GAINESVILLE, Va. – After hesitation, Alison Lee answered.
“I imply, I’m not going to lie, I haven’t actually talked to her in any respect since then,” Lee mentioned Tuesday as a part of the Solheim Cup’s pre-tournament press conferences.
Lee was referencing Suzann Pettersen, who for the second time in as a few years is captaining the European aspect. However this had nothing to do with 2024 or 2023. It dates 9 years in the past to the 2015 matches, the place Lee was making her cup debut.
She was 20 then, an LPGA rookie who was a standout collegian at UCLA and all-world beginner.
Due to a top-10 run close to the tip of qualifying, Lee made the group on her personal advantage. She was the one Solheim Cup rookie on both aspect.
On Day 2 in St. Leon-Rot, Germany, with the U.S. trailing by 4 factors after three periods, Lee and Brittany Lincicome confronted Pettersen and Charley Hull in afternoon fourballs. On the 17th gap, Lee had a birdie putt to place her group 1 up with one to play. She missed after which scooped up her ball from inside 2 toes.
Pettersen protested that the par putt was not conceded and an official agreed, giving the outlet to the Euros, who claimed the 18th as nicely to win, 2 up.
Pettersen was defiant. Lee and Hull had been in tears. The Individuals – and even some Europeans, together with Laura Davies, a vice captain to Pettersen on this and final yr’s groups, however a commentator for the ’15 matches – had been outraged.
“I’d say within the second it was powerful. I used to be very intimidated on the time, like I mentioned. I used to be a rookie on tour. I didn’t actually know any of the women on my group both. I wasn’t actually good associates with them,” Lee mentioned Tuesday.
“I simply felt just like the beginner, younger lady, who type of made it on the group, and everybody fortunately simply rallied behind me and had been so heat and welcoming and did every thing they may to assist me.”
Rally, they did because the U.S. used the motivation to win the singles session by 5 factors and seize the cup for the primary time in six years.
That was Lee’s first and, till now, solely Solheim Cup expertise.
Pettersen, below growing criticism, issued an apology for the incident on the Monday after the matches. It was largely forgotten about over time as Pettersen authored THE defining second of her profession and, arguably, in Solheim Cup historical past with knowledgeable walk-off clincher in 2019.
Captaining the Euros to a retention of the cup final yr solely galvanized the positives of her legacy.
For Lee, the final 9 years have been a little bit of every thing, from agonizing to tantalizing.
She misplaced and regained her LPGA card however hasn’t received on tour. She did, nevertheless, earn her second Girls European Tour victory final October, months after getting a name from U.S. captain Stacy Lewis that Lee wouldn’t be receiving a choose for the ’23 group.
“I used to be very heartbroken when Stacy gave me a name and had a dialog with me and instructed me I wasn’t on the group,” Lee mentioned. “Yeah, that basically motivated me to have a extremely good yr this yr.”
She began working her method onto the ’24 group (the cup is being contested in back-to-back years with a view to get onto a even-year schedule) with three runner-up finishes to conclude final season.
This marketing campaign started uneasily as she suffered a chunk from her boyfriend’s canine that resulted in a visit to the hospital and missed begins within the first three occasions. When she returned, a tie for 51st in Singapore instantly made her marvel if all of the progress she had made a couple of months prior was simply … gone.
These fears had been instantly relieved with top-10s in her subsequent two tournaments. And whereas she’s nonetheless searching for her first tour title, she performed nicely sufficient to earn a spot on the U.S. group and keep away from a telephone name – lucky or in any other case – from returning captain Lewis.
9 years later, Lee is 29 and there are 5 teammates her senior, six her junior, and he or she is aware of all of them. All of the assistant captains and even Lewis herself, had been a part of that victorious ’15 group. Actually, Lee and Lexi Thompson are the one present U.S. gamers who’ve ever skilled a Solheim Cup victory.
Lee mentioned she doesn’t bear in mind an excessive amount of about her maiden matches, and what she did recall wasn’t overwhelmingly optimistic.
“I missed the opening gala as a result of I had like meals poisoning that week. I had no household there. I knew nobody on the group. I simply felt like such an outsider,” she mentioned.
However it shouldn’t be forgotten that, within the aftermath of that controversial inflection level, a 20-year-old rookie received her singles match, 3 and 1, over Gwladys Nocera. And that the U.S. received – by some extent.
“To have the ability to play on the group now, being extra conversant in all the women and being actually good associates with all of them, though it’s solely my second time, I do really feel like a veteran out right here as a result of I’ve been on tour for therefore lengthy and I’ve performed alongside these women for a very long time,” Lee mentioned.
“Undoubtedly a really completely different expertise.”