Fans rewarded as opening day of drama proves worth the wait
NOBODY got booed. The locals were on their best behaviour. The sun even shone pretty consistently and constantly on everyone. Yes, even the slow-play exponents who carried on late and long into the Gleneagles gloaming.
And, when the final act of drama was played out some 11 hours after the first ball had been sent arcing down the opening fairway, few who turned up or tuned in would have complained of feeling short-changed.
Yes, parts of the afternoon could have done with a fast-forward button. If the contest stays this close and this enthralling for the next two days, however, Catriona Matthew’s (below) first experience as a Solheim Cup captain leading Team Europe in Scotland will have disappointed no one.
Her team, sitting on a one-point lead that could, would and should have been more, will be asked plenty of more tough questions today and tomorrow.
As the occasionally spicy preview chatter gave way to actual competition yesterday, there was no shortage of queries requiring answers.
Would Danielle Kang’s prediction of a hostile reception become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Might the mean girls in the American team be beastly to Suzann Pettersen?
How long could Lizette Salas actually take to make up her damned mind about what club to use? Much longer than you could possibly imagine...
But let’s not be churlish. Because this was, as sport goes, a pretty great day.
For starters, and in a rare departure from recent meteorological trends, no one got wet.
Well, no one save poor Annie Park, who removed one shoe and one sock — both from the same foot, just to be clear — and went half-wading into the reeds early in her morning foursomes.
Brave woman. If it had been just a couple of degrees colder, frostbite might have forced the most unusual injury excuse in the history of the competition; scratched from the singles after losing a couple of toes.
Despite the chill in the morning air, the horseshoe stands around the first tee were full even 40 minutes before the first match went off at 8.10am.
Very few of the punters in attendance were using their seats, mind. They were on their feet, singing and yelling.
In the case of one contingent proudly telling everyone that they were from Texas, the default etiquette for anyone from the
Lone Star State, they were actually stompin’ and a hollerin’. Yee and, furthermore, ha. The rivalry was friendly but definitely much in evidence, with a chorus of ‘USA all the way’ quickly drowned out by the response: ‘USA, not today…’ Out on the course, the galleries grew in number throughout the morning, the pervasive smell of cigar smoke telling us that the Yanks were here in numbers; they do love a stogie with their fresh air. Thousands gathered down by the tenth green and 11th tee, big crowds built up at the spectacular 16th — and there were biblical-sized exoduses from viewing spot to viewing spot as those following a particular group went swarming all over the site. It warmed up, too. One or two tourists considered discarding their mittens. While locals wondered if it was almost ‘taps aff ’ weather; anything in double figures... As for the prospect of a red-hot reception once young Miss Kang stepped into the bear pit, the lions’ den, the viper’s nest guaranteed to be seething with animus for her afternoon match? Yeah, not quite. If it would be inaccurate to say European fans treated the American with studied indifference, they didn’t single her out for even good-natured ribbing. They even played along when Kang asked them to whoop and cheer while she hit her tee shot. Which she then pulled straight left into the hubris. Sorry, rough. The top match was a belter, with Pettersen — the controversial wildcard pick with zero form and a swing that was all over the place — digging deep to help bighitting Anne van Dam to a convincing win over Kang and Salas. Let’s never speak of the second fourball again. And the late American comeback in the closing two matches? That’s the stuff of sporting folklore. Worthy of the applause that poured forth from all, regardless of team colours or continental affiliations.