Experienced mountaineers would have felt very inadequate had they been watching the American and European Solheim Cup sides negotiating the slopes of Finca CortesÃn in Casares, Spain, while simultaneously reaching fresh heights in women’s golf. It could, of course, have been the adrenaline, but there were moments on the first two days when both sides were peppering the pins from far and wide or, alternatively, hammering home 20-yarders.
The match could have gone any way over the last afternoon Sunday. You would have backed the Americans to win when Georgia Hall and Gemma Dryburgh replaced two likely wins with a tie apiece as they missed a couple of short putts. But then came Caroline Hedwall, who, though three down with six to play, fought her way back with holed birdie putts and fist pumps – these were delivered from the heart – to defeat Ally Ewing on the home green to begin the end-of-day turnaround. Hedwall’s figures on the last six holes were a staggering birdie, birdie, par, birdie, birdie before she faced an eagle putt on the 18th which she never had to attempt.
Last month at the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath, Hedwall, a Swede who was still hoping for a Solheim Cup pick, had an eye-catching finish to her opening 71, which prompted me to ask whether her captain had been watching. “I think she was,†she whispered.
Suzann Pettersen had indeed been watching, and quite rightly, she began to see Hedwall as someone who had what it takes to make the team stronger whatever the circumstances. Pettersen knew, for example, that even if she did not include Hedwall in the earlier matches, it would not stop her from encouraging the rest. What a star she was, and what a Solheim for the Swedes.
With that cool, calm citizen, Anna Nordqvist having earlier won her first point of the week to the tune of 2 and 1 against Jennifer Kupcho to make up for Linn Grant’s 18th-hole loss to Megan Khang at the top of the lineup, the next Swede to do her stuff was Maja Stark. Two up through 13, she was back to 1 up with three to play before producing a deadly accurate blow at the 17th and making off with her point.
To think that Stark was almost lost to golf. She applied for a music scholarship ahead of a golf scholarship to high school, and it was only when she was turned down on the music front that she accepted the golf offer.
Surely this match was deserving more of the attention it had in the Sunday papers when the women went into the singles at 8-8. Clearly, the Ryder Cup, which does not start until this Friday, was No. 1 on the papers’ golf agendas, and mostly by a long way. As American captain Stacy Lewis said, it was a dire mistake for the women to have ended up with such an inappropriate week in the golfing ’23 calendar.
Men in general always have seemed to see themselves as the better of the sexes when it comes to sport, but, here again, it is the Swedes who deserve the first mention for starting to put that situation to rights in golf – and never more noticeably than when the aforementioned Grant won last year’s Scandinavian Mixed. She shot a closing 64, which put her nine strokes clear of Henrik Stenson and Marc Warren.
As for Finca CortesÃn, it may never host another Solheim Cup, but it will always be able to boast of holding one of the most exciting contests in the event’s history.
The Swedes had realised from the start of their golfing journey that there were things they could do better than the other golfing nations, and making golf a family game was one of them.
For another, they were the ones who had the good sense to start asking, “Why have two putts when one will do?†That, of course, was the thinking of Annika Sörenstam when, in 2002 in Phoenix, she returned that never-to-be-forgotten 59.
Though the putting at the Solheim Cup did deteriorate toward the end, American Angel Yin’s got better and better, and U.S. teammate Danielle Kang, who defeated the still-injured Charley Hull, put one in mind of Ian Poulter in terms of being able to show off with a putter in hand. (Maybe Poulter will follow Kang’s idea of making her putter that bit more of a menacing weapon by keeping it in a rifle case.)
It was at the 2012 World Match Play Championship at Finca CortesÃn that Poulter explained why he is so hot at holing putts in a match-play situation: “It’s pretty cut-throat. You have to do something. It’s black and white. If you miss, you lose the hole, dead simple. I like being put under that pressure, and I like looking my opponents in the eye.†That last bit struck a chord with a cluster of surrounding pressmen. A Poulter look, when you get it, can be quite something as, indeed, can one from Kang.
Never can body language have played a greater part in a match, and, at Finca CortesÃn, it started with uniforms. The American men, in the recent Walker Cup at St Andrews, somehow managed to recover from the embarrassment of wearing navy cardigans on the first day. They would, they said, have been laughed out of court had they worn cardigans at home. As luck would have it, the Europeans at Finca CortesÃn managed to survive the nightmare of trying to keep the floaty yellow dressing gowns they wore at the opening ceremony from sweeping open and upwards.
As for Finca CortesÃn, it may never host another Solheim Cup, but it will always be able to boast of holding one of the most exciting contests in the event’s history. What is more, it was played in the best of spirits in spite of having two of the feistiest captains in the business.
All of which was a little different to how things were among the men in the ’12 World Match Play when the hills of Finca CortesÃn were getting to them.
It was there that Christian Donald, brother of Europe's Ryder Cup captain and a similarly peace-loving fellow, severed his caddie-player relationship with Paul Casey and told him that he would never loop for him again.
“Paul,†said Christian, “can be great to work for, and we had plenty of good times as well as bad. This week at Finca CortesÃn came into the second category.â€
E-MAIL LEWINE
Top: Caroline Hedwall stages a crucial rally with four birdies and a conceded eagle in the last six holes to win.
malcolm mackenzie, let
