GAINESVILLE, Va. – On the left facet of the European workforce’s cottage, affixed to the outside of the second flooring, a big, round clock with palms and numerals confirmed 5:28 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership.
You may virtually hear it tick; it was that quiet. Nothing greater than the gentle stirrings on the membership’s major roadway.
It was a disparate ambiance to the one skilled over every week of observe and aggressive play within the 19th Solheim Cup.
This cottage, which sits adjoining the one the People used for his or her workforce room, supplied a little bit 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} area, and perhaps a little bit 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. 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 a variety of methods a U.S. win might have performed out on Sunday, however the People in the end obtained what they wished.
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 keenness, but it surely was displayed otherwise on Sunday.
With the result decided and the final match lastly performed out, the People gathered as a gaggle within the 18th fairway and walked in unison in the 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 effectively by way 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 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 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 12 months, clinching Europe’s retention. She went 1-3 this time round, shedding her singles match all effectively.
Ultimately, the 4 of them discovered one another and fashioned a small circle. “I’m so f***ing happy with you,” Pettersen stated to each. She repeated it, many times. Maybe coarse, it was additionally motherly.
A handful of minutes later, it was Pettersen combating again tears, one thing she’s change into 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 disappointment derived, not from her shedding or that she, personally, had misplaced her objective. However from the truth that, for the primary time since she devoted herself to one thing aside 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 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 pals on tour,” she stated.
“So simply feeling form of part of that participant physique has, for me, form 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. Form 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 may be, they’ll change all of the sudden and seemingly without end. Then, they’ll shift and ship you in a brand new route.
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 received 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 strategy. In any case, all the pieces she carried out beforehand resulted in a tie – not defeat – so why ditch it? No, as a substitute 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 heart Sunday night, Lewis and her full, victorious workforce sat on the stage.
They regarded spent.
No champagne bottles or cigars (if any partake). No drunken silliness or extreme jubilation.
“We haven’t gotten to rejoice 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 lots – truly 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 he or she 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 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 verify her workforce had enjoyable. They wished 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 workforce that was totally different,” stated Lexi Thompson, who was making her seventh and presumably ultimate Solheim Cup look. “The ambiance, the vitality from the workforce 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 People prolong it to Sunday evening.
After their ultimate 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 might come later when she was alone together 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 lodge to get together 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 Any person.”
