“Catastrophe.”

“Debacle.”

“S***present.”

That is how followers who truly made it to Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership on Friday morning described their shuttle expertise attending to the course. For the remainder of the hundreds of followers nonetheless standing in line on the Jiffy Lube Reside parking zone as of mid-morning native time, we’ll have to attend effectively into the afternoon to listen to what phrases they use to recount their journey. That is in the event that they have not given up and gone dwelling out of frustration – an inexpensive plan of action if you’re locked out of the portable restrooms while you wait,

what a nightmare https://t.co/8HVtjAShha

— Fried Egg Golf (@fried_egg_golf) September 13, 2024

Mannnnn it is a brutal scenario for followers … look how many individuals are in line making an attempt to get in! https://t.co/9WPed4beyv

— Shane Bacon (@shanebacon) September 13, 2024

Let’s rewind just a few hours to earlier than dawn on the first tee. I visited the grandstands shortly after 6:00 am and located only a couple hundred followers of their seats. Extra alarming was that the staircases have been utterly empty. Nobody was streaming into the first-come, first-serve stands to say their spot at the most effective theater in girls’s golf.

Issues then went from dangerous to worse. It rapidly grew to become clear that the primary tee ambiance could be severely missing when two of essentially the most recognizable faces within the recreation, Nelly Korda and Charley Hull, led off the proceedings simply after 7 am native time. Experiences from these just a few miles away who arrived on the shuttle web site in what ought to have been loads of time to see the primary teams tee off shared that they’d barely moved in any respect.

It is lower than 25 minutes till the primary group tees off. There are complete sections of the stands which are empty. Transportation catastrophe. pic.twitter.com/SWVBRKuKpT

— Fried Egg Golf (@fried_egg_golf) September 13, 2024

“Clearly you discover that the stands aren’t full, however what issues is everyone seems to be out right here now cheering for us loud,” Korda stated after closing out a gap level for the USA facet within the morning foursomes session.

Shortly after 9:00 am native, the LPGA despatched out the next assertion:

We acknowledge and deeply apologize to all followers affected by the challenges with shuttling from parking to the golf course. We have made important modifications to our transportation system to mitigate these points transferring ahead, and we’re engaged on methods to precise our remorse to these impacted.

Based mostly on the temper (which might solely be described as mad as hell) of the dozen or so followers I spoke to this morning, these phrases will not do a lot of something to ease their frustrations. A gaggle of older girls utilizing their transportable seats for help whereas coming into the course stated they will not be returning tomorrow. The harm has been accomplished, and the LPGA, by its personal hand, has someway managed to perhaps even shrink its fan base at its largest occasion of the 12 months. An wildly spectacular feat on a morning that needs to be a stain on the group into the long run.

Dropping followers throughout what needs to be a celebration of the game is admittedly one thing else https://t.co/gq4nlCfdJx

— Meg Adkins (@megadkins_TFE) September 13, 2024