Such were the concerns ahead of the inaugural Solheim Cup in 1990 at Lake Nona that no arrangements were made for public spectators. A few club members were out and about, but the main body, such as it was, consisted of the players’ families and the media, virtually all of whom were guests of Ping, the sponsor.
One explanation for the ‘behind closed doors’ approach was that the paperwork had been completed only a couple of months earlier. Also, there was a very real fear that the match would be hopelessly one-sided. The late John Laupheimer, who retired as the LPGA’s commissioner in 1988, was not alone among his fellow Americans in thinking that it was way too soon for such a contest.
The Americans’ assessment was fair enough. After all, the LPGA Tour had started in 1950, while it was not until 1978 that the Ladies European Tour (LET) came into being. So it was inevitable that the CVs of the two teams made for very different reading when it came to the 1990 Solheim Cup.
The Americans boasted an Aladdin’s cave of top titles; the Europeans’ successes were mostly achieved on an LET circuit where the prize money was but a fraction. But the fact that Dame Laura Davies had won the US Open in 1987 and Lotta Neumann in 1988 could not be ignored.
When the Americans came out on top at Lake Nona, it was not quite so one-sided as Laupheimer and others had predicted. The score was 11.5-4.5 in a week when Davies and Alison Nicholas made a grand entrance with a win over Pat Bradley and Nancy Lopez.
There’s something magnificent about the 100,000+ cheering, chanting, flag-waving fans who have packed the stands across the last few Solheim Cups. Yet the magic of that 1990 match was something that can never be replicated. You could position yourself just a few feet from the players, close enough to hear the memorable exchange between Rosie Jones and Davies as they set off from the 1st on day three.
The winning US team at the inaugural Solheim Cup in 1990
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jones, as talented a mischief-maker as golfer, would have been well aware that Davies was inclined to fall out with her driver from time to time. She was not about to ignore…
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