Irish must sweat on Solheim skipper’s late wildcard picks

EUROPEAN skipper Alison Nicholas has refused to rule out handing an Irish player one of her four wildcards for the Solheim Cup clash with the United States at Killeen Castle in 150 days’ time.

But whatever about a visible Irish presence inside the ropes for the biggest event in women’s professional golf, global partners AIB — the others are Ping, Rolex and Golf Ireland — will have no corporate branding in place at the County Meath venue from September 23-25.

In 2007, the now beleaguered banking group was locked into an estimated €2.5m, five-year deal to sponsor the Solheim Cup, as well as five editions of the Ladies’ Irish Open until 2012

But not only was there no representative of the bank at yesterday’s official Solheim Cup launch at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin, AIB’s corporate logo was conspicuous by its absence and will not be present at Killeen Castle in September.

The cash will remain in place but the removal of the bank’s branding is a sensitivity issue — a strategic move designed to avoid a public backlash following its €13.3billion taxpayer bailout.

In a statement, the bank said: “AIB entered a five-year contract in 2007 which saw it sponsor the Solheim Cup until 2011. The change in AIB’s structure and business focus now means that international benefits of the AIB brand association of this sponsorship are no longer as relevant.”

It seems likely that a similar decision will be taken regarding AIB’s branding rights as title sponsors of this year’s €400,000 Ladies’ Irish Open, set for Killeen Castle from August 5-7.

It also appears likely that there will be no home player in the host side for the first time in the history of the Solheim Cup, despite the captain’s reluctance to rule out the presence of leading Irish tour players Rebecca Codd (nee Coakley) or Martina Gillen.

But Nicholas doesn’t fear a repeat of the 2007 Seve Trophy debacle at the Heritage, where the absence of an Irish player and a clash with the National Ploughing Championships in Tullamore led to poor attendances.

“Not from the reception I have had from the clubs so far,” said Nicholas, who is touring the country giving clinics for the 155 Solheim Cup ambassadors who have volunteered to push ticket sales at their clubs. “The response I’ve had has been fantastic.”

Nicholas will have visited 30 clubs when she concludes her tour and she believes she has bonded with Irish fans.

“They want to support the event and they want to support me as well because I have been able to connect with them,” she said.

More than 14,000 season tickets have already been sold and organisers are expecting more than 100,000 fans to turn up over the five days, while the event is said by organisers to be worth just under €35m to the Irish economy.