Roundup: Europe Trounces U.S. In Solheim Cup

Doug Ferguson's game story on Europe's historic win over the U.S. at Colorado Golf Club notes Europe's 6-rookie squad and Caroline Hedwall's amazing 5-0 record in leading her team to an 18-10 rout.

Phil Parkin's post-match interview with an eloquent, modest Hedwall.

Steve DiMeglio captures the losing moment and the essence of what separated the two squads.

Following a 55-minute weather delay, Sweden's Caroline Hedwall, 24, playing in just her second Solheim, defeated Michelle Wie with a last-hole birdie from 5 feet to give the Europeans the 14 points they needed to keep possession of the Cup. Hedwall become the first player in Solheim history to go 5-0.

The USA, on the other hand, could never get a handle on the undulated, firm and slick greens throughout the tournament and now has lost their grip on the Solheim Cup.

Jay Coffin on the other star from this Solheim Cup, 17-year-old Charley Hull who pummeled Paula Creamer, then asked for her autograph.

John Strege wonders where this leaves the state of American golf.

A Solheim Cup is not entirely indicative of the strength of any specific group of players, but the signs aren't good for the U.S. For the first time, Europe has won consecutive Solheim Cups, and its victory at the Colorado Golf Club was its first in America. Caroline Hedwall, only 24 herself, a star heretofore still in the assembly stage, went 5-0 in these matches, securing the cup for Europe with an 18th-hole birdie to beat Michelle Wie.

Left unsaid in all of this is how yet another American team (male or female) struggled in formats other than singles, and really never quite grasped how to deal with the sensational firm-fast golf presented by Colorado Golf Club.

That may have been part of Dottie Pepper's thinking in issuing this ominous statement about the depth of American golf, as reported by Beth Ann Baldry in her roundup of the last day.

And now, as Dottie Pepper sat beside the 18th green waiting for the final match to come in, the Europeans an hour deep into their celebration, one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen stated an obvious, yet painful fact about American golf:

“The world has caught up and passed (us),” Pepper said.

Baldry also handed out grades. The Americans will be going to summer school.

And mopping up a Saturday controversy when Michelle Wie left a green early in celebration, Coffin has her apology Tweets.

Golf Central's highlight package.

The jovial European team interview.



The not-so-jovial USA post match interview, helmed by the classy Meg Mallon.

And just as a viewer, this was yet another win for architecture. While most of these team matches would be interesting if played on a polo field, Colorado Golf Club's brilliant agronomic presentation highlighted Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw's architecture. What a joy it was to watch the ball spending so much time on the ground, doing wonderful things when the players controlled their shots.

Throw in some super hole locations and fresh camera angles from Golf Channel that allowed us to better understand the scale and strategy of the holes, and we once again saw why the powers insisted on team match play for the 2016 Olympics why team events are still better than 99% of the stroke play events.

Kudos to all involved for an entertaining presentation of our sport.

Solheim Madness! 25 Minutes To Take An Incorrect Drop!

Julie Williams with a nice wrap of Friday's day one Solheim Cup brouhaha over an incorrect drop taken by Carlota Ciganda.

Ciganda hit her fourth shot onto the fringe and made the par putt to secure an unexpected halve with Lewis and Thompson.

“Obviously I’m not happy about it,” Mallon said. “The thing I’m most unhappy about is that it took ... about 25 minutes for this to happen. And from our perspective, the momentum, which was coming in our favor at that point in time, obviously had stopped.”

Questions were posed at the time of the drop, Mallon said, but perhaps not the right ones. Play proceeded, and Pettersen birdied the next hole to take the Europeans 1 up. They won by that margin at the 18th, when Pettersen made a clutch two-putt par.

Golf Central has the video and also the Captains talking about what ended up being an incorrect drop.

Old Course Play Suspended Due To Wind...

And greens too fast for their contours. Again. This happened at the 2010 Open Championship and now at the 2013 Ricoh Women's British Open.

The irony? Greens are sped up to offset modern driving distances and to prevent low scoring, yet whenever we've seen modern elite players on slow greens they don't make many putts.

The official announcement:

Third round play was suspended at 12.33pm on Saturday due to high winds gusting at 38 miles per hour.

Balls were moving on the greens, with the 10th green particularly affected.

Play has been suspended until at least 4.30pm and tournament officials will make a further announcement at 4pm local time.

Update on 2013-08-04 05:56 by Geoff

**Martin Dempster's account of the strange day at St. Andrews.

In case you were wondering about how the greens were prepared with the strong wind forecast, Alistair Tait has your answer.

The LGU had already prepared for the strong winds by not cutting the greens as close as the previous day. “The 11th green wasn’t cut,” she said. “The greens were 9.4 on the stimpmeter as opposed to 10 the day before. They were really quite sticky.”

The weather forecast for tomorrow calls for strong winds again, although not quite as strong as today. If the wind gets up and play is affected, then a Monday finish is an option.

Only nine players finished their third rounds. Those nine players were 56 over par. Rikako Morita was the worst of that bunch with a score of 86, 14 over. Cristie Kerr and amateur Lydia Ko had matching 3-over 75s.

Luck Of The Draw Does Inbee In?

Ron Sirak on Inbee Park's unlucky draw as Friday afternoon saw winds kick up, leaving the Grand Slam wannabe eight back heading into the weekend.

The change in conditions seemed unsettling for Park, and that is a rarity for the Korean who plays with a Zen-like calm. Her ball striking was not nearly as crisp as Thursday, when she opened with a 69, and her putting was not as precise as usual, although she did make several good six-foot par saves.
 
"[I was] a little bit unlucky with the draw, getting afternoon today, not playing in the morning when it's lovely, but that's the way it is," she said.

ESPN's highlight package and wrap up from Rinaldi and Pepper.

Inbee With Two Three Putts, Still Posts 69

Ron Sirak on Inbee Park's opening 69 at the Old Course in her quest to win a fourth straight major. The normally reliable putter had a few slip-ups on the way in.

"There were a couple of bad drives and a couple of bad putts on the back nine, but it's the first round and could have been much better," she said. "A little bit disappointing, but I'm glad that I've done that in the first round instead of the final round. I'm looking to improve the next three days."

Park blamed the back-to-back three putts on Nos. 16 and 17 -- something that happens for Park about as often as Yankees legend Mariano Rivera blows a save -- on the fact that she had faced no long lags putts until late in the round.

Park is, after all is said and done, perfectly positioned after 18 holes and perfectly prepared to deal with the mental challenge ahead.

The video highlights:

LGU Sets Old Course Time Par At 4:30

Considering it took almost six hours the last time they played the Ricoh Women's Open at St. Andrews, this from Susan Simpson of the Ladies Golf Union seems optimistic.

Nick Rodger reports:

"This week is the only week we deal with the professionals and we've obviously got to deal with two other organising bodies too. But we have full support from the LPGA and the Ladies European Tour for our slow-play policies. The rules officials out there are under instruction to come down hard on any slow play. We've set four hours and 30 minutes and we think that's achievable."