U.S. captain Stacy Lewis at least got one thing right when her Solheim Cup team left Spain a year ago — without the crystal trophy — following a draw with Europe.
“We only have to wait another year to get this thing back,” she said.
This will be the second time the Solheim Cup, which starts Friday, is held in back-to-back years. Whenever the Ryder Cup gets postponed — the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 — the women always have to adjust to move off the same year.
Lewis, however, missed the point when talking about the outcome in Spain.
“We didn’t lose — it was a tie,” she said last year as Europe celebrated wildly at Finca Cortesin.
The fact the Americans flew home and the Solheim Cup remained the property of Team Europe indicates otherwise, especially with Lewis speaking to the short wait to “get this thing back.”
Pay no attention to the matches ending at 14 points for each side. That’s not how to keep score. The objective is to win the cup.
Europe has held the cup since 2019 and needs only 14 points to keep possession. That’s how it was last year, and that’s how it will be at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia. That alone is what should motivate a U.S. team that hasn’t won since 2017 in Iowa.
The Americans still have a 10-8 advantage (10-7-1 based on match results) in a series that dates to 1990. Europe, however, has a chance to become the first team to capture the Solheim Cup four straight times. The recent dominance is such that only two Americans, Lexi Thompson and Alison Lee, have experienced winning.
Europe returns 10 of 12 players from that winning team in Spain.
A tie is little more than a moral victory, especially for a team that hasn’t been able to win.
The Ryder Cup last ended in a tie in 1989, and possession stayed with Europe because it won the previous two times. The “winning” putt came from Jose Maria Canizares in the eighth match. It was 14-10 at that point, and the Americans won the last four matches.
Curtis Strange prevented Europe from having the better score when he ripped a 2-iron into 5 feet on the 18th to secure a 2-up victory.
His remembrance of that day 35 years ago speaks to the gray area of a tie.
“We were all disappointed. The team aspect overrides any individual play,” said Strange, who went 1-3-1 and remains the only American to have all five Ryder Cup matches go 18 holes.
“If you didn’t play well and didn’t win a point, you’re going to feel like you cost the team the Ryder Cup, versus if you won three out of four points and the team lost, you did your job and might not feel as bad.
“But we looked at it as though we lost, because we didn’t take the trophy home.”
The feelings about a tie were not mutual.
Consider the opening line in The Palm Beach Post story from the late Tim Rosaforte:
“Tony Jacklin hugged the Ryder Cup to his chest and the gallery surrounding the 18th green at The Belfry roared its approval. ‘I said three days ago it was staying here, and it is by the skin of its teeth,’ the European Ryder Cup captain said.”
Sounds like a winner.
And these were the words from U.S. captain Raymond Floyd:
“I looked forward to going back with the Ryder Cup on the Concorde tomorrow. I’m not going back with the Ryder Cup, but I’m not going back a loser. We stopped the losing streak. We halved it.”
Sounds like a team that hadn’t won in six years. It definitely wasn’t a victory. It technically wasn’t a loss. But it sure felt hollow.
“We don’t count ties in the Ryder Cup,” Strange said.
The Walker Cup for amateurs ended in a tie in 1965. The Americans had won nine in a row following World War II, and according to an Associated Press story, “An agreement was reached that the cup will stay one year on each side of the Atlantic.”
The Daily Telegraph reported in 1989, “Europe will retain the Cup but presumably the Professional Golfers Association will match the gesture their American counterparts made 20 years ago when the Cup was held by both associations for 12 months until the next meeting.”
The Presidents Cup ended in a tie in South Africa in 2003.
The rule was for each team to pick a player for a sudden-death playoff - Tiger Woods for the U.S., Ernie Els for the International team. The tension was as great as ever, and Woods said it was “one of the most nerve-wracking moments I’ve ever had in golf.”
They halved three holes before it was too dark to continue. A tie was proposed, and U.S. captain Jack Nicklaus reminded his counterpart, Gary Player, the U.S. would retain the cup. The International team, particularly 23-year-old rookie Adam Scott, wanted nothing to do with that. They agreed to share the cup.
That remains the policy today.
Is a playoff the answer for the Solheim Cup or Ryder Cup in case of a tie? Maybe, but nothing like what Woods and Els endured. Team matches organically can come down to the match, such as the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island or the 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles.
Perhaps one solution is three matches of sudden death, the first team to two points wins. That at least keeps it a team outcome.
Lewis wasn’t sure how to feel when a tiebreaker was proposed last year in Spain. It would make for better TV. It would be cleaner for the fans.
“But if you want to stick with the history of the event … you probably stick with retaining the cup,” she said.
The Solheim Cup belongs to Europe, which goes for four in a row with a win — or a draw.
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