The Solheim Cup starts tomorrow at the St. Leon-Rot Golf Club in Germany and the American team is desperate to finally get one in the win column.
Team USA has taken it on the chin in the past two meetings with a pair of painful losses in both 2013 and 2011.
In ’11 Europe took down the Americans who were tied at 8-8 going into Sunday Singles in Ireland. A 7-5 win in singles where the Americans looked superior left Team USA dazed and confused. It was the most painful loss in the history of the American Solheim Team.
At the last Solheim Cup in Colorado the Americans were bent on revenge for ’11 but it was the same story again. On Day 2 the Americans wilted in the Fourball competition as Team Europe swept all the matches and crafted a 10.5 – 5.5 lead going into Sunday. The air was out of the American’s balloon and they lost the singles also, 7.5 – 4.5 and Europe kept the cup with an 18-10 win.
Juli Inkster is as competitive an athlete as there is on this planet and she has let it be known to her charges: Get this job done. It’s time to go to work. Forget the rah-rah cheerleading, face painting, tattoos and such and get to work and play some winning golf.
Inkster gave her team American themed lunch boxes to illustrate her strategy of cutting out all the excess hoopla and just getting to work.
The American captain is a no nonsense type of leader and she expects he players to do the same.
Once again on paper Team USA looks very impressive with four players ranked in the top twenty of the Rolex World Rankings while the Europeans have only two.
Team USA is lead by the number three player Stacy Lewis and the fourth Lexi Thompson. Suzann Pettersen (8) and Anna Nordqvist (12) are the leaders of Team Europe. The lowest ranked American is Paula Creamer at 48 where the European’s dipped all the way down to the 117th player in Caroline Hedwall.
Maybe the Americans shouldn’t feel too cocky, after all they were just as stacked the past two attempts at the cup.
Inkster better fill those lunchboxes with a big serving of guts and a hefty side of grit.
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