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9 years in the past, Alison Lee was an LPGA rookie enjoying in her first Solheim Cup. She doesn’t keep in mind a lot of it, though there was one incident that could be laborious for anybody to overlook.
“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 crew. I simply felt like such an outsider,” Lee mentioned on Tuesday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership in Gainesville, Va., the place they’ll play the nineteenth version of the Solheim Cup later this week. It’s additionally her first time again within the occasion since 2015. “So to have the ability to play on the crew now, being extra accustomed to all the ladies and being actually good associates with all of them, regardless that 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. Positively a really completely different expertise.”
As for that incident in 2015? Let’s look again at that (and extra) as we rehash the most important Solheim Cup controversies within the occasion’s historical past. Will we see extra memorable moments come Friday? We will’t wait to seek out out.
A conceded-putt controversy
In maybe essentially the most well-known Solheim Cup controversy, Lee and Brittany Lincicome battled Suzann Pettersen and Charley Hull in a four-ball match that completed on Sunday morning of the 2015 Solheim Cup in Germany. With the match tied, Lee missed a birdie putt on the seventeenth gap and picked it up from about 18 inches away. She thought Europe conceded, however Hull and Pettersen knowledgeable the principles official that they didn’t.
“I may have sworn I assumed I heard somebody say, ‘That’s good,’” Lee mentioned on the time. “It may have been from the stands, I don’t know. I regarded on the putt and it was shut, regarded good to me. And Charley was strolling off the golf green, and Suzann was already off the inexperienced, so I’ve little doubt in my thoughts that it was good. I didn’t even must assume twice about it, I simply picked it up.”
Because it wasn’t technically conceded, Lee and Lincicome misplaced the outlet and later the match, 2 up, and Europe led 10-6 heading into singles play. U.S. captain Juli Inkster mentioned of her crew, “they’re fired up, however you realize what? They have been fired up earlier than, too.” The Individuals responded with the most important comeback in Solheim Cup historical past, successful 8 1/2 of the 12 singles factors and claiming the Cup with a 14.5-13.5 win.
Lee, who fought tears after the controversy, gained her singles match 3 and 1 over Gwladys Nocera. Pettersen, the captain of this 12 months’s European crew, additionally apologized for her dealing with of the scenario the Monday after, posting to Instagram and saying “I’ve by no means felt extra gutted and really unhappy about what went down Sunday on the seventeenth on the Solheim Cup.”
A botched ruling
On the 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Membership, Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson have been tied with Pettersen and Carlota Ciganda after 14 holes of their Friday four-balls match, however Ciganda hit her second shot into the water on the par-5 fifteenth and a prolonged delay of over half-hour ensued. She was allowed to drop about 40 yards behind the purpose of entry — which the LPGA later clarified was the wrong ruling — and nonetheless made par. The U.S. duo was fuming, and Europe went 1 up on the sixteenth gap and gained the match.
“We remorse that an incorrect ruling was given and we apologize for any confusion that was brought on on the course for the gamers,” the LPGA mentioned in an announcement that night. “In the end, Ciganda proceeded to play in response to the ultimate ruling she was given and the results of the match doesn’t change.”
The ten-second rule
At Inverness Membership in 2021, Nelly Korda barely missed an eagle putt on the par-5 thirteenth, leaving it proper on the sting. Europe’s Madelene Sagstrom grabbed the ball to concede the birdie putt and tossed it again to Korda. No hurt, proper? Improper. In doing so, Sagstrom didn’t permit Korda’s ball the allotted 10 seconds to see if it would nonetheless fall into the outlet for eagle.
A guidelines official approached the group and instructed them Sagstrom violated Rule 13.3b, which reads, “If the opponent in match play intentionally lifts or strikes the participant’s ball overhanging the outlet earlier than the ready time has ended, the participant’s ball is handled as holed with the earlier stroke.”
The eagle counted, and Korda and Ally Ewing gained the outlet and later the match, 1 up.
Scorching mic
On the 2007 Solheim Cup in Sweden, Dottie Pepper was a member of the TV squad and thought the published had paused for a business break when she mentioned that, ahem, Individuals Laura Diaz and Sherri Steinhauer have been “choking freaking canine.” Pepper apologized, and 6 years later she served as a Solheim Cup assistant captain for Meg Mallon.
Mulligan
Throughout a four-ball match on Saturday of the 2000 Solheim Cup in Scotland, Annika Sorenstam thought she chipped in for birdie to tie the match, solely to seek out out she performed out of flip since American Kelly Robbins was really away. The longer term hall-of-famer needed to replay her shot, did not chip in and Sorenstam and Janice Moodie misplaced the match 2 and 1 to Robbins and Pat Hurst.
Concession parade
The 2003 Solheim Cup was simply gained by Europe, however the matches all got here to a shocking halt as quickly as Catriona Matthew beat Rosie Jones 3 and 1 to provide Europe the 14.5 factors wanted to win. But as an alternative of the remaining matches enjoying out for bookkeeping functions, 4 of the 5 have been conceded by the trailing gamers, and the Europeans gained 17.5-10.5.
“It went into prompt chaos,” mentioned U.S. captain Patty Sheehan. “I didn’t know what was occurring.”