The 18th Solheim Cup is done and dusted, and for the first time in its history, both teams finished on 14 points. But the cup, owing to Europe’s victory in Ohio at Inverness Club two years ago, will remain on European soil. Tron, Randy and Neil ventured over to Finca Cortesin Golf Club along Spain’s Costa del Sol to take in the spectacle, their first time attending a European Solheim (after being in Ohio for the last one). What follows is a hodgepodge of thoughts, musings, and takeaways they’ve brought back across the pond with them…
Improbability (written by TC)
In an era when golf is being optimized, every statistic sliced and diced, youth and power emphasized, and probabilities quantified and requantified over the course of a round, a performance like the one we witnessed from Caroline Hedwall on Sunday afternoon was both miraculous and fleeting. The 34-year-old veteran was a surprise captain’s pick and a question mark in the eyes of many coming into the week. After a lean year in 2021 on the Ladies European Tour, Hedwall captured the season-ending Andalucia Open de Espana (played just up the road from Finca Cortesin) for her first victory since 2018, and then played solid, if unspectacular golf into 2023.
Fast forward to Finca Cortesin - consider that Hedwall arrived having carded just three rounds in the 60s in her previous 18 tournament rounds. Then consider that Hedwall sat the first three sessions. The pick from Pettersen felt curious when it was announced, and even more so through midday Saturday. Hedwall partnered with fellow Swede Anna Nordqvist in the fourball session on Saturday afternoon. After some good play from Hedwall on the front nine, they frittered away a 2 up lead through 10 holes and lost 2 down to the American duo of Cheyenne Knight and Angel Yin. Fast forwarding to Sunday, through the first twelve holes of Hedwall’s match against Ally Ewing on Sunday, it appeared to be more of the same. Going out in the middle of the session, Hedwall trailed early in the match and arrived to the 13th tee 3 down with 6 holes to play. Then the improbable happened.
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Birdie on 13. Birdie on 14. Draining long birdie putts and doing so with emphatic reactions that catalyzed the crowd. Both Ewing and Hedwall parred the difficult 15th hole, though Hedwall nearly scared a birdie putt in there. 1 down with three to play and Randy and I turned to each other with that look that said “what if???” Then ‘what if’ happened on 16, in the midst of Georgia Hall and Gemma Dryburgh both coughing up leads and notching only half points. Hedwall drained a 15-foot birdie putt to pull that match to all square and catalyze the crowd in front of one of the biggest grandstands on the course. All around her things kept deteriorating, with Ciganda showing signs of crumbling after a shank on 15 and Angel Yin shutting the door on Celine Boutier to take the US to a 13-11 lead. Randy and I were struggling to contain ourselves, and not even as Euro fans, but rather as fans of golf and competition. What we were witnessing was breaking the probability models and a sign that crazy shit still happens.
Moving onward to the tucked pin on 17, Hedwall managed to stuff one to ten feet and then buried the putt. 1 up going into 18! “My gosh, this can’t possibly continue,” we thought. Both players hit great drives on the par five 18th, avoiding the bunker up the left and earning a look at the green in two. Ally Ewing put her second shot in the green-side bunker - not a bad place to be to the back pin. Hedwall, who’d put a charge into her drive and was significantly closer than Ewing, ripped a high draw over the huge swales short right of the green, landed on the front edge and rolled to the middle of the green, setting up an easy two-putt for birdie. Ewing, knowing she likely needed to hole the bunker shot to win the hole, caught a lot of ball and hit it over the green and it was over and Europe was squarely back in it, with 12 points on the board and Carlota and Maja Stark’s matches trending positively to get to at least 14.
For anyone to do what Hedwall did - going from 3 down to a 2 up victory in a six-hole stretch - would be improbable. For Caroline Hedwall to do so and the way she did it, without Ally Ewing completely collapsing, made it all the more remarkable. It was among the most improbable things I’ve ever seen in golf. It’s why they hit the shots, instead of the #databoys just simulating these things, as I sometimes feel they’d rather do. It all felt exceedingly rare, that in 2023 a captain would pick someone without the statistical profile, and then in the face of injuries on the team and surprises stuck to your guns and didn’t play her until Saturday afternoon to ensure she was rested for Sunday. Then, Hedwall went out and did what she did to pay off all that belief and trust.
There was something unquantifiable that Suzann saw inside her pick, that the models weren’t picking up, and often those hunches don’t work out and the eye test and emphasis on heart don’t pan out. But when it does, it’s magical.
The Aura of Suzann Pettersen (written by Randy)
Sunday night, during the euphoric Team Europe press conference, I donned my big-J journalist hat and asked Maja Stark if she could speak about the emotions of her week and the experience in general. Note: this was Maja’s first Solheim Cup. She’d gone 2-1-1 across four sessions and capped it by taking down current US Open champion Allisen Corpuz in a crucial singles match late Sunday to set the stage for Carlota Ciganda’s theatrics. She answered, saying:
“I've never had so much fun in my life, and I'm so happy to be able to win this for Suzann. I don't think there's anyone really in the world that I get that star struck over, but I'm still star struck, even after a week of hanging out. I can't believe it.
Then I just felt like -- I hoped the whole way that the pressure would make me better, and I think it did. It's such a nice feeling to actually hit those crucial shots at the end. And yeah, I'm just so happy, and I've had so much fun with the team. It's probably the best experience of my life.”
I love this answer. I mean, how can you not? What an incredible Solheim experience! But it was what she said specifically about her captain, Suzann Pettersen, that struck a chord in me.
All week I had marveled at Pettersen’s aura, for lack of a better word. Of any player, captain, vice captain, it was Pettersen, in my opinion, whose simple presence commanded my attention the most. Whose energy most consistently exerted a gravitational pull on my interest. She has that elusive, intangible ‘It’ factor in spades. A classic alpha personality, in the way psychologists define the term–e.g. strong sense of self, determination, a conviction in beliefs, ambition and desire to work hard, etc.
But it’s not simply possessing those attributes that results in the aura around Pettersen. Because let’s face it, every member of Team Europe and Team USA has ample amounts of determination, ambition, sense of self and hard work – or they wouldn’t be in Spain. It’s something in the mysterious alchemy of Pettersen’s blend of characteristics that sets her apart from everybody else, at least in my eyes. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know if we even have the words or the ability to figure it out—but I’m certain it’s an aura. Maja Stark felt it this week, and it was exciting for me to be in the midst of it as well.
Killer In Training (written by TC)
I spent much of my time during the three days on-site following Linn Grant’s matches. Beyond the world-class swing and clear-cut physical strength, LG possesses a simmering, yet calm, intensity that you don’t often see in the sport. While this week was a mixed bag - not quite rising to the moment in the opening match with
Source: https://nolayingup.com/blog/2023-solheim-cup-takeaways