GAINESVILLE, Va. — One of the biggest concerns Team USA captains had coming into the 19th Solheim Cup was the 40-minute bus ride they had each day to and from Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. Team vibes can’t be found in the dirt or the data.
When they got on the bus that first day, there weren’t any speakers, noted assistant captain Angela Stanford. That’s when Nelly Korda came to the rescue. The World No. 1 found a speaker and helped turn the bus rides into an epic experience. For the past two nights, players and caddies entered the hotel jamming to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” People in the bar cheered.
“She set the tone for the week,” said Stanford of Korda’s demeanor. “I think when one of your best players is relaxed, it lightens everyone up.”
No one really wanted to talk about pressure entering this week, but the U.S. had never lost four cups in a row. Had the outcome at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club gone differently, the cries of “What’s wrong with Team USA?” would’ve been rung loudly for the next two years.
But that’s not how things went down on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., where Stacy Lewis and her mounds of data set the foundation for a U.S. team that led 10-6 going into singles play.
For a long time, it looked like Lexi Thompson might end her Solheim Cup career by clinching the cup. Such storybook endings are popular at the biennial event. Alas, it wasn’t to be for the player who spent more than a decade as the face of American golf.
That honor went to World No. 2 Lilia Vu, who had 103 yards downwind for her approach shot into the 18th, her least favorite number to hit. Down 1 hole going into the 18th against European rookie Albane Valenzuela, Vu looked at the leaderboard and knew she had to deliver. She stuffed it to 18 inches to tie the match and secure the last half point.
“It’s a lot of pressure, but that’s what you work hard for all your life,” said Vu. “This is the moment. That was my moment.”
The final tally of 15½-12½ belies how close it felt out there. Europe actually won the singles session.
“At 2:25 we were still out there having a chance at this remarkable,” said European captain Suzann Pettersen, “and I don’t think the Americans anticipated such a fight from us.”
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Lauren Coughlin, the 31-year-old Virginian who waited longer than anyone for this chance, went 3-0-1 for the week, mounting a tremendous comeback on Sunday against Maja Stark to secure a late half point. Lewis took a diverse group of phenoms and late-bloomers who are largely introverted and gave them a simple message: “You be you.”
No one looks more comfortable on a Solheim Cup stage than Megan Khang, the hype player with substance. For a second consecutive cup, Khang went undefeated with a 3-0-0 record, her voice hoarse from all the cheering.
Rose Zhang said the week reignited her passion for golf. She became the eighth player, and third American, in Solheim Cup history to finish 4-0-0. She’s also the first player to never reach the 17th hole in any match.
“I felt a lot more loose than I did last year,” said Zhang, “and it was good vibes all around.”
The fun transferred from the bus and the team room to the course, with players showing a side of themselves that most, including Lewis, had never seen.
“I know their personalities and I’m around them off the golf course, but to do that in front of everybody and to feel comfortable doing that,” said Lewis, “I knew we were doing a lot of things right behind the scenes.”
Buses, it turns out, were a theme of the week. While the Americans were rockin’ out on their bus, thousands of fans waited two to three hours to simply board one. The first tee on Friday morning was a shell of itself as a transportation failure of monumental proportions spoiled a day of celebration in the women’s game.
Mercifully, the tour managed to get it sorted for the weekend and the focus shifted back to golf, where Lewis put into practice the road map she and stats guru Justin Ray put together heading into the week.
Lewis’ motto for the week was “Unfinished Business” after last year’s heartbreaking tie in Spain, which sent the cup back to Europe. Ray’s theme was “run the football.”
“We are a run the football, ground and pound team,” said Ray. “We were going to hit it to 15 feet over and over and over again.
“We knew all along on this golf course that the strength of our team is going to be mid- to long-range approaches. We didn’t want to put a bunch of wedges in the European’s hands. If we had 6-, 7-, 8-irons in our hands, that’s what’s going to be our advantage.”
On Sunday, Korda skipped out of the tunnel in front of an electric crowd to face Charley Hull in a marquee opener. That match was the only thing that didn’t go Korda’s way this week. Hull smoked her, 6 and 4, but it did little to dampen the overall week for a player who’d won six times in the first half of the season, including her second major.
“This was probably the most fun I’ve had on a golf course – ever,” said Korda. “Just the team, the team environment, the caddies, everyone getting along, the fans. Everyone was so incredible. We all vibed really well off of each other. This is probably the most I’ve laughed and the most I’ve fist-pumped ever on a golf course. It was just an amazing week and a dream come true.”
Beth Daniel, one of 10 past U.S. captains on the ground in Virginia, said Lewis has forever changed the Solheim Cup over the past three years. She brought in KPMG to fund an analytics program that completely shifted the way pairings were picked.
The data enabled Lewis to explain her strategy to players – why she wanted to play them where and with whom.
“In the past, some players were like, ‘I’m not playing, but nobody is telling me why,’ ” said Stanford. “She makes you buy in.”
But it’s not just the data. Lewis wanted to build up the appreciation players had for the history of the cup. For example, every American who has ever played the Solheim Cup now has a number. All 69. Daniel is No. 1. Lewis wanted them all to know their place in what’s become the crown jewel of the LPGA, and mostly importantly, she wanted them to love it.
Her holistic approach to the job of captaincy included looking at everything from how much money was budgeted to each area to how many inside-the-ropes passes former captains received (two, for the first time!). Former captains even had their own locker room, and it was deeply appreciated.
Rare is the player who’s focused not only on the present, but the past and the future as well. Lewis wanted to lay out a blueprint that not only led to more success for Team USA, but made things easier for whoever comes next.
“She just paid attention to every single detail of the Solheim Cup,” said Daniel, “and took it all seriously.”
As the team gathered to take photos with the trophy on the 18th green, Lewis’s husband, Gerrod Chadwell, stood over to the side with their 5-year-old daughter Chesnee. No one knows how much heart and how much sacrifice went into this more than Chadwell, who watched his wife put in many late nights.
“I think she would trade everything that happened in her life up to this point for that,” said an emotional Chadwell, adding “I’ve never wanted something more for somebody in my life.”
On the eve of the final round, Lewis said the joy she saw radiating from her players on the first tee all week meant more to her than the scoreboard.
“It’s not fake,” said Lewis. “It’s not pretend.”
It’s the dawn of a new era in American golf.