“Epic fail.”

“Disaster.”

“Debacle.”

“S***show.”

That’s how fans who actually made it to Robert Trent Jones Golf Club on Friday morning described their shuttle experience getting to the course. For the rest of the thousands of fans still standing in line at the Jiffy Lube Live parking lot as of mid-morning local time, we’ll have to wait well into the afternoon to hear what words they use to recount their adventure. That’s if they haven’t given up and gone home out of frustration – a reasonable course of action when you’re locked out of the portable restrooms while you wait.

 

Let’s rewind a few hours to before sunrise at the first tee. I visited the grandstands shortly after 6:00 am and found just a couple hundred fans in their seats. More alarming was that the staircases were completely empty. No one was streaming into the first-come, first-serve stands to claim their spot at the best theater in women’s golf.

Things then went from bad to worse. It quickly became clear that the first tee atmosphere would be severely lacking when two of the most recognizable faces in the game, Nelly Korda and Charley Hull, led off the proceedings just after 7 a.m. local time. Reports from those a few miles away who arrived at the shuttle site in what should have been plenty of time to see the first groups tee off shared that they’d barely moved at all.

“Obviously you notice that the stands aren’t full, but what matters is everyone is out here now cheering for us loud,” Korda said after closing out an opening point for the USA side in the morning foursomes session.

Shortly after 9:00 a.m. local, the LPGA sent out the following statement:

We recognize and deeply apologize to all fans affected by the challenges with shuttling from parking to the golf course. We’ve made significant changes to our transportation system to mitigate these issues moving forward, and we’re working on ways to express our regret to those impacted.

Based on the mood (which can only be described as mad as hell) of the dozen or so fans I spoke to this morning, these words won’t do much of anything to ease their frustrations. A group of older women using their portable seats for support while entering the course said they won’t be returning tomorrow. The damage has been done, and the LPGA, by its own hand, has somehow managed to maybe even shrink its fan base at its biggest event of the year. An wildly impressive feat on a morning that should be a stain on the organization into the future.