Throwback Thursday: The birth of the Solheim Cup

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.