TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - Inverness Club in Toledo officially announced it has been chosen as the host site for the 2021 Solheim Cup Wednesday afternoon.
Similar to the men's Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup matches the best in women's golf from the United States and Europe.
In 20-21 the Solheim Cup is officially coming to Toledo's Inverness Club. The international cup is expected to bring tens of thousands of people
to the area.
The announcement was made to a room full of community members, young female golfers and business leaders on Wednesday at the Inverness Club.
The competition was fierce to win the bid for Solheim Cup in 2021, but ultimately Toledo won. Organizers believe it's happening because of the overwhelming support from the community
"It's fun to win a bid like this as a community and I can't say enough about Toledo and Northwest Ohio and Inverness and it's going to be a great
event in five years," said Judd Silverman, Marathon Classic tournament director.
Organizers put together a bid to bring the Solheim Cup to Toledo. That bid included not only Inverness's championship golf course, but also more than 50 local businesses support. Already they have gotten millions of dollars in support to hold the event.
Marathon Petroleum will be a global partner for the event.
"For us it was an opportunity to kind of reach the pinnacle of the LPGA and to do it right here in Toledo," said Tom Kelley, Marathon Petroleum's senior vice president of marketing. "So we couldn't be more thrilled to have the event come here."
While the cup won't be in town for another five years, excitement is building.
Event organizers assume about 40,000 to 50,000 people could be at the tournament in one day with close to 15,000 of them coming from Europe.
"Those people will be traveling to Toledo. They will be staying in our hotels, filling our restaurants. They could be going to Cedar Point, they could be going on Lake Erie, going to museums, parks, and Hensville," explained Richard Hylant, executive vice president for Hylant. "They are going to be in the community for a week doing a lot of activity."
Organizers said one concern was if there was enough hotel rooms to accommodate the thousands of visiting guests, but that was quickly answered
by the new projects expected in Toledo by 2021.
"It couldn't be a better time for us," said Judd Silverman. "Over these next five years everything will get completed just in time for the Solheim Cup to be here. I know our community will do a great job for all our visitors and for the players."
Although the tournament is still five years away, there's no question the excitement will continue to build for this one-of-a-kind event.
