Lena Souminen has been enjoying the past year as Lady Captain of los Naranjos Golf and has just been appointed as an Ambassador of the Solheim Cup. Lena´s ability to encourage and inspire and to convey the importance and pride of being awarded the Solheim Cup in 2023, have all been essential elements contributing to her becoming a member of the Solheim Ambassador Club.
The message is very clear: Andalucía, and in particular the Costa del Sol, are 100% backing women’s golf.
So we know that this support had already started with the celebration of the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open and two years ago, with the Race to Costa del Sol but it will now be further enhanced with the hosting of the most important women`s sporting event: “The Solheim coming to Spain is a terrific opportunity to promote women’s golf as a sport and not just a social pastime. To be an Ambassador will give me the opportunity to spread the message to all members of the Club – mostly Swedish, Swiss and German – that we are hosting the Solheim Cup in 2023. They will then circulate the news to their clubs in their home countries, resulting in people wanting to come and see the competition: or if they can’t make it for the Solheim, they can at least come to play golf here. When people are able to travel once again, the whole world should know that the Solheim Cup is a wonderful event not only for Andalucía but for the entire area as well, bearing in mind that Finca Cortesín doesn´t have the capacity to host the number of visitors expected so many people would have to stay elsewhere.¨ commented Lena.
Lena is Swedish by birth but has spent half her life in her husband’s country of Finland: it is Lena´s passion for golf that resulted in the couple choosing Marbella as their home for six months of the year: “I think Andalucía is one of the best places in the world for playing golf. It has a wonderful climate combined with local character, culture and history. Importantly for professional golfers, they will find great golf courses backed up with first rate organization. I believe that now is the right time to host the Solheim Cup in Andalucía due to the increasing interest in women’s golf and bearing in mind that there are always new players coming through and in search of a second home.”
Thanks to its enthusiastic support of women’s golf, Los Naranjos Golf has been chosen to host the celebration of the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open and the final of the Race to Costa del Sol in November: “Los Naranjos is a very accessible club where we are used to welcoming professional lady golfers from other countries who come to practice thanks to our magnificent driving range. So then we have the chance to watch them practising & training and as Lady Captain, I will try to get them involved in playing a few holes with us or maybe even a competition” concludes Lena – proud of her Club.