A bid to bring a £50m golf tournament to Oxfordshire is being put before funding chiefs at a crunch meeting this week and the Oxford Mail is giving its full backing to the campaign.

The Oxfordshire Golf Club, near Thame, is bidding to host the Solheim Cup in 2011.

Winning the right to hold the event, which is the women's equivalent of the Ryder Cup, would be worth millions of pounds to the region.

More than 100,000 spectators would be expected to watch global golf stars like Michelle Wie in action, while a TV audience of hundreds of millions would tune in, giving a massive boost to tourism and sport in the area.

England has never hosted the Solheim Cup, but the bid is dependent on raising enough cash to beat off rivals from the Continent, believed to include Spain and Italy.

The Oxfordshire, owned privately by The Leader- board Group, is expected to contribute more than £500,000 to help secure the event, in addition to providing all the facilities needed, costing in the region of another £300,000.

Tomorrow, the group will meet with UK Sport to see how much additional cash can be secured to give England the best chance of winning.

Leaderboard's Paul Gibbons is determined to make sure England is not left behind.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail ahead of the meeting he said: "The Leaderboard Group is committed to developing and growing ladies golf in England.

"We already host one Ladies European Tour event, The Ladies English Open, and are committed to hosting another as part of our bid for the Solheim Cup.

"Ladies golf is the fastest growing televised sport in Europe, but we seem to have been left a little bit behind in England.

"We are determined to make sure we have every chance of catching up and creating golfing superstars to rival the likes of Michelle Wie "Hosting the Solheim Cup would be a magnificent opportunity for this country to make significant strides forward in developing the ladies game in the UK and we are putting every effort into achieving our goal."

The venue for the Solheim Cup will be chosen later this summer once bids have been submitted at the end of this month.

The Oxfordshire's bid is already backed by a variety of golf publications, and Oxfordshire County Council are due to look at funding possibilities.

But Gibbons believes the majority of the funding should come from national sports bodies.

He said: "There must be a political will to bring an event like this to England. Both Scotland and Wales have in the past hosted the Solheim Cup but now it's England's turn.

"We hope the powers that be can see in our promise of massive investment that we are serious. We know the public are right behind us and would make the Solheim Cup in Oxfordshire in 2011 the best ever event."