GAINESVILLE, Va. – On the left aspect of the European crew’s cottage, affixed to the outside of the second flooring, a big, round clock with fingers and numerals confirmed 5:28 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership.
You might virtually hear it tick; it was that quiet. Nothing greater than the delicate stirrings on the membership’s major roadway.
It was a disparate environment to the one skilled over every week of follow and aggressive play within the 19th Solheim Cup.
This cottage, which sits adjoining the one the Individuals used for his or her crew room, provided a bit of little bit of fish meals to these hungry for any controversy, however there was nothing of substance. It was only a matter of private {and professional} house, and perhaps a bit of pettiness.
This Solheim Cup, probably the most emotional ever, had nothing to do with animosity. Even when a few U.S. caddies ripped off their shirts and ran amok on the second gap of a match, no public beef ensued. A couple of writers harrumphed, however European captain Suzann Pettersen simply joked, “Intercourse sells. Go for it.”
(There have been points off the grounds, associated to followers attempting to get onto the grounds. That one goes to linger, however that’s on the LPGA and had nothing to do with the gamers and groups.)
There have been numerous methods a U.S. win might have performed out on Sunday, however the Individuals in the end obtained what they needed.
For almost three years, Pettersen has been on the Euro helm. Retired since her iconic (true use of the phrase) Solheim Cup-winning putt in 2019, she’s now 43 and a mom of two.
Wish to discuss feelings, Pettersen displayed it in spades throughout her profession. She’s nonetheless obtained that zeal, nevertheless it was displayed in a different way on Sunday.
With the result decided and the final match lastly performed out, the Individuals gathered as a gaggle within the 18th fairway and walked in unison in direction of the inexperienced for the official trophy presentation. The European contingent moved apart into the left tough, a symbolic transferring of energy.
Pettersen was already there, each arms draped across the shoulders of Emily Pedersen, a captain’s decide who had performed effectively by means of two days however struggled mightily in a 6-and-5 singles loss to Megan Khang, an important blow to Europe’s aspirations of a record-tying comeback.
Pedersen, whom Pettersen vociferously defended as an integral a part of the crew, was inconsolable. Hers was the second match in singles and in opposition to America’s greatest bundle of vitality. The Dane’s day included a shank off a tee field and, after Pettersen tried to instill some measure of confidence, a direct hook right into a hazard on the following gap.
As Pedersen wept, her head hanging, Pettersen talked to her in a gentle voice, tilting her head to attempt to meet her participant’s eyes.
Close by, Carlota Ciganda melted into the arms of Pettersen’s husband. The Spanaird was a house hero final yr, clinching Europe’s retention. She went 1-3 this time round, dropping her singles match all effectively.
Ultimately, the 4 of them discovered one another and shaped a small circle. “I’m so f***ing pleased with you,” Pettersen stated to each. She repeated it, repeatedly. Maybe coarse, it was additionally motherly.
GAINESVILLE, VIRGINIA – SEPTEMBER 15: Captain Suzann Pettersen of Workforce Europe speaks to the media after loosing in opposition to Workforce USA on Day Three of the Solheim Cup at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership on Sunday, September 15, 2024 in Gainesville, Virginia. (Photograph by Jorge Lemus/NurPhoto through Getty Photos)
NurPhoto through Getty Photos
A handful of minutes later, it was Pettersen preventing again tears, one thing she’s grow to be extra accustomed to since leaving the sport as a participant.
“I’m a mother now, so I’m fairly delicate, fairly emotional,” Pettersen stated. “I cry from actually nothing.”
Her stint as European Solheim Cup captain had come to an abrupt and unsatisfying finish. For Pettersen, although, true unhappiness derived, not from her dropping or that she, personally, had misplaced her function. However from the truth that, for the primary time since she devoted herself to one thing apart from golf, she certainly one of them once more.
“What I’ve cherished probably the most about doing this, and I actually imply that from the underside of my coronary heart, is although I haven’t been aggressive enjoying week in, week out, I nonetheless really feel like I’ve been part of the participant group. As a retired participant, you step away, you don’t see everybody each week, you miss seeing your mates on tour,” she stated.
