Captain Suzann Pettersen believes Europe have assembled their strongest team ever as they bid to win an unprecedented third straight Solheim Cup.
Nine of Pettersen’s 12-strong side are ranked inside the world’s top 50, including Evian Championship winner Celine Boutier (fifth) and Charley Hull (eighth), who finished runner-up in both the US Women’s Open and AIG Women’s Open this year.
Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh is ranked just outside the top 50, although Pettersen raised a few eyebrows when she selected world numbers 121 and 122 Caroline Hedwall and Emily Pedersen as two of her four captain’s picks.
“I think we’re all very ready to go,” Pettersen told a pre-event press conference at Finca Cortesin in Spain.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to hide that, if you look on paper, we have the strongest team that I’ve ever been a part of, and that’s based on great performances over the last few years from all the players.
“With good results there’s also expectations, but these girls are so up for it, so we can’t wait.”
Pettersen’s sentiments were echoed by several of her players on Wednesday, with Hull, who has been plagued by a neck injury, adding: “I think this is a very, very strong team.
“It’s got a lot of depth to the team as well. Before we had a lot of strong players, but then sometimes the back end of the team wasn’t as strong, but I feel like we’re pretty strong all the way through.
“I think we’ve got a good chance this year. I’m looking forward to it.”
Pettersen and Hull were involved in one of the Solheim Cup’s most controversial moments in 2015 when the Norwegian claimed a vital hole after Alison Lee had picked up her ball thinking a short putt had been conceded.
Hull gave that impression as she was already walking across the front of the green towards the 18th tee, but Pettersen said they had not conceded the putt and therefore won the hole.
A par on the 18th was enough for the European pair to win the match, but among those to strongly criticise Pettersen was her former team-mate and current assistant captain Dame Laura Davies, who said on Sky Sports she was “disgusted”.
He said: “How Suzann can justify that I will never, ever know. We are all fierce competitors, but ultimately it’s unfair. We have to play week in, week out together and you do not do something like that to a fellow pro.”
Asked on Wednesday how Pettersen compares to previous captains she had played under, Davies said: “Well, she’s a lot calmer than I thought she was going to be.
“I’ll be honest with you. I’ve played with her and against her in normal tournaments and she’s always been the same. She’s just friendly, a little bit fearsome now and again, but brings everyone together.”
United States captain Stacy Lewis agreed with the bookmakers that Europe are favourites to retain the trophy as she lamented a “massive missed opportunity” for the Solheim Cup to be more closely linked with next week’s Ryder Cup.
“I thought this could have been marketed together as two weeks in Europe, two Cups for play,” Lewis said.
“I think it was a massive missed opportunity for the sport of golf. We tried to do a little bit with the guys and just weren’t really able to move things along the way I would have liked.
“I tried really hard, actually. I probably spent more time on it than I should have. But whether it was timing or it was too late in the process, I don’t know. To really market it correctly, this probably had to happen two years ago.
“It’s something that, going forward, I think the game of golf needs to get on the same page and do better with. I just would like to see it for the good of the game.
“It’s not to further women’s golf. Let’s further the game of golf in general.”
McIlroy revels in 'awesome' 25th PGA Tour title alongside Lowry
Rory McIlroy said his 25th PGA Tour title was made all the more special by the fact it came alongside Shane Lowry after the Irish duo won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in a play-off on Sunday.
Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer were among the early starters in Avondale and set a target of 25 under by carding a nine-under 63 in the fourth round.
It went down to the wire as McIlroy and Lowry birdied the final hole to set up a play-off, which they won by making par after Trainer missed his par putt.
The victory took McIlroy to a quarter of a century on the PGA Tour, and he said lifting the trophy alongside a close friend made it one of his most memorable.
The world number two said: "To win any PGA Tour event is very cool, but to do it with one of your closest friends…
"Think about where we met and where we've come from, to be on this stage and do this together, it was just awesome to be able to do it alongside this guy."
Former Open champion Lowry, who now has three PGA titles to his name, added: "Rory brings a crowd, and people love him.
"We've got a lot of love this week in New Orleans, we've had just the best week. We went out there, we had loads of fun, and we won the tournament. You couldn't ask for a better week."
