The Solheim Cup 2023 remains in Europe – Finca Cortesin hosts women’s biggest golf tournament

It’s a great feat and has taken years nd the hard work of many dedicated people, passionate about making the dream a reality: the prestigious Solheim Cup, which is the biggest event in women’s sport, when it’s Europe vs USA on the golf course, will finally come to Spain! It’s a massive achievement for the country, for Andalusia and the Costa del Sol, but also for professional women golfers on the tour. To be staged at the luxury hotel Finca Cortesín, with a fabulous golf course to match, this time it’ll be the Ladies Tour making its way to the Southern Spain.
In 1997, it was the Ryder Cup, held at Real Club Valderrama in Sotogrande, when the golfing world descended on to the Costa for an epic tournament that is still remembered for it’s awesome win over the United States, but, of course, also for the legendary captaincy of Severiano Ballesteros. Now is the chance for the ladies to get even, taking the female version of this prestigious tournament to Finca Cortesín, located in Casares, half an hour south of Marbella.
The press conference, staged by the Marbellan town hall, to present the great news to local and national media properly, took place on the helipad in Puerto Banus, where luxury yachts line up one after another and designer shops nestle neck at neck along the frontline of the port. With safety distance in mind, the cup and tournament was presented by local officials of the town hall and the water board, to name but a few, but also those of the Spanish Golf Federation, who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes. All of them passionate about golf (which isn’t difficult with over 70 courses on the Costa del Sol), but also keen to push women’s sport into the limelight, with many Spanish professional golfers on the tour, eager to see this greatest of tournaments played ‘at home’.

Costa de Sol Announced as the Host for the Solheim Cup 2023!

The LET (Ladies European Tour) has recently announced that Spain will host the prestigious Solheim Cup in 2023, with the world-famous course of Finca Cortesín on the Costa del Sol playing host to the event. Although Spain has been home to plenty of high-profile events in the world of sports before, with a rich history of supporting both men’s and women’s tournaments at elite levels of the game, this will be the first time that is plays host to the Solheim Cup.

Spain will follow in the footsteps of countries such as Scotland and America, with the former hosting the ladies’ tournament in 2019 and the latter set to be the location for the 2021 event. As the newly announced hosts of the 2023 Solheim Cup, Spain will become the sixth European nation to stage this world-famous sporting event.

Popularity of Women’s Sport

The continued growth of the Ladies European Tour should come as no surprises as women’s sport in general has been steadily growing in popularity in recent years, gaining widespread recognition across all of the most popular areas. Take women’s football for example, the 2018 Women’s World Cup broke records in 2019 when its viewership surpassed 1.12bn. Tennis too has received plenty of recognition in no small part thanks to the work on the Williams sisters with the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open drawing 2.07m viewers. Beach ball, freestyle skiing (fronted by the awesome racer Fanny Smith) and kite surfing/kite-foiling (with Gisela Pulido as a great ambassador) have also seen a surge in popularity when it comes to women’s sport as has, of course, golf.

Golf on the Costa del Sol

Located on the southern coastline of Spain, the scenic Costa del Sol covers nearly 160 kilometres of breath-taking landscape and aside from being a popular holiday destination, it is considered of the top golfing destinations in Europe with over 70 courses on the Costa for both casual players and golfing pros to enjoy. Amongst these courses, the Costa can lay claim to a World Matchplay course, a Ryder Cup course, and several courses which host the Spanish Open.

The best of these world-class courses, alongside the 2023 Solheim Cup location Finca Cortesin, includes Real Club Valderrama, La Reserva, Real Sotogrande, El Chaparral, and the Aloha Golf Club, amongst many others. All of these golf hotspots stand against the backdrop of some of Spain’s most popular lifestyle destination like Marbella, Malaga which attract glamourous sun seekers and gold enthusiasts each year.