CASARES, SPAIN | The pressure was on the Spanish ahead of last week’s Solheim Cup.
Twelve months ago, your correspondent visited the host Finca Cortesín and reported about the severely undulating site: “There is no way of ignoring the difficulties these characteristics will present. Those in charge of infrastructure have a riddle on their hands: Not just how to get players, broadcasters and fans on and off the course, but how to get them around it. Those slopes are significant, the layout is vast, and, paradoxically, the playing area is tight.”
The organisers were not alone in facing difficulties, however.
For Carlota Ciganda, the only Spanish player on the European team, the match represented a dream, and yet her preparations might easily have prompted nightmares.
In late July, a year during which she had won an Aramco Series event in Florida and posted a fourth career-top three finish in the majors at the KPMG Women’s PGA, things turned sour when she argued about a two-shot penalty for slow play in the Amundi Evian Championship and then refused to sign her card when aware that remaining stubborn would provoke disqualification.
Still flustered two weeks later, she missed the cut at the AIG Women’s Open with a second-round 77 and tried to focus on her sixth Solheim Cup appearance while aware that since going 3-0-0 on debut in 2013 she had an underwhelming 4-8-4 record.
Despite all this, the 33-year-old from Pamplona was the natural poster girl of the week, with promotional photos of her hanging from lampposts all along the Costa del Sol.
Sometimes, though, being the focus of attention can be attritional. When England’s Charley Hull played in the 2019 AIG Women’s Open at her home course, Woburn, she felt as if everybody in every room she entered was talking about her, because that’s exactly what they were doing. Well-meant messages of support succeeded only in suffocating her hopes as she tied for 24th.
Every time the home hero spoke after these three games, whether to TV, the press or even to the fans, her refrain was the same: “I love Spain. I love this. I love it.”
Ciganda anticipated this potential problem while also recognising that she has a history of rising to the occasion on home soil (she is a three-time winner in Spain on the LET and a four-time runner-up).
“I just love Spain,” she said in the first player press conference of the week. “Eating Spanish dinners, hearing Spanish spoken, seeing familiar faces. I’m so happy to be here.
“I’m going to embrace the excitement and the adrenalin. I know I’m going to feel nervous, but I also know I can play great golf under pressure.”
Ciganda was ready; Spain was ready; the European fans were ready – and then captain Suzann Pettersen didn’t pick her for the opening morning foursomes in which Europe was trounced, 4-0.
The pressure was therefore additionally intense as Ciganda waited for a delayed introduction to the first-tee grandstands ahead of the afternoon four-balls. Before then, however, two figures stepped from the shadows of the bushes to address her.
Her elderly mother, Maria Jesús Marchiñena, was the first, wrapping her daughter in a warm embrace, brushing off the unwanted attention of a volunteer trying to prevent her with an aplomb that suggested Ciganda would have no difficulty with the shot ahead.
Then José María Olazábal stepped forward. Better known to his compatriots as “Chema,” the Ryder Cup veteran and Spanish hero offered little more than a nod, but it felt significantly more substantial in symbolic terms. Ciganda responded with a nod of her own before a chorus of “Viva España” from the feverish galleries called her to the tee.
Free of the shackles, she made a birdie on three of the first four holes, helping partner Linn Grant to a 4-and-2 win over Angel Yin and Ally Ewing. The early blue that they put on the scoreboard was a key factor in a European fightback that was sustained and compelling.
The home team won both four-ball sessions, 3-1, on either side of sharing the Saturday foursomes to tie the match at 8-8 heading into the singles.
Ciganda had joined Emily Pedersen early Saturday in the alternate shot to defeat Lilia Vu and Jennifer Kupcho, 2 and 1, then revived her combination with Grant in the four-balls, downing Vu and Danielle Kang by the same scoreline.
Her hips swayed to the first-tee music, her smile responded to the cheers of the crowds, her fists urged every par-breaker into the cup, her back arched 1970s-style with every swipe of the club, she screamed in celebration, and she won the race toward sunset in the last match out on both Friday and Saturday.
“To be honest, I’ve not been that nervous,” she said after winning the third point. “I’m running on pure adrenalin. This was a dream, and it’s come true.”
The captain’s strategy of holding the home hope back before letting her fly had worked. “So, so happy for Carlota,” Pettersen said on Saturday night. “She’s been under a lot of pressure, probably mostly from herself. But the way she’s handled it so far has been very, very impressive. She’s brought her ‘A’ game. That match in the afternoon between Carlota, Linn and the Americans was just unbelievable to watch.”
And the best was yet to come. Out in the penultimate singles match against Nelly Korda, Ciganda played with every chance that the result of her match would be key to the destiny of the cup, and so it proved.
At one stage 3-up through eight holes, Ciganda was pegged back to all square with three to play whereupon she proved to be as good as her word: When the pressure was greatest, she fed on the adrenalin.
Her approaches to 16 and 17 were to kick-in range as both birdies earned wins, and the last of them ensured that Europe would retain the Solheim Cup.
Ciganda had played in four matches and won four points: She was the star of the show.
For the organisers, the week was also a celebration, but it was far from straightforward.
The layout was also a golfing success. The dramatic first tee, high above the valley, with the fairway, green and water hazard below, was a dramatic introduction to every lap. The golfers left the tee box a little like skiers about to hurtle down the twists and turns of an Olympic run.
Drone footage of the course was always stunning, displaying holes that clung to the edge of ridges, with deep valleys layered in front and behind those steep folds of land.
But, as scenic and match-play-worthy as the holes were, they were also treacherous to walk due to the steep down-, up- and side-hill slopes. Moreover, more than half of the holes had exit routes that were nothing more than cart paths through trees and scrubland. There really was absolutely nowhere else to go.
The LPGA’s security team have rarely looked so frazzled than when attempting to squeeze the players and their carts (essential because of the inclines) through these gaps while TV camera teams, photographers, media, volunteers and thousands of fans attempted the same task.
At such times, the layout resembled a python that has swallowed a goat in one go and then takes an exceptionally long time to digest it.
For most, spectating was a significant hike. For the many middle-aged, elderly and out-of-shape, it was an all-but-impossible task to walk even a short loop.
It was a good job those drones were so effective because on-the-ground cameras were often stuck in traffic and coverage was negatively impacted.
These problems were anticipated and should have been resolved.
Other difficulties emerged and were thankfully rectified: on the early practice days, overzealous security teams confiscated water bottles and sun cream. To double the threat to those impacted, the concession stalls then ran out of the former (as well as food). Both errors were fixed.
It has to be said that, for European-hosted Ryder and Solheim Cups, it has more or less become traditional to have site difficulties. Victory always papers over the cracks and has done so again.
E-MAIL MATT
Top: Carlota Ciganda (left) shares a roar with teammate Emily Pedersen.
MalcoLm Mackenzie, LET