saturday night.
The event also includes a Women in Sport summit which will be replicated in 2025.
“I attended this year’s summit and was very impressed, but I know we can take it to the next level in 2025 ” said Holt.
While Wales Golf will be heavily involved in ensuring there will be an ongoing legacy from hosting the AIG Women’s Open, it will also be an All-Wales effort learning the lessons from the successful 2010 Ryder Cup.
Jason Thomas, Welsh Government Director of Tourism, Marketing, Events & Creative, added, “For me the best thing has been seeing such an incredible event start to unfold on such an impressive scale before my eyes. Seeing elite women golfers doing their thing is inspiring and makes you really look forward to next year when Wales hosts the event.
“The opportunity is immense: this will be the largest female sporting event we will have ever had in Wales, so to come here to learn more about what it takes to host such a successful tournament is invaluable. Building upon our previous success of hosting the Legends Tour and a Ryder Cup, we have still been able to take so many useful lessons from this year’s event.
“The important thing for me and my team is to see, first hand, the true scale of the event, so that we are in the best possible position to put on a memorable show for the world next year. The work has already started – making sure that we take full advantage of the great opportunity to tie the event into so many important policy areas across government – from equality, encouraging sports participation, signposting healthy lifestyles, growing our visitor economy and much more. It is just a wonderful chance to showcase what we can do. I can’t wait for Royal Porthcawl in 2025.”