Losing the captains of the Solheim Cup know that the question has come, and it was done for the American captain Angela Stanford shortly after the loss of his team 13-15 in Europe in the Netherlands on Sunday.
Is there anything you would have done differently?
The question, made by a Stanford reporter at the US captains’ press conference on Sunday night, was asked in the context of the Americans coming out flat and losing six of their first eight singles matches.
Stanford said he hadn’t changed anything, that he had sent some of his big guns later in the day because they needed a rest. The biggest problem, Stanford said, was his team’s inability to hit putts.
“If you listen to everything I’ve ever said, Europeans can always do better,” he said. “I don’t know why. I don’t even know why. I mean, I have a good idea, but I’m not going to say it now.”
Here, Stanford laughed, before adding: “Apparently I didn’t know the superintendent as well as I should have”
Two questions later, Stanford was asked if he was slow on the green Bernardus Golf he had taken his guard team.
“Yes, of course,” said the captain. “Even when we appeared in July here, they were faster. And I don’t think it had anything to do with the rain, either. Now, saying that, it’s my responsibility to prepare the team. This is the only thing that I’m struggling with is that I didn’t keep pushing, you know, we have to understand how to hit our putts a little more difficult, like to change the really difficult way.”
Stanford continued: “So I’m a little frustrated with myself that I didn’t drive that point home. But there’s nothing we can do about it and the team knew that. I mean, nobody complained at all. I know this now that I wish I had maybe hammered home more. Like, they’re going to be slow, but we’re going to be slow, but we’re going to be slow, but we’re going to be slow, but we’re going to be slow. Greens so slow usually, so, yeah.”
If Stanford’s observations sound familiar, this may be because here are those of the US Ryder Cup captain, Keegan Brandley, and one of his vice-captains, Jim Furyk, after his team’s loss (also 13-15!) in Europe in a soggy. Bethpage Black last fall. Bradley had called for the greens to roll at 12.5 on the Stimpmeter — which, in theory, would benefit the Americans who are used to putting in faster greens — but for whatever reason (the weather was certainly a factor) the surfaces, according to the Americans, never rolled that quickly.
“Our players one by one didn’t think they were going to get there,” Furyk said. “The boys had difficulty putting the putts in the hole and it seemed to be a little gluey. I think that the request was always there to put the golf course with less rough, but I also think that I believe that the greens will be firmer. I know that we had some rain in the middle of the week, but they were really, really soft when we arrived. So that is probably a problem a little as we were. “It is not the golf course.
And now, here we are barely a year later, with green speed re-emerging as a talking point after a loss to Team USA. So… did the Europeans, in an act of gamesmanship, defend the greens in advance of the event? The question was posed to European captain Anna Nordqvist on Sunday evening.
“Who said that?” Nordqvist said.
“Angela did it,” a reporter replied.
Nordqvist acknowledged that the greens were “a little softer than we all thought coming in,” but that was only because of a rainy September in the region and not because of secret mowing instructions he had provided to the maintenance team. “It’s obviously the weather, we can’t control that,” he said.
Nordqvist added: “I always said going into this week that we will try to show women’s golf. I’m not sure I believe much in creating a way to adapt Europe because these girls play the same golf courses week in week out and in weekly competition.”
The European captain said overall he thought the course set up looked good and he played well – “Even if I didn’t hit a shot. But I didn’t need to because I had 12 amazing players.”
The next edition of the Solheim Cup will return to the United States, at the Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky, in 2028. Rest assured, the Valhalla mowers will be ready.
