If you thought the Ryder Cup was feisty, wait until you get a load of the Solheim Cup.
The biennial tournament, which pits the best female golfers from Europe and the United States against one another, has enjoyed its fair share of controversies over the years – who could forget the 2015 debacle when Alison Lee picked up her ball thinking Suzann Pettersen had given her the putt.
But the Norwegian did nothing of the sort, and was within her rights to claim the hole – a move that led to her being labelled a ‘disgrace’ by her fellow pros.
The 2023 event, with Pettersen and Stacy Lewis in the field, could become a tinderbox atmosphere as the Europeans look to make it three Solheim Cup wins in a row on home soil.
The American challenge could not have gotten off to a worse start. One of their star players, Danielle Kang, is without her clubs after her bag went missing during a connecting flight between Amsterdam and Malaga, where the action will get underway at the Finca Cortesin club.
Hi. I need everyone’s help again. My captain and the entire US Team has been on this but someone PLEASE put my GOLF bag on the next flight out of AMSTERDAM to MALAGA…
it’s missed every flight it could’ve been on today..BAG TAG 0074676649 @transavia flight@SolheimCupUSA 🥺🙏❤️— Danielle Kang (@daniellekang) September 18, 2023
Team Europe will be looking to take full advantage….
What is the Solheim Cup Format?
The respective captains of Europe and the United States have 12 players at their disposal. For the Americans, the process takes care of itself – players earn points for every top-20 finish they record, and ultimately points make prizes; the dream of representing their country in the Solheim Cup goes to the best-performing dozen.
For Team Europe, things are complicated somewhat by the fact that the players play on both the LPGA and LET tours, meaning that it’s more difficult to fairly assess the relative merits of each individual.
At the time of writing, only five players automatically qualify for the team based upon their LET performances – the other picks are made by the captain and via the world rankings.
With the two teams confirmed, they then do battle over three days of action. There’s a quartet of four-ball and foursomes matches on each of the opening two days, while on the third and final day it’s singles all the way as the 24 players do battle head-to-head and toe-to-toe. The team that accumulates the most points from winning these games is declared the Solheim Cup champion.
What is Four-Balls in Golf?
Four-ball golf, also known as ‘better ball’ or best ball, sees a pair of players join forces to try and outperform their opposition.
The format is as the name suggests: both players in the pairing tee off and play their own balls, with the best score on each hole – the better ball – put forward to the scorecards.
This is the style of match play golf that the players prefer, as it enables them to play their natural game – rather than having to strategise with their partner, as is the case in foursomes golf.
What is Foursomes in Golf?
Arguably the more entertaining version of team match play, foursomes sees each pair play just one ball.
Each team member takes it in turns to tee off on alternating holes, with their partner playing the second shot and then the driver taking the third, and so on.
This can be an intriguing format, as players with different strengths need to get on the same page to ensure their playing partner gives them the best lines and angles to maximise their game.
Who Has Won the Most Solheim Cups?
Held for the first time in 1990, the Solheim Cup has been played on a biennial basis ever since.
The United States leads the way with ten wins to Europe’s seven, with the Americans winning four of the first five editions of the event.
But the gap in quality has been growing ever closer in the modern era, and since 2011 Europe have taken the spoils in four of the six editions played.
The last renewals, in 2019 and 2021, have been amongst the most exciting. In 2019, the Solheim Cup went down to the wire at the Gleneagles club in Scotland, with America seemingly having one hand on the trophy heading into the final singles ties.
But then the Europeans, powered by Bronte Law and Pettersen, staged a remarkable late comeback to complete a miraculous 14.5-13.5 victory.
Next time out in 2021 the atmosphere was super-charged in Ohio, and once again nothing was solved after the opening two days as Europe took a 9-7 lead into the singles.
Having won four and halved two of the opening seven singles games, the Europeans were cantering to a successful defence of their Solheim Cup, but then the Americans went into turbo mode – Brittany Altomare, Megan Khang, Yealimi Noh and Jessica Korda all winning their games to take the contest all the way to the last singles contest.
And that went all the way to the final hole too….Emily Kristine Pedersen just doing enough to hold off Danielle Kang and secure another European victory.