“Epic failure.”
“Disaster.”
“Debacle.”
“Shitshow.”
That’s how fans who actually made it to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club on Friday morning described their shuttle experience on the way to the golf course. The remaining thousands of fans who were still standing in line in the Jiffy Lube Live parking lot on mid-morning local time will have to wait well into the afternoon to hear what they say about their adventure. That is, if they didn’t give up and go home in frustration – a sensible thing to do when you’re locked out of the portable restrooms while you wait.
What a nightmare https://t.co/8HVtjAShha
— Fried Egg Golf (@fried_egg_golf) 13 September 2024
Mannnn this is a brutal situation for fans… look at how many people are waiting in line to get in! https://t.co/9WPed4beyv
— Shane Bacon (@shanebacon) 13 September 2024
Rewind a few hours to before sunrise on the first tee. I visited the stands just after 6:00 a.m. and found only a few hundred fans in their seats. Even more alarming, the steps were completely empty. No one was flocking to the stands, which were allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, to secure their place in the finest theater in women’s golf.
Then things got worse. It quickly became clear that the atmosphere on the first tee was going to be very lacking when two of the game’s most familiar faces, Nelly Korda and Charley Hull, opened the event just after 7 a.m. local time. Reports from those who arrived at the shuttle site a few miles away and had enough time to see the first groups tee off said they barely moved.
There are less than 25 minutes until the first group tees off. Whole sections of the stands are empty. Traffic disaster. pic.twitter.com/SWVBRKuKpT
— Fried Egg Golf (@fried_egg_golf) 13 September 2024
“Of course you notice that the stands are not full, but what matters is that everyone is here now and cheering us loudly,” Korda said after scoring an opening point for the U.S. team in the morning foursome session.
Shortly after 9:00 a.m. local time, the LPGA sent out the following statement:
We recognize the difficulties and would like to deeply apologize to any fans affected by the difficulty of commuting from the parking lot to the golf course. We have made significant changes to our transportation system to mitigate these issues in the future and are working on ways to express our regrets to those affected.
Given the mood (which can only be described as angry as hell) of the dozen or so fans I spoke to this morning, those words will do little to ease their frustration. A group of elderly women, leaning on portable seats as they entered the course, said they would not be back tomorrow. The damage is done, and the LPGA has somehow managed to, perhaps even shrink his fan base at his biggest event of the year. An incredibly impressive performance on a morning that will likely be a stain on the organization in the future.
Losing fans when you should be celebrating the sport is really something else https://t.co/gq4nlCfdJx
— Meg Adkins (@megadkins_TFE) 13 September 2024
