In 2021, Toledo hosting two women’s golf tournaments
In 2021, The Solheim Cup will come to Toledo. The biennial golf tournament is for professional women’s golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force behind its creation.
At a media day for this year’s Marathon Classic LPGA Tournament, representing the LPGA was Scott Wood, and he and tournament director Judd Silverman wanted to make one thing clear — that in 2021 the Marathon Classic will also be held the same summer as The Solheim Cup.
“Like Scott said, the Solheim Cup is going to be epic. It’s going to be just a wonderful event for this community,” Silverman said.
“When we had the bid for the Solheim Cup, we bid against five other cities, including Columbus, Ohio; San Antonio; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Fairfield, Connecticut, and the key that got the bid rolling straight downhill was the folks from Marathon Petroleum, because the first thing we had to do in our bid was find a sponsor or a local partner for $1.25 million and Marathon Petroleum stepped right up to the plate and committed that money.”
“So in the year 2021, and Marathon knew this, when we got the Solheim Cup bid, the LPGA said, ‘Hey, we’re thrilled that Toledo and Inverness won the bid for the Solheim Cup, but don’t think for a second that you can take a year off from the Marathon Classic. Why would we take a net loss for a tournament just to give Toledo the Solheim Cup? We have four or five other bidders,’ so Marathon knew that right up front and they will be the title sponsor of the Marathon Classic in July and will be a partner for the Solheim Cup in August of 2021. We can’t thank them enough for that.
“It is going to be a great event and already our corporate hospitality sales for the Solheim Cup are just going extraordinarily well. We’re thrilled to be a part of it,” Silverman continued.