Has the European Solheim Cup team officially shed its underdog label?
Suzann Pettersen leads the Europeans at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain where they’re looking to do something they’ve never done before – win a third consecutive Solheim Cup. Captain Pettersen doesn’t just believe they’ll pull it off but says her team is the best it’s ever looked.
“It’s almost scary to say, but I think on paper we have some really solid top eight,” Pettersen said about her team’s automatic qualifiers. “I think it’s the first time in the history that I’ve been a part of the Solheim that we have eight players inside I think it’s the top 35 on the world rankings.”
Pettersen was close. To start the matches, eight members of her team are ranked inside the top 40 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
Taking up the mantle as the team favored to win the Solheim Cup represents a shift in strategy by the Europeans who lost eight of the first 11 editions of the event. But they began to ditch their long-worn title of underdogs when they faced the Americans at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio in 2021. It was there that Englishwoman Mel Reid, a veteran for the European side, said they were the strongest team they’d assembled to date. Those were powerful words about a formidable squad that went on to lead every session that week and successfully retain the Cup.
Captain Pettersen is whistling the same tune ahead of this year’s Solheim Cup, which returns to European soil and will be played for the first time in Spain.
But are they right? Is this year’s team the best they’ve ever assembled? Or is it simply a change in strategy by the Europeans to snatch up the favorites’ title and leave the Americans with what had once been the coveted moniker of underdogs with less expectation and pressure?
The Europeans have long positioned themselves as weaker in the matches by pointing to the Rolex Rankings to show the strength of the American team as compared to their own. The same argument could be made again this year, as the Americans could be seen as the favorites with an average world ranking of 25 and with their lowest-ranked player, Cheyenne Knight, hovering around the top 50. The Europeans, on the other hand, have multiple team members ranked outside the top 100 in the world including captain’s pick Caroline Hedwall, who currently sits outside the top 120.
“It’s like a broken record every year that the U.S. is better on…
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