If you wonder about the wisdom of staging team competitions so late in the year then the first Solheim Cup took place from November 16-18 in 1990, albeit it was in Florida at Lake Nona.
The first the Americans heard of the matches was at a player meeting in June of that year when they were also informed that the gathering of points had already begun. At the time the Golf Channel was five years away from launching, there was no internet, and the matches weren’t televised – though Karsten Solheim did have it videotaped and produced an hour-long highlight film.
Mickey Walker would captain the Europeans for the first of four matches while Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth would lead the Americans for the first of two times. Whitworth’s approach was that she would pair her players by personality rather than their golf and the players would play four foursomes, four fourballs and eight singles so nobody was rested any point.
Dottie Pepper, then Mochrie, remembers the first morning like this: “My main memory was of Cathy Gerring, after practising all week with her playing the tee shots off the odd-numbered holes in foursomes, looking with terror in her eyes on the way to the first tee and said, ‘Partner, I cannot do this. You’re going to have to hit the first shot. I guess it worked out, as we went bogey-free in defeating Pam Wright and Liselotte Neumann 6&5.”
Laura Davies and Alison Nicholas gave Europe the first point but the home side won 11 of the next 12 matches and the overall match 11.5-4.5.
“In our heart of hearts, I don’t think that any of us thought we could win the match, so the four and a half points that we won felt like a real triumph, especially as we were playing against some of America’s most successful, iconic and well-loved players of all time – later to become Hall of Famers,” said Walker.
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