A year ago, U.S. captain Stacy Lewis got at least one thing right when her Solheim Cup team left Spain. The Americans tied with Europe but didn't walk away with the trophy. "We have to wait another year to take the trophy away," she said.
The Solheim Cup is a biennial competition across the Atlantic Ocean, where the best players selected by the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) of the United States and the Ladies Professional Golf Association (ELPGA) of Europe compete against each other. Each association sends the best 12 players to compete for the Solheim Cup.
The Solheim Cup is sponsored by Karsten Manufacturing Corp., which has long supported women's golf. The Solheim Cup is named in honor of the company's founder, Karsten Solheim; the first competition was held in 1990.
The Solheim Cup is Waterford Crystal, designed by Billy Briggs. He is one of Waterford's top designers. Waterford Crystal began in 1783 and was named after the ancient Irish city of Waterford, which was established in the 9th century. Waterford is also the world's largest manufacturer of handmade crystal. The Solheim Cup weighs more than 20 pounds and is 19 centimeters tall (including the mahogany base); it is worth more than $50,000.
The Solheim Cup is set to begin on Friday, marking only the second time in history that the tournament has been held in back-to-back years. Whenever the Ryder Cup has been delayed — Sept. 11, 2001, the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 — the women’s tournament has always had to adjust to avoid playing in the same year as the Ryder Cup.
Yet Stacey Lewis missed the point when she talked about the result in Spain.
“We didn’t lose, it was a tie,” she said last year as Europe celebrated wildly at Finca Cortesin.
But when the Americans flew home and the Solheim Cup was still Europe’s, the perception was different, especially when Stacey Lewis said they didn’t have to wait long “to try to bring it back.”
Never mind that the game was tied at 14-14. The point of this match wasn’t the score, the goal should be to win the trophy.
Europe has held the trophy since 2019, needing only 14 points to keep it. That was the case last year, and it will be the case this year at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia. That alone should motivate the Americans, who haven’t won since Iowa in 2017.
The Americans have a 10-8 advantage (10-7-1, scoreboard) since the Solheim Cup was first created in 1990, but now Europe has a chance to become the first team to win four straight trophies. Europe has such a monopoly that only Lexi Thompson and Alison Lee have experienced victory in this year’s U.S. team.
By contrast, the “victorious” European team in Spain has 10 players returning.
A tie is basically a moral victory, especially for a team that has been unable to win.
The last tie in the Ryder Cup was in 1989, and the trophy stayed with the Europeans because they had won the previous two tournaments. The “winning” putt came from Jose Maria Canizares in the eighth match. The score was 14-10, but the Americans had won the last four matches.
Curtis Strange stopped Europe from getting better. On the 18th, he hit a 2-iron beautifully to 5 feet for a 2-hole win. His memory of that day 35 years ago spoke to the gray area of the tie. "We were all disappointed. The team aspect overshadowed any individual performance," said Curtis Strange. Curtis Strange, who has a record of 1-3-1, is the only American to have played all five Ryder Cup matches to 18 holes. "If you play badly and don't win a point, you definitely feel like you cost your team the Ryder Cup. On the other hand, if you win three of the four points and your team loses, then you did your job and it might not feel so bad. "But we still look at it as a failure because we didn't take the trophy. ”
The feeling about the tie is never mutual.
Let’s look at the opening of the report written by the late writer Tim Rosaforte for the Palm Beach Post.
“Tony Jacklin held the Ryder Cup to his chest, and the crowd around the 18th green at the Belfry Course shouted their approval. The European Ryder Cup captain said: ‘Three days ago I said the trophy would stay. We barely did it. ’”
They sounded like winners.
And then there was Raymond Floyd, the captain of the American team:
“I look forward to taking the Ryder Cup on Concorde tomorrow. But I can’t go back with the Ryder Cup. I’m not going back as a loser, we’ve ended the losing streak. We’ve tied. ”
His words were consistent with a team that hadn’t won in six years. It certainly wasn’t a win. Technically, it wasn’t a loss either. But it certainly felt hollow.
“We don’t count ties in the Ryder Cup,” Curtis Strange said.
The Walker Cup, a competition between amateurs, ended in a tie in 1965. The Americans won nine straight after World War II. It was reported that “it was agreed that the trophy would be kept for one year on each side of the Atlantic.”
The Daily Mail reported in 1989: “Europe will keep the trophy (Ryder Cup) and the PGA of England will presumably do what the other side of the United States did 20 years ago, with each association keeping the trophy for 12 months until the next meeting.”
At the 2023 Solheim Cup, the US team introduced a new strategy: using data analysis to determine the lineup. Behind this move, the team captain Stacy Lewis and the data analysis expert she hired, Justin Ray, were the driving force. Although the strategy encountered some minor problems at the beginning: Ray's technical demonstration was almost ruined due to equipment failure, but it was saved by vice-captain Morgan Pressel, but when the presentation officially began, the 15-minute analysis made everyone present hold their breath and opened the prelude to the evolution of the US team's strategy.
Lewis realized that simply relying on the performance of players' putting to determine the outcome in the past was no longer enough. She decided to try a strategy similar to "Moneyball", using data to select players and make match partners. Although the 2023 competition ended in a 14-14 tie and the European team retained the trophy, Lewis was convinced that she had found the way forward.
Ray has a strong background in analytics. As early as 2019, he joined the data-driven sports intelligence company Twenty First Group and launched a detailed "score data" system in cooperation with the LPGA in 2021. This system also brought Lewis a new way of thinking. When Lewis was announced as the captain of the US team in 2022, she decided to let data analysis completely change the team's strategy.
Ray helped the team analyze various key data, such as who had the highest winning rate in the game, and even designed a "score data" system for practice games. Although the outside world had questioned these analysis results, such as Lexi Thompson's condition problems, Ray's data showed that she performed better than expected. In the end, Thompson's first victory in the partnership with Megan Khang confirmed the accuracy of the data analysis
Ray's work was not limited to behind the scenes. He also participated in the decision-making and team atmosphere during the game. On match days, he even followed Thompson's live broadcast to help the captain grasp the dynamics of the game in real time. He and his team not only use analytics to find opportunities for the team to win, but also use a positive attitude to motivate the players.
With the 2024 Solheim Cup approaching, Ray is once again fully committed. He believes that through the power of data, the US team can win this tournament and completely change their performance in the international arena.
The 2024 Solheim Cup is about to become an epic showdown, and this year's competition will be held at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia. According to reports, more than 100,000 fans will be in the field to support, which will undoubtedly make the atmosphere of the game more exciting, and look forward to whether the European team can win the cup for the fourth consecutive time.
Last year's Solheim Cup held in Spain has set a record for the number of fans in the European arena, with about 65,000 people in attendance, of which 14% of the fans are from the United States. This year's Solheim Cup is expected to set a new record. Former European team captain Mickey Walker expects the fans at home in the United States to be very "hostile", and this game will undoubtedly be full of drama and suspense.
The most watched game in women's golf history is the 2021 Solheim Cup, when 130,000 spectators came to the Inverness Club in Ohio. And LPGA Chief Marketing Officer Matt Chmura even said that the 2024 Solheim Cup is expected to become the largest women's golf event ever.
Not only is the number of spectators on the course amazing, but the TV broadcast is also attracting much attention. It is expected that the number of viewers this year will once again exceed the 734,000 set last year. NBC, Golf Channel and Peacock will broadcast the event throughout the whole process, allowing golf fans around the world to enjoy this wonderful feast.
The Solheim Cup is not only a contest of skills, but also a feast of fans' enthusiasm. This year's competition will set off a new climax in terms of both the number of people on site and the number of TV viewers.
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