SOLHEIM MIRACLE
Just like Medinah, Pettersen holds nerve on the final hole to pull off...
EUROPE won the final three matches to seal a dramatic one-point victory over the USA and regain the Solheim Cup at Gleneagles. Suzann Pettersen holed the decisive putt and said: ‘This is it, I’m done with professional golf.’
AMID scenes of unbridled joy at the end of a day of pulsating drama, europe won back the Solheim Cup in extraordinary fashion yesterday.
Here was a miracle to place alongside the one the men mustered at Medinah in 2012. even with 30 minutes to go, it was still looking like failure on an epic scale.
‘I thought a tied match at that point would be a good result,’ admitted europe’s captain, Catriona Matthew. A tied match, of course, would have meant America, as holders, retained the trophy. then england’s Bronte Law holed a 20ft birdie putt to turn her match europe’s way on the 16th, and suddenly the miracle was on.
Now it all came down to Suzann Pettersen, europe’s greatest Solheim player but one who had barely played all year owing to maternity leave. All square playing the par-five 18th, she simply had to win her match against Marina Alex. Both players were 100 yards from the green in two.
Both played wonderful shots under extreme pressure. Both had similar putts, but Alex’s was above the hole and it slipped by. Now Pettersen had to hole from eight feet as players from both teams crouched by the green,
barely able to look, and thousands of spectators held their breath.
this is how you define greatness, a player who can shut out the noise and the possibilities to deliver a nerveless stroke. She might be the 635th-ranked player in the world because of her long absence, but europe wanted no one else standing over the putt.
‘How could you ask for anything more? You just have to grab the moment,’ said Pettersen.
She did that all right. A stroke as pure as you like, and when the ball disappeared the 38-year-old Norwegian warrior let out a primal roar. In the twilight of a great career, Pettersen declared the moment so perfect, it would be her final putt.
‘this is it, I’m completely done with professional golf,’ she said.
What a way to bow out. After the putt came bedlam, as hundreds of people ran on to the green. the studious Matthew was carried aloft on weary shoulders, her hands raised in unadulterated triumph.
the Scot had set her heart on winning back the trophy on home soil, and here was her controversial wildcard selection completing the job. No wonder she was in rapture.
She once won a British open just three months after giving birth but even that success paled. ‘this is the best moment I’ve had in golf by far,’ she said.
While Pettersen hugged her young son Herman, the other heroines of the day couldn’t stop jumping up and down. there was the effervescent Law, one down with five holes to play in a critical match against Ally McDonald, but she got the job done, just as you knew she would. Charley Hull had a meltdown on the 18th but another halved match meant three points out of four.
there was the fantastic Georgia Hall and brilliant French rookie, Celine Boutier. only two europeans had ever played in at least four matches in a Solheim Cup and emerged with maximum points — and now there are two more to join the Swedes Sophie Gustafson in 2011 and Caroline Hedwall in 2013 after this pair combined for three wins out of three in tandem and then won their respective singles matches.
Both did so in typically gutsy fashion, coming back from two down early on to register their wins. Hall has had a disappointing year as the 23-year- old has come to terms with her success in the British open last year. But this surely makes up for it.
For the Americans, it was hard on captain Juli Inkster and the fabulous Korda sisters in particular. Jessica and Nelly both finished up with three and a half points out of four, and for a long part of yesterday’s session their contributions appeared decisive.
Both their parents played tennis for the Czech Republic. Petr, their father, even won a Grand Slam in the Australian open. But so good are the sisters under pressure, they might both go on to enjoy even more successful careers than either mum or dad.
What an advert this was for the women’s game. What an endorsement for women’s sport. the golfers have had to take something of a back seat as the focus has turned to football, netball and the like. Here they showed they can still more than hold their own. this was as good as it gets.