“So simply feeling type of part of that participant physique has, for me, type of gotten me up each morning desirous to make this nearly as good of an expertise for all of them. That’s most likely what I’m sitting again with. Type of now that I’m achieved, hopefully I’m not going to be minimize off the WhatsApp group. Yeah, I’ve actually loved that.”
Narratives are a humorous, fickle factor. Irrespective of how lengthy standing they is likely to be, they will change all of a sudden and seemingly endlessly. Then, they will shift and ship you in a brand new path.
Pettersen was Europe’s fiery stalwart. Then she was too spirited and unhealthy for the cup’s persona. Then she was a legend. Then she was a victorious captain. Now, she’s a captain who, technically, by no means gained in two tries.
Alternatively, U.S. counterpart Stacy Lewis has gone from being publicly perceived as a dropping captain to at least one who, technically, by no means misplaced in two makes an attempt.
What by no means modified for Lewis was her strategy. In spite of everything, every part she applied beforehand resulted in a tie – not defeat – so why ditch it? No, as an alternative she dug additional into the analytical trenches.
Whereas Pettersen tapped into the intangibles, Lewis was firm in prioritizing the chilly fact of numbers, which, this time, added as much as 15 ½ factors and America’s first Solheim Cup win since 2017.
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Shortly after Pettersen and her vice captains left the media heart Sunday night, Lewis and her full, victorious crew sat on the stage.
They appeared spent.
No champagne bottles or cigars (if any partake). No drunken silliness or extreme jubilation.
“We haven’t gotten to have fun but,” stated Lauren Coughlin, who went 3-0-1 in her debut, enjoying earlier than family and friends in her residence state.
“This has been seven years within the making for lots of the ladies on this stage,” added Lewis. “There’s so much – really 10 that haven’t had this celebration but, so we’re going again to the crew room to have fun.”
9 of these gamers had been additionally on the 2023 crew. As Europeans had been cannonballing right into a pool that Sunday in Spain, Individuals had been prepared to go away, heartbroken by the Finca Cortesin magnificence.
It was on the flight again, that the second hit Lewis.
“I used to be sitting on the airplane with my daughter, and she or he was sleeping and I simply misplaced it and I began crying,” Lewis stated. “I used to be like, we did all this work for these women to play to a tie, and that was actually the one second. From that time on, it was proper again to work as a result of I don’t need that to occur once more.”
A part of that work was to ensure her crew had enjoyable. They needed a karaoke machine, they obtained a karaoke machine.
“Actually,” Lewis stated earlier within the week, “I’ll get no matter they should assist them play good golf.”
Within the chicken-or-the-egg paradox, enjoyable got here first. Enjoyable begat good golf which begat extra enjoyable which begat extra good golf which begat a crystal trophy.
“There was simply one thing about this crew that was completely different,” stated Lexi Thompson, who was making her seventh and probably last Solheim Cup look. “The environment, the vitality from the crew rooms to the bus rides to the first-tee expertise.”
The opening-hole, exterior of the opening day when inexcusable transportation points delayed followers’ entrance, was electrical. An estimated 2,000 folks horseshoed the tee field, the place music pulsated to ear-damaging levels and everybody from former President Barack Obama to a caricatured Abe Lincoln confirmed up.
Nelly Korda emerged from her bubble, spun round in circles, and shaked and shimmied. Khang, who should run on a self-changing hybrid battery, bounced, skipped, pumped and jumped.
Everybody sang, everybody danced – the Europeans, too. It’s one thing we at all times see at a Solheim Cup. It’s simply been some time since we’ve seen the Individuals prolong it to Sunday evening.
After their last obligation, the U.S. crew went again to its cottage and, lastly, drank champagne from the trophy.
Perhaps it was there that the second hit Lewis. Perhaps it will come later when she was alone along with her household. However sitting within the media heart, simply earlier than the bubbly, Lewis admitted, the stress was eliminated. “The shoulders are already down,” she stated.
Enterprise completed, it was time to maneuver on, off to the resort to get together for so long as the adrenaline would permit. Fronted by a freshly unburdened Lewis, as social media confirmed, they marched in, singing and dancing.
They usually sang, “I Wanna Dance with Someone.”
