The Solheim Cup is a major source of untapped potential for women’s golf

The Solheim Cup and its men’s equivalent, the Ryder Cup, are unique events on the golf calendar. Golf is typically an individual sport, but the Cups represent rare opportunities for athletes to team up and compete for their country or continent.

• Team USA and Team Europe each boast 12 golfers, a captain (their de facto coach), and three assistant or vice captains. Rosters are formed based on a combination of respective tour rankings and world rankings, plus at-large berths as selected by the captains.

• The three-day tourney features a mixture of foursomes, four-ball matches, and singles matches, and each match is worth one point for the team’s total as they strive to be the first to reach 14.5 points.

After years of poor or nonexistent broadcast coverage, the 2024 edition garnered impressive viewership thanks to its appearance on the Golf Channel and, for the first time since 2002, network TV. NBC’s Saturday broadcast captured 968K viewers, making it the second most-viewed telecast of the women’s golf season.

• It was a sizable boost from tourneys past, proving that with improved access, the Solheim Cup can pull in plenty of viewership and media attention. In-person fan attendance is also climbing, with more than 100K fans at the 2024 tourney in Virginia.

• The tournament has also created global partnerships with some of golf’s legacy brands, including Ping, Skyscanner, Rolex, John Deere, Adidas, and Trackman, and boasts numerous official sponsors like Amazon Web Services, PepsiCo, and Summit Golf Brands.

Notably, the Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup do not award prize money — teams play purely for national and continental pride. The players’ passion for competition speaks to the Cups’ special place in pro golf. That enthusiasm is contagious, making the Solheim Cup a one-of-a-kind draw for fans.

When it comes to growing the Solheim Cup, the LPGA and LET have a useful model: The men’s version, the Ryder Cup, is a massive cultural phenomenon. Last year’s final round averaged 3.22M viewers…and it was still the least-viewed final day in decades. Social media engagement was through the roof, and IRL attendance is a hot ticket — next year’s 100th anniversary event in Ireland is already sold out.

• With a bevy of elite tournament partners and sponsors, the Ryder Cup is big business. Last year was projected to generate more than $200M in revenue for the host area, New York State, and the previous U.S.–hosted tourney in 2021 brought in $143M.

• It also has major star power. Last year’s edition was hosted by SNL veteran Colin Jost, with appearances from fellow cast member Marcello Hernández and comedian Hannah Berner.

How has the Ryder Cup become such a juggernaut? Storytelling:The tournament’s promotional messaging centers on the passion the players bring to the tournament — they care, so the fans do, too. They also lean into rivalries between athletes (think Team Europe’s Rory McIlroy vs. Team USA’s Bryson DeChambeau) to drive audience interest and engagement.

• The Ryder Cup’s lore grew further thanks to Full Swing, Netflix’s pro men’s golf docuseries. The fourth season, released in April, focuses on the buildup to the 2025 tournament and its dramatic finale, giving it the Drive to Survive treatment and subsequent boost in fandom.

We’re not suggesting the Solheim Cup follow the Ryder Cup’s playbook verbatim. The tournament has cultivated a rowdy and at times toxic environment and reputation over the years, stoking nationalistic tensions and occasionally bringing out the worst of sports fandom.

• But the event’s success is undeniable, and there are plenty of learnings available for the Solheim Cup’s organizers.

The Solheim Cup’s accomplishments so far prove the tournament has potential. With the right investments, it could become a bigger part of the women’s sports boom and create an entry point for new fans to elevate the entire game of women’s golf. So how should the tourney move forward?

Leading with athlete-driven storytelling, as the Ryder Cup has done, is step one. It’s the not-so-secret key to the recent successes of the WNBA, NWSL, and other women’s sports leagues, and the Solheim Cup has already started.

• The tournament’s Instagram page now features more fun content demonstrating athletes’ personalities, in addition to the typical posts highlighting the tournament’s prestige. There’s also lots of content on the game’s rising stars, from Solheim Cup rookies to athletes in the juniors’ competition.

• However, the tourney’s messaging still has a long way to go. Maximizing this type of content and its distribution should be the priority, whether that’s by bringing in a celebrity host to interact with the players, expanding to TikTok, or even landing a Netflix docuseries (what, like it’s hard?).

Nurturing healthy rivalries between teams and individual players will help the Solheim Cup to engage fans even more. Three of this year’s rostered athletes — Team Europe’s Lottie Woad and Charley Hull, and Team USA’s Nelly Korda — rank in the world’s top 10, so it only makes sense to play up the competition between the sport’s brightest stars (who also happen to be great on camera, by the way).

Showcasing the personalities of the game, telling fans why they care about the Solheim Cup, and emphasizing its prestige won’t just draw in golf fans — it will expand the game’s reach to sports fans in general. Then, step two will be making sure they can actually watch it.