GLOVES ARE OFF AT GLENEAGLES
Pettersen’s fighting talk sets tone for Europe
ThEy used to say that the Solheim Cup was like the ‘Ryder Cup with lipstick’. These days, ‘with stilettos’ might be a better fit. For some time now the event has been played with an edge rarely seen in the men’s version, and all the signs are that we are in for another spicy edition over the next three days.
If American Danielle Kang’s hilariously over-the-top comments that she wanted to ‘crush Europe’ were not enough to set the tone, consider the delicious response from Suzann Pettersen yesterday.
Whereas at the Ryder Cup they had have been trying to play it all down, the brassy Norwegian stepped boldly where the men have long since feared to tread. Asked for her thoughts, she smiled broadly and gave her best Dominic Cummings impression.
‘We’re going to step on their necks,’ she said.
Pettersen was struggling with a sore throat and could barely croak the words — but the effect was the same as if she was screaming her thoughts from the rooftop of the Gleneagles hotel.
It told everyone that Kang’s remarks, including the idea of making the home side and its supporters cry, were the talk of the Europe locker room. The steely glare of Jodi Ewart Shadoff sitting alongside Pettersen merely confirmed the impression.
‘you could say it’s extra motivation,’ said the Englishwoman, before adding a pointed rejoinder. ‘There will be no tears in our team room — unless they’re ones of happiness.’
Will the American team come to regret Kang’s brashness, just as the US team did in 1992 when Beth Daniel made similar remarks before the contest at Dalmahoy? So cocky were those particular yankee doodles, Daniel was quoted as saying: ‘you could put any of us in the European team and we’d make them better. But the only Europeans who could help us are Laura Davies and Liselotte Neumann.’
What followed was perhaps the biggest shock in Solheim Cup history as Europe’s underdogs pulled off a famous victory.
‘I guess this is our answer to Beth Daniel,’ said helen Alfredsson afterwards, as the hapless Daniel responded by claiming she had never said any such thing.
Fast forward to this weekend and Europe are more than capable of upsetting the apple cart once more at the venue where the men won the Ryder Cup in 2014. They’ve never lost in Scotland — they also won at Loch Lomond in 2000 — while this is the youngest American team in Solheim history and, with six rookies, largely unproven.
Indeed, with seven majors and 31 US LPGA titles to her name, the
brilliant US captain Juli Inkster, striving for a third successive Solheim Cup triumph under her watch, has comfortably more titles to her name than her entire team combined (three majors and 25 LPGA victories).
Pointedly, perhaps, Inkster responded to Kang’s remarks by leaving her out of this morning’s matches.
‘She will play plenty, don’t worry about that,’ she said, as she tried to play down the matter, but it was a surprising decision in purely golf terms, given Kang won three points out of four last time.
Asked about Kang’s comments and whether they will have any part to play, Inkster sounded exasperated. ‘It’s Danielle,’ she said, shrugging her shoulders. ‘She’s loud.’ Home captain Catriona Matthew wants to hear noise of a different kind. She knows the importance of putting the visitors under pressure and getting off to a fast start so that the crowd are involved.
She leads off the foursomes this morning with her best player, Carlota Ciganda from Spain, in tandem with precocious English rookie Bronte Law.
‘Bronte’s chomping at the bit,’ said Matthew. ‘I couldn’t hold her back.’
All four Englishwomen in the Europe team will see action on the first morning although, oddly, none will play together. Georgia Hall is second out with Celine Boutier from France, and they are likely to have their hands full against America’s best player Lexi Thompson and Brittany Altomare. History will be made in the third foursomes when the Korda sisters, Jessica and Nelly, become the first siblings to play together. They will be up against Caroline Masson from Germany and Ewart Shadoff.
The stage is set, therefore. On one side, an American skipper with the chance to cement her legacy as perhaps the best US captain of all time, man or woman. On the other, a model Scot on home soil, looking for the win she would cherish so much she would rate it even higher than her British Open success a decade ago.
All the signs point to a nail-biting affair — but, with home advantage, one that Europe might well edge.