NO STAR-SPANGLED party at the castle, rather – on a stop-start, weather-interrupted final day – a confluence of forces determined that Europe’s drought in the Solheim Cup would end.
And how! In lifting the famed crystal trophy, with veterans and superstars and rookies coming together to stage a defiant late riposte to take it from the grasp of the US, Alison Nicholas’s team exorcised so many ghosts.
The victory – by a margin of 15-13, and the first by a European team since 2003 – was truly dramatic, prompting tears of joy for the winners and causing tears of woe among those vanquished.
This was one that went right to the wire, right to the death. And, at the end of a rain-interrupted final day which had two suspensions in play, Europe stay focused to the cause and finally found a way to end the American domination of the event.
As Sam Torrance once observed in captaining a winning European team in the Ryder Cup, “out of the shadows come heroes”. Well, on this day, Nicholas discovered her own, many heroines. Suzann Pettersen. Caroline Hedwall. Azahara Munoz. All of them, really.
But, when it mattered most at the tail-end of the singles, with an altogether too familiar expectation that the USA had the momentum, Europe’s players responded: Pettersen, one down to Michelle Wie with three holes left, birdied the 16th, 17th and 18th to win one up; Hedwall, two down standing on the 17th tee to Ryann O’Toole, won the last two holes to get a crucial halved match; and, when Spain’s Munoz birdied the 17th to go one up on Angela Stanford, the whooping and hollering and banshee wailing from those spectators who had ignored the torrential rainfalls reached a crescendo.
There were many seminal moments, not least the concession of a match to Europe without a ball being struck. Cristie Kerr, the world number three, was scheduled to face England’s Karen Stupples in the bottom singles. But Kerr, who had played through the first two days with an injured wrist, aggravated the injury on the practice ground and was unable to play. The point was awarded to Europe, giving them a 9-8 advantage as the other 11 singles matches worked their way around the Jack Nicklaus-designed course.
Those matches, as it turned out, had many twists and turns of their own. The pendulum swung one way and then the other. Through it all, the weather played a role, causing two separate suspensions to play during which players regathered and held rallying talks. Kerr’s enforced concession was used as a motivation for her team-mates and, for most of an afternoon than ran into the evening light, it seemed as if the USA would pull it off.
Although Catriona Matthew’s remarkable 6 and 5 win over Paula Creamer – giving the Scot a fifth successive singles win in the competition – was followed by Sophie Gustafson’s two holes win over Stacy Lewis to give Europe early impetus, the picture behind was quite different as the USA’s middle order impressed.
It looked to be one of those days for Europe when Laura Davies – the greatest points winner in Solheim Cup history – failed to close the deal on Juli Inkster. More so, it was the manner of it that threatened to cast a shadow. Davies, one up playing the last, watched her opponent put her approach shot into a greenside bunker. Then, Davies, from the fairway, also found sand. Inkster got up and down. Davies didn’t. What had seemed like a win became a halved match.
Then, the Americans raked up the points. Vicky Hurst, Brittany Lang and Christina Kim – rediscovering her form and touch at the appropriate time – all won their matches. When Hurst claimed a two holes win over Mel Reid, it gave the USA a 12½ to 11½ lead.
It was the first time since early in Friday morning’s foursomes that the Americans had taken the lead and it looked to be a perfectly timed run.
It didn’t turn out that way, as the feisty Christel Boeljon – the first Dutch woman to play in the event – stubbornly saw off Brittany Lincicome. That win brought the teams level again – at 12½ to 12½ – but the USA seemed in control of things.
As Boeljon wrapped up her match, the three remaining singles saw Wie leading Pettersen by one hole through 15 holes; Hedwall two down to O’Toole through 14, and Munoz all square with Stanford through 14.
The last hour of play was to bring more twists than anything that had gone beforehand, as Pettersen – living up her talismanic status – rose to the occasion. Her wounded response to playing the par-five 15th rather badly was to hit Wie with birdies at the 16th, 17th and 18th and turn a loss into a monumental win. The roars reverberated back down the fairways, and those younger Europeans in her wake acted as an inspiration clarion call.
Behind her, Hedwall – Europe’s secret weapon – rose to the challenge, winning the 17th and 18th holes to get a halved match with O’Toole, who was inconsolable afterwards after doffing a greenside chip under pressure on the 18th. That halved point from Hedwall combined with Munoz’s birdie at the 17th, from three feet after a great approach, which put her one up on Stanford, ensured that Europe had finally reclaimed the trophy.
