GAINESVILLE, Va. – After hesitation, Alison Lee answered.
“I imply, I’m not going to lie, I haven’t actually talked to her in any respect since then,” Lee stated Tuesday as a part of the Solheim Cup’s pre-tournament press conferences.
Lee was referencing Suzann Pettersen, who for the second time in as a few years is captaining the European facet. However this had nothing to do with 2024 or 2023. It dates 9 years in the past to the 2015 matches, the place Lee was making her cup debut.
She was 20 then, an LPGA rookie who was a standout collegian at UCLA and all-world beginner.
Due to a top-10 run close to the tip of qualifying, Lee made the crew on her personal benefit. She was the one Solheim Cup rookie on both facet.
On Day 2 in St. Leon-Rot, Germany, with the U.S. trailing by 4 factors after three periods, Lee and Brittany Lincicome confronted Pettersen and Charley Hull in afternoon fourballs. On the 17th gap, Lee had a birdie putt to place her crew 1 up with one to play. She missed after which scooped up her ball from inside 2 toes.
The Solheim Cup’s resumption of suspended fourballs resulted in tears, controversy and confusion Sunday morning.
Pettersen protested that the par putt was not conceded and an official agreed, giving the outlet to the Euros, who claimed the 18th as nicely to win, 2 up.
Pettersen was defiant. Lee and Hull have been in tears. The Individuals – and even some Europeans, together with Laura Davies, a vice captain to Pettersen on this and final 12 months’s groups, however a commentator for the ’15 matches – have been outraged.
“I’d say within the second it was robust. I used to be very intimidated on the time, like I stated. I used to be a rookie on tour. I didn’t actually know any of the women on my crew both. I wasn’t actually good pals with them,” Lee stated Tuesday.
“I simply felt just like the beginner, younger lady, who type of made it on the crew, and everybody fortunately simply rallied behind me and have been so heat and welcoming and did every thing they may to help me.”
Rally, they did because the U.S. used the motivation to win the singles session by 5 factors and seize the cup for the primary time in six years.
That was Lee’s first and, till now, solely Solheim Cup expertise.
Pettersen, underneath rising criticism, issued an apology for the incident on the Monday after the matches. It was principally forgotten about over time as Pettersen authored a THE defining second of her profession and, arguably, in Solheim Cup historical past with knowledgeable walk-off clincher in 2019.
Captaining the Euros to a retention of the cup final 12 months solely galvanized the positives of her legacy.
For Lee, the final 9 years have been a little bit of every thing, from agonizing to tantalizing.
She misplaced and regained her LPGA card however hasn’t received on tour. She did, nevertheless, earn her second Girls European Tour victory final October, months after getting a name from U.S. captain Stacy Lewis that Lee wouldn’t be receiving a decide for the ’23 crew.
the ’24 crew (the cup is being contested in back-to-back years with the intention to get onto a even-year schedule) with three runner-up finishes to conclude final season.
This marketing campaign started uneasily as she suffered a chew from her boyfriend’s canine that resulted in a visit to the hospital and missed begins within the first three occasions. When she returned, a tie for 51st in Singapore instantly made her surprise if all of the progress she had made a number of months prior was simply … gone.
These fears have been instantly relieved with top-10s in her subsequent two tournaments. And whereas she’s nonetheless searching for her first tour title, she performed nicely sufficient to earn a spot on the U.S. crew and keep away from a telephone name – lucky or in any other case – from returning captain Lewis.
9 years later, Lee is 29 and there are 5 teammates her senior, six her junior, and he or she is aware of all of them. All of the assistant captains and even Lewis herself, have been a part of that victorious ’15 crew. Actually, Lee and Lexi Thompson are the one present U.S. gamers who’ve ever skilled a Solheim Cup victory.
Lee stated she doesn’t keep in mind an excessive amount of about her maiden matches, and what she did recall wasn’t overwhelmingly optimistic.
“I missed the opening gala as a result of I had like meals poisoning that week. I had no household there. I knew nobody on the crew. I simply felt like such an outsider,” she stated.
Nevertheless it shouldn’t be forgotten that, within the aftermath of that controversial inflection level, a 20-year-old rookie received her singles match, 3 and 1, over Gwladys Nocera. And that the U.S. received – by some extent.
“To have the ability to play on the crew now, being extra aware of all the women and being actually good pals with all of them, although it’s solely my second time, I do really feel like a veteran out right here as a result of I’ve been on tour for thus lengthy and I’ve performed alongside these ladies for a very long time,” Lee stated.
“Positively a really totally different expertise.”