A closer look at the hot streak of world number one Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth win in five events on Monday when the weather-delayed RBC Heritage concluded at Hilton Head.
That run includes a second Masters title and has seen the world number one extend his sizeable lead over Rory McIlroy at the top of the rankings.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the facts and figures around Scheffler’s streak and how they compare to previous runs.
What makes Scheffler’s streak so impressive?Winning any event on the PGA Tour is difficult, but Scheffler has claimed two of the biggest in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, a major championship at Augusta National and the RBC Heritage, which boasted a stronger than usual field after being elevated to a Signature Event this season. Victory at Sawgrass made Scheffler the first player ever to win back-to-back Players titles. His only “failure” was a tie for second in the Houston Open.
Has this been done before?Scheffler is the first player to win four times in five starts on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods, who did so at the end of 2007 and again to start 2008. He is also the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh (2004) – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour. With many players taking a break after winning a major, Scheffler is also the first to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming a green jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985.
How much has Scheffler earned?Scheffler has banked an average of £3.17million for each of his four victories and “only” £448,000 for his five-way tie for second behind Stephan Jaeger in the Houston Open. The total sum of £13.14m would place Scheffler 145th on the PGA Tour’s career earnings list and he is closing in on the single-season record of £17million he set last year. In comparison, Woods won nine times on the PGA Tour in 2000, including three major titles, and never finished worse than 23rd in 20 starts. His prize money totalled £7.4m.
Does the world ranking reflect Scheffler’s dominance?In a word, yes. Ahead of the Genesis Invitational in mid-February, Rory McIlroy could have become world number one by winning at Riviera with Scheffler finishing third or worse. Now, Scheffler has more than double the total and average points of McIlroy, while the average points gap between the top two (7.6493) is bigger than that between McIlroy and the players tied for 4,123st in the standings.
So is Scheffler the most dominant player in world golf?Not quite. Hours before Scheffler completed his victory in Hilton Head, fellow American Nelly Korda had wrapped up a fifth consecutive win on the LPGA Tour by claiming her second major title in the Chevron Championship. Korda’s winning streak matches that of Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05, although her bid for an unprecedented sixth straight win will have to wait after she cited exhaustion when pulling out of this week’s event in Los Angeles. While Scheffler has earned £13.14m from his last five events, Korda’s five wins have been worth £1.94m.
Scottie Scheffler matches Tiger Woods achievement with fourth win in five
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler hailed his mental strength after making it four wins in five starts with a rain-delayed victory at the RBC Heritage.
Scheffler returned to Hilton Head on Monday morning holding a five-stroke lead with three holes to play after a storm halted proceedings on Sunday.
The world number one dropped a shot at the last to finish 19 under par, three shots ahead of fellow American Sahith Theegala, with Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark another stroke back.
Scheffler is the first player to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming the Green Jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985 and the first to win four times in five starts on the US-based circuit since Tiger Woods in 2007-08.
Each of Scheffler’s last seven wins have come with at least eight of the world’s top 10 in the field and he is the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour.
“I was able to go home for a couple days and celebrate,” Scheffler said.
“I didn’t really put much thought into it. I had committed to playing the tournament here, it was part of the plan, so we stuck to the plan.
“I talked about it at the beginning of the week – I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations. I came here with a purpose, got off to a slow start but after that played some really nice golf.
“I do have fairly high expectations for myself and when I show up at tournaments, I try to do my best.
“I’ve talked a lot about kind of the preparation and what it takes for me to show up on a first tee ready to go, and I feel like I’ve been putting in the work and been playing some good golf, and it’s nice to be seeing some results for that with wins.
“On the course, I think the last month or so I’ve been as good mentally as I have in a long time and I think that’s why I am seeing some of the results.
“This week could be a good example of starting off and looking at the leaderboard on Thursday and everybody is just making birdie after birdie and I’m sitting there over par and I’ve had a shank on the day.
“I just did my best to stay patient and wait until I got hot.
“Had a nice finish to the round on Thursday and then had a really solid Friday where I felt like I played better than I scored, and then I had Saturday where I just played some really good golf.”
Rory McIlroy carded a final-round 74 to slip into a tie for 33rd.
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