Solheim Cup: The World’s About To Get Toledoed

Last week, I got to enjoy a bagpipe competition almost as though I was there. It was in Glasgow, Scotland, featuring five of the top pipers in that country – where they take their piping seriously. For the first time in 18 months, these pipers were competing before an in-person audience, in addition to thousands of people like me watching the livestream.

Further, as closely associated with Scotland as bagpipes is golf. It’s where the sport originated. And while Glasgow last week was the center of the bagpiping world, at the end of August, the center of the golf world will be right here in Toledo.

The Solheim Cup, the biggest tournament for professional women golfers held every other year, switching between the United States and Europe, will be from Aug. 31 to Sept. 6 at Toledo’s famed Inverness Club.  The top 12 women golfers from the U.S. will tee off against their top 12 counterparts from Europe.

Flocking to the city to see those 24 golfers will be thousands – if not tens of thousands – of people, many expected to be here from overseas. Thousands – if not millions – more will watch on National TV.

That means, to borrow from Rachel Richardson in her Aug. 6 SBC blog, the nation – if not the world – is BAM! About to be Toledoed.

Among her definitions of the term and its variations was this: “…if a person builds a life through meaningful connection and surrounds themselves with rich experiences and histories, they are bound to feel the familiar swell of support, embrace, and nourishment. The best kind of Toledoing.”

Toledo has been preparing to welcome these golfers and golf enthusiasts for several years, sprucing up downtown and otherwise laying the groundwork for a smooth tournament – providing rich experiences. Likewise, the Inverness Club itself, as well as the elegant Solheim Cup trophy and the tournament, are rich with history.

The city, northwest Ohio, and southeast Michigan are poised to support and embrace the golfers and fans.

I’m no fan, and certainly not a golfer, but I appreciate the buzz around the Cup and its significance to the local economy – one estimate put spending by those in town for the spectacle at $32 million.

What interests me, and likely those in the marketing community, is afterwards.  When the Cup is awarded, the celebrations wind down, and the throngs leave, wouldn’t it be good to hear from those who played a role in bringing the tournament to Toledo? What did and what didn’t work in promoting the Cup? Why and possibly why not? What can be learned from the marketing effort? What can be done differently, if anything, to entice a major event – or business – to call Toledo home, if even for a while? The answers might be enlightening.

One more thing: at the ceremony to introduce the golfers from each team will be…a bagpiper.