Pettersen has ‘no regrets’ after Solheim Cup loss16th September 2024
Captain Suzann Pettersen says she does not “have any regrets” after Europe were beaten 15½-12½ by the United States, relinquishing their five-year hold on the Solheim Cup.
Having trailed to a record 6-2 opening-day deficit on Friday, Europe produced a gutsy display to win Sunday’s single matches 6½-5½ and, at one point, appeared capable of reaching the 14 points required to claim the trophy for an unprecedented fourth successive occasion.
However, Norwegian Pettersen then came under scrutiny for her selections, having chosen to leave Ireland’s Leona Maguire – a star of the previous two editions – out of Saturday’s foursomes and fourballs matches where the spoils were shared and the US held a 10-6 advantage before the final day of action.
“I’ve never lived my life regretting any decisions,” said the 43-year-old. “It’s a 12-woman team and it’s always going to be hard to do the pairings.
“Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get outplayed. Maybe we could have played other players that maybe could have faced different opponents that could have changed the outcome.
“You can always look back, but at the same time I don’t think we, as a team, have any regrets of what we did. We tried our best.”
Ireland’s Maguire, who won seven and a half points in her first two appearances in the competition, sat out of three sessions overall. She played in the Friday fourballs with England’s Georgia Hall, but they were beaten 6&4 by Nelly Korda and Megan Khang.
And the 29-year-old, who appeared a frustrated observer on Saturday, responded with a comfortable 4&3 singles success over Ally Ewing to keep Europe in touch at 13½-10½ behind, before the US side closed out the victory.
“I feel like I’ve been playing really great golf all week in practice and it was a bitter pill to swallow to be sat out for as many sessions as I was,” said Maguire.
“[Pettersen] didn’t give much reason, to be honest. The feeling I got was that I was a little bit too short and didn’t make enough birdies, but I think I proved [on Sunday] there’s more than one way to skin a cat – and I think I made plenty of birdies.
“It’s Solheim Cup, I don’t need any extra motivation but yeah, there probably was a little bit extra there, I am not going to lie.”