The Solheim Cup is one of the biggest contests in golf, a sell-out matchplay spectacle, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that the tournament would offer a sizeable purse for the professionals taking part. Yet in an era where golfers are earning unprecedented amounts of money for playing the sport professionally you might be surprised to read that there is no money changing hands for participating in the Solheim Cup. No renumeration paid.
Instead, players are simply competing for their country, continent and sporting pride. Ask any one of the players selected to represent Europe or the USA what it means to them and they’ll tell you that they play for the sheer love of the competition and the personal pride it brings to be able to represent their nation. This is also the case for the men’s equivalent, the Ryder Cup. There is no prize money for the winning or losing team, or the player that gets the most points or anything like that.
That’s not to say that Solheim Cup players aren’t looked after like royalty for the week. They usually arrive via a team private jet, have chauffeur driven vehicles to whisk them to the venue, a lavish hotel to stay in and wonderful meals. Sponsors love the Solheim Cup because it is one of the few weeks when no player can have a brand allegiance, they all have to wear the same clothing so that they look super smart and united in their team uniform.
The Solheim Cup captain’s can also choose to treat their team to little personal gifts. There have been a few aptly chosen gifts over the years but the one we love was from back in 2015, when the United States’ team arrived at St. Leon-Rot Golf Club in Germany on a Monday to a team room laden with lunch boxes! Captain Juli Inkster had been saying to the press in the run-up to the tournament that she wanted her American team to take their lunch boxes to the Solheim Cup, in other words adopt a blue-collar, workman-like approach to winning the Cup back. So she decided that the most appropriate gift she could give each team member was indeed a lunchbox, which was waiting for them in the team room.
