Estimated 100,000 expected to attend Solheim Cup in Meath

One tour operator involved in arranging packages for the Solheim Cup golf tournament - which will take place at Killeen Castle Golf Club from 23rd-25th September 2011 - has already sold 1,000 packages in Meath, a recent meeting of Trim Town Council was told. Cllr Gerry Reilly raised the issue of the Solheim Cup, which is the Ryder Cup equivalent for professional women golfers, and its importance for the county, saying that the sports event "would be huge for the county and for local businesspeople". The Junior Solheim Cup event is expected to take place at Knightsbrook Golf Club, Trim, the previous weekend. Trim Town Manager Kevin Stewart said the tournament would be an enormous opportunity for local businesses and a huge challenge for the county. He said: "The event is creeping up on us. When I first heard about it, it was four years away. There will be an estimated crowd of 100,000. It will be the single biggest sporting event in the country that year and the largest women-only event that year in the world." He said that Trim would be one of the important hubs and he knew a lot of the tour operators had been in discussons with local hotels. "One tour operator said they have sold 1,000 packages already where they were staying primarily in Meath. There is enormous business to be done and it is an enormous challenge to get involved and put our best foot forward," said Mr Stewart. He added that Meath Tourism and Meath County Council had been at the Ladies' Pro-Am event at Black Bush Golf Club, Dunshaughlin, and a recent fashion show in Navan to promote the event. "Businesses need to be working together to see what sort of business they can do," he added. Considered the premier event in women's world golf, the Solheim Cup is a biennial trans-Atlantic matchplay competition that will see 12 of the top European-born players from the Ladies European Tour (LET) pitted against 12 top American-born players from the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).