Home advantage set to inspire underdogs
IT is a venue laden with memories of a titanic battle between the golfing superpowers, the scene of a famous European triumph — and the cold-blooded character assassination of a great American.
If Catriona Matthew would never wish to write over the golfing folklore associated with this spectacular corner of Perthshire, she certainly hopes to add new tales of heroics to the history of Gleneagles.
And the prospect of completing a Caledonian hat-trick, adding to Team Europe’s victories in the Solheim Cup’s previous two visits to Scotland, only adds to the suspicion that we’re about to witness an absolute epic. One with a cast of extras counted in the tens of thousands.
Trish Johnson, who played on the winning side at Dalmahoy in 1992 and Loch Lomond in 2000, told
Sportsmail: ‘I’m still a bit dubious when I hear them talk about 80,000 people being here for the next three days.
‘I mean, you’re going from the usual crowd of 20,000 to 80,000… if that’s true, it’s going to be absolutely unbelievable.
‘It’s hard to explain how much this event has changed. At Dalmahoy, wow, I think we had the clubhouse — and that was it. I can’t remember there being anything else.
‘It’s grown beyond belief. And, every time, it seems to be bigger and better. This place is spectacular.’
If it wasn’t for that win just outside Edinburgh in ’92, well, it’s hard to imagine that trend towards constant progress ever getting set in motion.
That was Europe’s only victory in the first five Solheim Cups — a result essential in at least giving the illusion of competition.
Johnson, who will be sharing her expert advice with the Sky Sports audience here this week, said: ‘That sparked the whole thing.
‘The Americans probably thought they were going to win the first five or six. But we could have won every home match.
‘Truthfully, I will be surprised if we don’t win
this week. I think this is the strongest team we’ve ever had.’
This is an unusual, if not quite unique, event. One guaranteed to draw comparison with the men’s event upon which it is based.
Organisers have obviously leant heavily on the 2014 Ryder Cup experience in setting up the PGA Centenary Course and surrounds.
Some of the infrastructure may be a little smaller. But the echoes of that magical week five years ago, right down to the Americans chuntering on about ‘pods’, are everywhere.
The first hole is still a beauty, among the best on the course, with the horseshoe stands creating the potential for a nerverattling experience.
Will any of the world’s best female golfers have the nerve to emulate Henrik Stenson’s famously ice-cold antics by making a little indent on the tee box, dropping a ball in front of it and crushing a three-wood off the deck? You wouldn’t put it past one or two.
Absolute focus will be required for all picked to play today, of course. There will be little room for actually soaking up the moment.
That’s a shame because, if there’s one thing you can say about Gleneagles, is that it offers an absolute feast for the eyes.
Some courses could be anywhere in the world. You can’t say that about this place, with its brooding hills shrouded in low clouds; this is Scotland as imagined by a cinematographer with access to the latest CGI.
Across these green acres, new heroines will rise, while the Scot leading from the sidelines will live through every single shot.
Europe are outsiders, with America’s victory in the previous two events leaving them looking for a ‘three-peat’. It is marvellous how they consistently manage to mangle the language.
For USA captain Juli Inkster, then, victory is expected. Or else.
Get this wrong and she may well be cast in a re-enactment of one particularly bloody scene from local history — when Phil Mickelson did for Tom Watson with the most brutal takedown of a Yankee leader since John Wilkes Booth interrupted the production of An American
Cousin on a fateful April night in 1865.