The Solheim Cup Stays in Europe, but the U.S. Takes Experience Into 2024 After Tie

U.S. captain Stacy Lewis said she 'couldn't be more pleased' with her five-rookie team, though an early 4-0 lead was squandered.

ANDALUCIA, Spain — It was Irishwoman Leona Maguire’s 4 and 3 win over wunderkind Rose Zhang that was the catalyst to a keep the Solheim Cup in Europe’s possession for the third consecutive time over an American squad that dominated the first session and then went into hibernation.

The 14-14 tie seemed like a victory to the Europeans, who hooted and hollered when Spain’s Carlota Ciganda made her short birdie putt on the 17th hole over Nelly Korda and then ran around the edge of the green as if she was in a track meet.

It brought back memories of 1999 when Justin Leonard made a long putt on the 17th hole to eventually secure a half-point over Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal.

The Europeans have kept the Solheim Cup for three straight matches.

Bernat Armangue/AP

That Sunday at Brookline, the American contingent could not control their emotions and their actions stopped play as Olazabal still had a putt to halve the hole.

At Finca Cortesin, the commotion on the green among the entire European team forced Lexi Thompson, whose match made the difference in a Cup retention for Europe or a U.S. loss, to stand on the tee and wait with her captain Stacy Lewis.

The fact that it got to the end in a tie is partly a testament to the Europeans' tenacity and the U.S.'s inability to hit the shots when required.

“Does it get any better than this?” European Captain Suzann Pettersen asked in her post round press conference. “I mean, this is a dream come true. We had a massive challenge ahead of us today. We've created history yet again in the Solheim Cup, and these girls are legends.”

The history is the first tie in Solheim Cup history. But the European team legends?

Tying doesn’t seem to connote legendary status and if not for some significant help from the Americans, the Cup would be on its way back to the U.S.

Two surprises Sunday came from three-time Solheim Cupper Ally Ewing and world No. 3 Nelly Korda.

Playing Sweden's Carolina Hedwall, a controversial captain's pick by Pettersen, Ewing won the first hole with an eagle on the par-5 2nd and steadily built her lead to 3 up through 12 holes. A point appeared assured.

But then the 34-year-old put the pedal down and went 6 under over the last six holes including a conceded eagle at the last when Ewing hit her third shot out of the greenside bunker on the 18th hole and her comeback from below the green came nowhere close to the hole.

Note that Hedwall is 121st in the world and Ewing is 31st.

Korda’s match was different from Ewing's in that she never led against Ciganda, but came from 3 down through eight holes to square her match with a par at the 15th.

Ciganda stuffed her second shot close to the 16th for birdie and did the same at the 17th, while Korda missed a makeable 10-foot birdie putt on 16 and then missed the green on 17 to give Ciganda a free look that ended the U.S. bid for victory in Spain.

“I couldn't be more pleased with this week, I really wouldn't go back and do much different with the pairings,” Lewis said. “You look even today how many matches went down to 17, to 18. Things really could have been quite a bit different with one or two shots here and there.”

Lewis is right but you could ask any captain and that answer would be somewhere in the transcript.

In the end, the Europeans weren’t as good as we were told by Captain Pettersen, needing to hide players both Friday and Saturday as well as needing to play three players five times. Pettersen admitted she would have played some additional players more than three times if she could have worked it out.

For Lewis, the tie is not a loss, but it is now six years that the Solheim Cup has been housed in Europe, the longest such streak in the event's history.

Luckily because of the change in the schedule, Lewis only has to wait until next September in Virginia to try to finish what she started.

“I don't want to sound like a sore loser, but it was a tie, and I think that's a lot for this team to build off of,” Lewis said. “Especially coming over here, coming into this environment with five rookies, a very young and inexperienced team, I mean, this week was really, really good for them.”