From incorrect rulings, contentious concessions and extra, these are among the most controversial Solheim Cup moments in historical past.
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9 years in the past, Alison Lee was an LPGA rookie enjoying in her first Solheim Cup. She doesn’t keep in mind a lot of it, though there was one incident that is perhaps laborious for anybody to neglect.
“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,” Lee stated on Tuesday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership in Gainesville, Va., the place they’ll play the nineteenth version of the Solheim Cup later this week. It’s additionally her first time again within the occasion since 2015. “So to have the ability to play on the crew now, being extra accustomed to all the women and being actually good associates with all of them, despite the fact that 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 women for a very long time. Positively a really completely different expertise.”
As for that incident in 2015? Let’s look again at that (and extra) as we rehash the largest Solheim Cup controversies within the occasion’s historical past. Will we see extra memorable moments come Friday? We will’t wait to search out out.
A conceded-putt controversy
In maybe essentially the most well-known Solheim Cup controversy, Lee and Brittany Lincicome battled Suzann Pettersen and Charley Hull in a four-ball match that completed on Sunday morning of the 2015 Solheim Cup in Germany. With the match tied, Lee missed a birdie putt on the seventeenth gap and picked it up from about 18 inches away. She thought Europe conceded, however Hull and Pettersen knowledgeable the principles official that they didn’t.
“I might have sworn I believed I heard somebody say, ‘That’s good,’” Lee stated on the time. “It might have been from the stands, I don’t know. I regarded on the putt and it was shut, regarded good to me. And Charley was strolling off the golf green, and Suzann was already off the inexperienced, so I’ve little question in my thoughts that it was good. I didn’t even should assume twice about it, I simply picked it up.”
Because it wasn’t technically conceded, Lee and Lincicome misplaced the outlet and later the match, 2 up, and Europe led 10-6 heading into singles play. U.S. captain Juli Inkster stated of her crew, “they’re fired up, however you realize what? They have been fired up earlier than, too.” The Individuals responded with the largest comeback in Solheim Cup historical past, profitable 8 1/2 of the 12 singles factors and claiming the Cup with a 14.5-13.5 win.
Lee, who fought tears after the controversy, received her singles match 3 and 1 over Gwladys Nocera. Pettersen, the captain of this 12 months’s European crew, additionally apologized for her dealing with of the scenario the Monday after, posting to Instagram and saying “I’ve by no means felt extra gutted and really unhappy about what went down Sunday on the seventeenth on the Solheim Cup.”
A botched ruling
On the 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Membership, Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson have been tied with Pettersen and Carlota Ciganda after 14 holes of their Friday four-balls match, however Ciganda hit her second shot into the water on the par-5 fifteenth and a prolonged delay of over half-hour ensued. She was allowed to drop about 40 yards behind the purpose of entry — which the LPGA later clarified was the wrong ruling — and nonetheless made par. The U.S. duo was fuming, and Europe went 1 up on the sixteenth gap and received the match.
“We remorse that an incorrect ruling was given and we apologize for any confusion that was triggered on the course for the gamers,” the LPGA stated in a press release that night. “In the end, Ciganda proceeded to play in line with the ultimate ruling she was given and the results of the match doesn’t change.”
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The ten-second rule
At Inverness Membership in 2021, Nelly Korda barely missed an eagle putt on the par-5 thirteenth, leaving it proper on the sting. Europe’s Madelene Sagstrom grabbed the ball to concede the birdie putt and tossed it again to Korda. No hurt, proper? Flawed. In doing so, Sagstrom didn’t permit Korda’s ball the allotted 10 seconds to see if it’d nonetheless fall into the outlet for eagle.
A guidelines official approached the group and advised them Sagstrom violated Rule 13.3b, which reads, “If the opponent in match play intentionally lifts or strikes the participant’s ball overhanging the outlet earlier than the ready time has ended, the participant’s ball is handled as holed with the earlier stroke.”
The eagle counted, and Korda and Ally Ewing received the outlet and later the match, 1 up.
Scorching mic
On the 2007 Solheim Cup in Sweden, Dottie Pepper was a member of the TV squad and thought the printed had paused for a industrial break when she stated that, ahem, Individuals Laura Diaz and Sherri Steinhauer have been “choking freaking canines.” Pepper apologized, and 6 years later she served as a Solheim Cup assistant captain for Meg Mallon.
Mulligan
Throughout a four-ball match on Saturday of the 2000 Solheim Cup in Scotland, Annika Sorenstam thought she chipped in for birdie to tie the match, solely to search out out she performed out of flip since American Kelly Robbins was truly away. The longer term hall-of-famer needed to replay her shot, did not chip in and Sorenstam and Janice Moodie misplaced the match 2 and 1 to Robbins and Pat Hurst.
Concession parade
The 2003 Solheim Cup was simply received by Europe, however the matches all got here to a stunning halt as quickly as Catriona Matthew beat Rosie Jones 3 and 1 to offer Europe the 14.5 factors wanted to win. But as a substitute of the remaining matches enjoying out for bookkeeping functions, 4 of the 5 have been conceded by the trailing gamers, and the Europeans received 17.5-10.5.
“It went into on the spot chaos,” stated U.S. captain Patty Sheehan. “I didn’t know what was occurring.”
