Solheim Cup 2023: Five storylines to watch in feisty clash between Europe and US
For the last time for the foreseeable future, the Solheim Cup will act as the first instalment of a monumental double bill this week when Europe defend their crown against the United States at Finca Courtesin in Andalucia.
From 2024, the Solheim Cup will revert to even numbered years to avoid clashing with the Ryder Cup, in which Luke Donald’s team will be attempting to wrestle the trophy back from American hands next week in Rome.
Golf’s transatlantic clashes are often feisty and there is no shortage of spice in the storylines at this week’s 18th contest between Suzann Pettersen’s Europe and a US team captained by Stacy Lewis which begins in southern Spain on Friday.
Three in a row?
With its stronger tour and depth of talent, the US has traditionally held the whip hand in the Solheim Cup, boasting 10 wins to Europe’s seven, but the tide has turned over the last decade or so.
Having lost eight of the first 11 editions, Europe have now won four of the last six, including the last two. Victory this week would see them achieve three consecutive victories for the first time, a feat the Americans have accomplished twice.
Either way, recent history suggests it will be a nail-biter. Until 2011, no Solheim Cup had been decided by fewer than three points, but since then four of them have been won by two points or fewer, including Europe’s against-the-odds triumph in 2021.
Youth v Experience
Pettersen and Lewis are helming teams with very different profiles in both age and experience. Nine of the US team are aged 26 or under, compared with just two Europeans, while the Americans have five rookies and a combined 17 previous Solheim Cup appearances to the hosts’ three rookies and 31 appearances.
As has often been the case, the rankings illustrate the depth of US team. Their average rank is 25, with all 12 players in the top 50. Europe, meanwhile, have two players outside the top 100. But Pettersen’s side boasts five players in the top 20 – Celine Boutier, Charley Hull, Linn Grant, Georgia Hall and Leona Maguire – to Lewis’s four.
Maguire to star again?
Debutant Maguire made history in Ohio two years ago when she top-scored for Europe with 4.5 points out, the most of any player on either team and a record for a Solheim Cup rookie.
Much will be expected again of the Irishwoman, who has since established herself as one of the game’s leading players, notching two wins on the LPGA Tour and taking her tally of top-10 finishes at majors to three.
Mel Reid, who partnered her in three matches last time, is absent having failed to qualify or attract a captain’s pick, but Maguire is assured of some vocal support, quipping that the volume of Irish fans already making their presence felt was “pretty impressive for a Tuesday”.
Bad blood
For a competition that only began in 1990, the Solheim Cup has amassed an impressive reputation for aggro between the rival teams.
Disagreements over rules and what is considered good form litter its short history, the most fierce being 2015’s “Gimmegate”, when Alison Lee thought Hull and Pettersen had conceded a birdie putt only for the future European captain to refuse.
Lewis hasn’t exactly poured cold water on the prospect of more needle, saying that she was relishing going up against the Norwegian: “Hopefully we don’t have any rules issues because I don’t think either one of us will back down.”
Heating up
This is the fourth Solheim Cup to be played in mainland Europe but the first in Spain, and the setting looks likely to get players’ temperatures rising too.
Noted for its hilly, physically demanding layout, Finca Courtesin is also expected to be bathed in 29C heat this weekend – quite the contrast to a chilly and blustery Gleneagles, where Pettersen justified her surprise inclusion by holing the winning putt in 2019.
“Managing energy is going to be big,” said Maguire. “It’s going to be hot. It’s going to be just as much of a physical test this week as a mental test.”