It's still a week until tee off but the Solheim Cup has already become the UK's best attended women's golf event ever.

Close to 80,000 tickets have so far been sold for the seven-day event between Europe and the USA at Gleneagles starting on September 9. The attendance numbers have already outstripped that of the 2015 tournament in Germany and, with tickets still available, the final figure is expected to be even higher.

A spokeswoman said: “Demand for tickets has been extremely high and we are almost at 80,000 confirmed attendances for the week, which already makes the 2019 Solheim Cup the highest attended women’s golf event ever held in the UK."

Off the back of record audiences for the Women's World Cup this summer, this reflects the growing interest in women's sport in this country, a sentiment echoed by director of events for VisitScotland Paul Bush who said: "The numbers we have so far, for a women's golf event and for women's sport in Scotland, are pretty impressive.

"Women's sport is on the up with the football and netball world cups and we think that come September there will be a real focus."

The Solheim Cup is already making waves as the first event to give out free sanitary products to spectators and the attendance forecasts are making yet more headlines. 

With just four days to go until the tournament gets underway, people are being urged to buy tickets in advance and spectators are encouraged to bring their families to the event which now has a soft-play area as well as food, drink and activities for all ages.