HALMSTAD, Sweden, Sept. 16, 2007 – Only once in The Solheim Cup history, has a team retained the Cup on foreign soil. Following in the footsteps of their 1996 predecessors, the women of the 2007 U.S. Solheim Cup Team overcame an 8 ½ to 7 ½ deficit to the European Team entering Sunday singles matches to win the 10th staging of The Solheim Cup 16 to 12.
“We really played our hearts out. I thought we had a lot of talent on the team. I thought it would be tough to do it over here,” said U.S. Team Captain Betsy King, whose owns Solheim Cup career record stands at 7-6-2 in the first five stagings of the event. “Even though we had four rookies, they’re not really rookies.
“It was just a great week. Obviously, it was a tough week condition-wise, and there were a lot of close matches, so it could have gone either way, but I think today particularly in the singles, we played very well,” King said.
Coming into the week, the U.S. Team was stronger statistically on paper, as all players are ranked higher than 40th in the Rolex Rankings. However, the European Team had the advantage of a combined 40 Solheim Cup appearances by team members to the United States’ 22; and a 71-61-22 overall advantage over the U.S. record of 42-33-9. The European Team also had the home-crowd advantage and the history of a 3-1 record.
Read the entire article about Team USA and Natalie Gulbis at LPGA.com.
