GAINESVILLE, Va. – On the left facet of the European workforce’s cottage, affixed to the outside of the second ground, a big, round clock with arms and numerals confirmed 5:28 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership.
You may nearly hear it tick; it was that quiet. Nothing greater than the gentle stirrings on the membership’s main roadway.
It was a disparate environment to the one skilled over per week of follow and aggressive play within the 19th Solheim Cup.
This cottage, which sits adjoining the one the People used for his or her workforce room, provided slightly little bit of fish meals to these hungry for any controversy, however there was nothing of substance. It was only a matter of non-public {and professional} house, and perhaps slightly pettiness.
This Solheim Cup, one of the crucial 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. Just a few 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 quite a lot of methods a U.S. win might have performed out on Sunday, however the People finally obtained what they wished.
For practically 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 keenness, nevertheless it was displayed otherwise on Sunday.
With the result decided and the final match lastly performed out, the People gathered as a bunch 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 choose who had performed properly by way of two days however struggled mightily in a 6-and-5 singles loss to Megan Khang, a vital blow to Europe’s aspirations of a record-tying comeback.
Pedersen, whom Pettersen vociferously defended as an integral a part of the workforce, was inconsolable. Hers was the second match in singles and towards 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, an instantaneous hook right into a hazard on the subsequent gap.
As Pedersen wept, her head hanging, Pettersen talked to her in a tender voice, tilting her head to try 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 12 months, clinching Europe’s retention. She went 1-3 this time round, shedding her singles match all properly.
Finally, the 4 of them discovered one another and shaped a small circle. “I’m so f***ing pleased with you,” Pettersen mentioned to each. She repeated it, repeatedly. Maybe coarse, it was additionally motherly.
GAINESVILLE, VIRGINIA – SEPTEMBER 15: Captain Suzann Pettersen of Staff Europe speaks to the media after loosing towards Staff 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 Pictures)
NurPhoto through Getty Pictures
A handful of minutes later, it was Pettersen combating again tears, one thing she’s turn into extra accustomed to since leaving the sport as a participant.
“I’m a mother now, so I’m fairly delicate, fairly emotional,” Pettersen mentioned. “I cry from actually nothing.”
Her stint as European Solheim Cup captain had come to an abrupt and unsatisfying finish. For Pettersen, although, true disappointment derived, not from her shedding or that she, personally, had misplaced her goal. However from the truth that, for the primary time since she devoted herself to one thing apart from golf, she one in every of them once more.
“What I’ve liked essentially the most about doing this, and I actually imply that from the underside of my coronary heart, is regardless that I haven’t been aggressive taking part in 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 folks on tour,” she mentioned.
“So simply feeling type of part of that participant physique has, for me, type of gotten me up each morning eager to make this nearly as good of an expertise for all of them. That’s in all probability what I’m sitting again with. Sort of now that I’m achieved, hopefully I’m not going to be lower off the WhatsApp group. Yeah, I’ve actually loved that.”
Narratives are a humorous, fickle factor. Irrespective of how lengthy standing they could be, they’ll change all of the sudden and seemingly eternally. Then, they’ll shift and ship you in a brand new path.
Pettersen was Europe’s fiery stalwart. Then she was too spirited and dangerous 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 shedding 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 method. In any case, the whole lot she carried out 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 reality 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 middle Sunday night, Lewis and her full, victorious workforce 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 rejoice but,” mentioned Lauren Coughlin, who went 3-0-1 in her debut, taking part in earlier than family and friends in her house 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 workforce room to rejoice.”
9 of these gamers had been additionally on the 2023 workforce. As Europeans had been cannonballing right into a pool that Sunday in Spain, People 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 mentioned. “I used to be like, we did all this work for these ladies 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 workforce had enjoyable. They wished a karaoke machine, they obtained a karaoke machine.
“Actually,” Lewis mentioned 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 workforce that was totally different,” mentioned Lexi Thompson, who was making her seventh and probably remaining Solheim Cup look. “The environment, the vitality from the workforce rooms to the bus rides to the first-tee expertise.”
The opening-hole, outdoors of the opening day when inexcusable transportation points delayed followers’ entrance, was electrical. An estimated 2,000 individuals 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 all the time see at a Solheim Cup. It’s simply been some time since we’ve seen the People lengthen it to Sunday night time.
After their remaining obligation, the U.S. workforce went again to its cottage and, lastly, drank champagne from the trophy.
Possibly it was there that the second hit Lewis. Possibly it will come later when she was alone together with her household. However sitting within the media middle, simply earlier than the bubbly, Lewis admitted, the stress was eliminated. “The shoulders are already down,” she mentioned.
Enterprise completed, it was time to maneuver on, off to the lodge to social gathering for so long as the adrenaline would enable. Fronted by a freshly unburdened Lewis, as social media confirmed, they marched in, singing and dancing.
They usually sang, “I Wanna Dance with Someone.”
