Ladies: “Make some noise, please!”

When I first heard about the plans for a new Golf Week in Holland, I must admit, it didn’t really rock my boat.  Now that may surprise you to hear.  After all, the aim of our ‘Golfing Inspirations’ website is to inspire everyone to play golf, either to play more often or simply to take up this wonderful game.  It’s a happy on-line golf magazine with blogs, stories, radio interviews and inspiring images, all of which are posted to portray the positive aspects of golf and encourage people to: “Get happy. Play golf!” 

 

So you can then perhaps imagine how my happy new golf season came to a grinding halt when news came in that the traditional ‘Nederlandse Kampioenschap voor Dames’,  which began in 1986 and had been known as the Deloitte Ladies Open for the past few years, had been scrapped.  In its place a jazzed-up Golf Week was to be held in May.  The “week”, in fact, was just three days and included two separate matchplay tournaments:  the ‘Ladies Nations Invitational’ for a small cluster of European lady professionals, and the ‘ING Private Banking Cup’ for 16 Dutch amateur clubs.  Added to this there was to be a sort of entertainment playground with music, fast food, a lounge atmosphere for the papas and mamas and loads of adventure for the kids in a special fun park, which probably wouldn’t have much to do with golf – or at least in my then sceptical vision.

 

 

And so the new ‘ING Private Banking Golf Week’  teed-off on the fancy fairways of The International near Amsterdam on a drizzly Friday, 20th May.  It appeared the weather gods shared my sentiments.

 

The organisers, the Dutch Golf Federation (NGF) and sports marketing bureau TIG, had already had two strokes of bad luck.  First, the 20-year old home-grown talent Anne van Dam, who had featured in much of their pre-publicity, had to pull-out of ‘Team Oranje’ due to a back injury and then one of the stars of the Ladies European Tour (LET) and past winner of the Dutch Ladies Open at Broekpolder in 2011, Melissa Reid, also withdrew.

 

As a lover of tradition, I was finding it very difficult to keep an open mind, even though I’m pretty game for new ideas and innovation.  If the new Golf Week had come along to give the Dutch Ladies Open a boost instead of replacing it, then I would have been really excited.  But to see Holland scrap the traditional-style open championship was rather hard for me to swallow.  I could only imagine how disappointed the Tour must be feeling to lose one of their most-cherished tournaments.

 

 

And so it was that I ventured to The International with a lump in my throat.  As I entered the car park and the sound of loud music and the smell of fast food wafted my way on the stiff breeze, I felt even worse.  Gulp – here we go, I thought, I’m now about to experience how golf is destined to be in the future.

 

Dashing on-course commentators

 

Yet, rather surprisingly, by the time I reached the 10th tee (the first hole of the pro event), the upbeat music booming all around the tiny grandstand had begun to sweep me off my feet – well, ever so slightly.  The enthusiasm of the players as they danced their way on to the tee-box in teams of three to the sound of the beat from the three-day resident greenside DJ swept me along a little bit further.  Trick golf show professional and debutant first-tee-host-slash-starter for the week, Mark Reynolds, and the cheering supporters with noisy clapper fans did their bit to spice things up even further.  Possibly mission accomplished, I thought, or at least one of them.  Even though it was on a teeny-weeny scale, the organisers had already achieved one of their aims – to create a flavour of the Solheim Cup’s lively atmosphere.

 

 

Even in the rain I heard a variety of positive comments from spectators – the old brigade of golfing die-hards as well as the next generation.  Another innovation were the dashing, young on-course commentators, Wouter de Vries among them, who kept everyone in touch with the matches via scores and nice-to-know chatty snippets.  Much needed, as it happened.  The format of the Ladies Nations Invitational was complicated, to say the least.  The lady tour pros played in groups of six: two teams of three against each other in each round with one match played as a singles and the other as a foursomes.  As each team member was allowed to help the others out with clubbing and checking the line of a putt, there were on occasion three players over a ball.  So, yes, that was pretty confusing for the golf fans at times, especially as the girls were dressed in team colours.

 

   

 

The caddies with bibs boldly bearing their country’s flags and player’s names did also help save the day though and add a touch more colour to the proceedings especially on the grey, drizzly days when everyone was clad in rainsuits.  Giant bright orange bean bags for ‘chilling out’ around the first tee and 18th green were fun too as were the flags handed out to the fans to cheer for their favourite team, be it Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, Norway or Scotland.

 

The NGF and TIG were looking to breathe new life into golf with the launch of the ING Private Banking Golf Week.  Although spectator numbers did not vastly improve this year, if at all, it is an interesting concept and certainly one worth giving a second chance.

 

At the beginning of the week the players were still coping with the loss of one of the oldest championships on the Ladies European Tour.  Although many admitted that if sponsorship was difficult to find, then a team format event with less prizemoney was better than no tournament at all. The winner of the Dutch Ladies Open, by the way, used to pick-up a cheque for 37,500 euros.  The winning trio of the new Nations team event had to share the 18,000 euro first prize.  Even so the professionals were very grateful to ING Private Banking for stepping-in and sponsoring the 30,000 euro prizefund this year.

 

 

Good fun and serious golf

 

During the tournament, that sentiment changed slightly.  In fact, in their winners’ speech, Kylie Walker, Carly Booth and Laura Murray from Team Scotland referred to the Ladies Nations Invitational as “a breath of fresh air …”.  Team England, represented by Florentyna Parker, Hannah Burke and Danielle Montgomery, seemed to smile their way round The International resulting in a well-earned second spot.  All were in agreement, the new event was a mix of good fun and serious golf and was a refreshing change from their normal schedule.

 

Of course, the perfect scenario would be to have the Dutch Ladies Open Championship in its traditional form and the Golf Week as a separate event.  Yes, that would really be the icing on the cake.  Indeed, with the support of a few more generous sponsors, the lovely ladies on the European Tour could then have their cake, and eat it!  Let’s just hope the next edition is without the rain …

 

Wendy Hoad

 

© Photography by Golfing Inspirations

 

 

COMING SOON …

 

VIEW IMAGES for our photographic impression of the Golf Week.

LISTEN to the players and learn more about the future of the Golf Week.

MORE BLOGS over the Golf Week.

For further information and scores: www.inggolfweek.nl