First Blood to Europe as Americans lick their wounds.
ON THE last day they came in their thousands. Maybe it was the sunshine. Maybe it was the glut of Europeans in contention and particularly the Swedes. Maybe it was the large canvas of Killeen Castle. But Sunday in Dunsany enveloped the AIB Ladies Irish Open in warmth and blue skies. Event promoter for next year’s Solheim Cup Roddy Carr felt the three-day total of 35,000 spectators was good reason for optimism for next year’s staging of the battle between Europe and America. Next year, too, the Americans will be coming with bigger names and a more aggressive attitude.
“We’d 35,000 for the week,” said Carr. “Our greatest expectations were 15,000. We started (the Irish Open) with 10,000. We did 15,000 the second year and we said if we did 20,000 this year we’d be delighted.
“We had the best here. Look at the scoring and the way they played. The last four Solheim Cups have had 100,000 people attending. Our target for next year is between 80,000 and 100,000 and I’m now fairly confident the support will be there.
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