‘Europe must keep Solheim momentum rolling’

Underdogs. Hostility. Momentum. Unfinished business.

The buzzwords that accompany team golf were once again brought to the fore as the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia opened its doors to the 19th edition of the Solheim Cup.

Europe, despite looking to retain the trophy for a record fourth time, are undeniably the underdogs – captain Suzann Pettersen admitted as much – but arrive with the momentum from last year’s thrilling 14-14 tie at Finca Cortesin in Spain.

The USA, desperate for a first win since 2017, will have a boisterous backing, with a reported 100,000 fans set to descend on the tree-lined course, which is an hour west of Washington DC.

“It’s nice to get this going again,” Pettersen told BBC Sport.

“It feels like we just left Spain and we need to keep the momentum rolling.

“Playing away is a tough task to get this done for the fourth time but the players are up for it.”

Also fresh in the Pettersen’s mind – and that of 10 of her players, given there are only two rookies in Europe’s team – is the 4-0 defeat they suffered on the opening morning at Finca.

Pettersen’s positive spin a year on is that those Friday foursomes were “a wake-up call”. Vice-captain Laura Davies told BBC Sport last December that in the immediacy of that day Petterson “asserted her captaincy and laid into the players”.

So will the Norwegian, a veteran of nine Solheim Cups as a player, continue her assertive captaincy style this year?

“I learned my lesson,” she said of her softer approach at the start of that first week in Spain.

“Just being authentic – being me – is what they expect. The passion and energy I always had for this is what I want to pass on to the players – why I really fell in love with this.

“What we learned the most is being precise. Giving clear messages goes a long way.

“I’m going to be quite direct with the players and, whatever match or pairings we decide, the players are all up for it.

“They are looking for a strong leader, so I’ll do my best.”

That leadership strength will be tested to the full this week in an environment that Pettersen expects will be “the real playing” of an away match after the “odd experience” of winning at Toledo in 2019.

“We had literally zero European support because of Covid,” said Pettersen of Europe’s second away victory. “It was hostile. This will be very different from that. It’s going to be loud, with chants between the fans. It’s going to have a lot of energy and be a great event for women’s golf.”

Half of this European dozen played in the most recent defeat, in Iowa seven years ago, with English duo Charley Hull and Georgia Hall, Spain’s Carlota Ciganda and Anna Nordqvist of Sweden going on to form a core spine of the unbeaten run since.

On the US side, only the retiring Lexi Thompson and the returning Alison Lee have been on a winning side.

Thompson, who made her debut in 2013, was part of the victorious 2015 and 2017 teams, while Lee has not played since her first event nine years ago.

It has led to a “theme of unfinished business” in the American camp this year, according to Megan Khang, who went unbeaten 12 months ago and said the team are “hungry” to regain the trophy.

This desperation to end the drought has also upped the Solheim stakes a notch among the fans, but Pettersen says her players are well equipped to deal with any taunts from outside the ropes.

“It’s a strength of the team that they are all playing in the US on regular basis, so are used to it,” she said.

“But that comfortableness gets tested on Friday morning.”