ABOUT TIME, AN AMERICAN TEAM WHO ARE UP FOR A FIGHT
IS there any chance the United States team might stand up and make a match of it when the 14th Solheim Cup begins near beautiful Heidelberg this morning? Apologies to any American readers easily offended but let us be honest here: your guys and girls have taken some hellish beatings. In the three years since Europe’s miracle at Medinah, we have had one edition each of the Solheim, Ryder and Walker Cups and it did not matter whether the event was staged in middle America, an inland course in Perth or a links in Lancashire. The Americans were battered on each occasion. It was at the Solheim two years ago when the rot set in and it is here at St Leon-Rot where they will hope to end perhaps the most dismal sequence of results in the nation’s proud golfing history. This is not the first time all three trophies have resided on this side of the Atlantic, but it must be the first when the opposition have gone down each time with barely a whimper. Encouragingly for the visitors and all those who
like these matches when the tension is running high and the claws are out, American Juli Inkster looks like she is up for the fight. After the mutiny at Gleneagles under Tom Watson — and the US Walker Cup skipper turning up last week saying he just wants his team to have fun — it is refreshing to see an American captain with a steely glint in her eye and her united team desperate to put a win on the board. ‘We have an opportunity to right the ship and we’re looking forward to the chance to try to win,’ said Inkster. ‘We’re ready.’ The matches will get off to a cracking start this morning with gritty American duo Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer out first against Scandinavians Suzann Pettersen and Anna Nordqvist. Then come the all-English pairing of Charley Hull and Melissa Reid against big guns Michelle Wie and Brittany Lincicome. In the anchor match, veteran Scot Catriona Matthew will team up with German glamour puss Sandra Gal to take on former world No 1 Stacy Lewis and Lizette Salas. The Americans start slight favourites but are presently one woman down with exciting rookie Alison Lee struggling with a stomach bug and unlikely to play any part in today’s proceedings. ‘I was planning to use her as well but she’s really struggling at the moment,’ said Inkster. Hopefully setting a nice edgy tone for the weekend, there was not much sympathy from Europe captain Carin Koch. ‘I’ve played Solheim matches without eating any food,’ she said. ‘She’s young. She’ll recover.’ This should be good.