Over 118,000 golf enthusiasts flocked to the U.S. Women's Open at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minnesota. Many fans celebrated as 19-year old Inbee Park became the youngest person to ever win this tournament.

Since the championship moves to a new location each year, it is essential for the organizers to partner with local and national vendors they can trust. This year, GLS was honored to print the tickets, spectator guides, pairing guides and parking passes for the event.

Amy Lillibridge is the Marketing & Public Relations Director for the U.S. Women's Open. Amy stated, "GLS did a tremendous job, the ticket printing process went very smoothly and despite holdups from our end on approvals, GLS was still able to meet all of our deadlines and expectations."

"This was a complicated project with quick turnaround on content approval...GLS was a great partner."

— Amy Lillibridge,
— Marketing & Public
— Relations Director,
— 2008 U.S. Women's Open

Getting a Grip

In the beginning , GLS Account Executive Dick Krismer was introduced to Amy Lillibridge. She was interested to learn that GLS' capabilities were on par with some of the national printing partners she had used in the past.

When evaluating printers, Amy considered her two most challenging pieces—the tickets and pairing guides. Historically, the tickets had been printed by a national vendor who could handle the stringing, numbering, and other complicated elements. Amy hoped to find a locally-based company that could compete with the big guys.

The turnaround time on the four-color pairing guides was another major concern for Amy. Since the players were paired according to their scores from the previous day, the list of "who plays with who" changed daily. This was sure to be a logistical challenge for the printer.

Finally, since she had a limited budget, Amy needed the printer to stay close to their estimate. This is easier said than done—especially when dealing with large-quantity, time-sensitive materials and data that changes constantly.

Driving Hard for Results

Normally, the bulk of printing for major events is done prior to the opening day. In this case, although GLS had printed plenty of pieces ahead of time, things were just getting into full swing on opening day of the tournament.

Almost all of the USWO materials were printed on a four-color press. The pairing guides and tickets were later imprinted with merged or variable data using black ink.

Around 8pm each evening of the tournament, GLS obtained the next day's pairings data from IBM, the USWO's official scoring provider. Working overnight, GLS printed the new data onto the preprinted four-color shells and delivered them to the tournament site by 4am each morning. This allowed the USWO staff to distribute them to hospitality areas, media centers, and several other locations by 5am.

Amy Lillibridge was impressed with the level of service provided by Dick Krismer and the rest of the GLS staff.

"This was a complicated project with quick turnaround on content approval," Amy summarized. "GLS was a great partner."

Is your next event "on par" for excellence? Contact your GLS account executive to learn how we can help with tickets, brochures, signage and more.

For the latest news about women's golf, visit www.uswomensopen.com.