Ultimate Competition and Sportsmanship

Europe Team Captain Liselotte Neumann hoists the Solheim Cup
after victory over US team.
Photo Credit: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Karsten Solheim will be fondly remembered in golf lore for the Solheim Cup, over and above his placing the shaft of a putter into the middle of his Ping putter for stroke balance. The event began in 1990 as a biennial contest paralleling the men’s Ryder Cup in off years and pits the best women golfers in Europe against those in the United States. Drop all the politics of not involving South Korea (1/3 of LPGA), some European players receiving US tax dollars for college golf scholarships, or the fact that the LPGA/US collegiate play has made many of the European players damn good under competition. This is a genuine rivalry and TEAM competition.

There is no money involved, the TV ratings are great and growing and Parker, Colorado, benefited with over 120,000 spectators plus $20 million in economic impact. The whole idea is to win the coveted glass trophy named after Karsten Solheim. Solheim’s company, Ping, may have been wrong with one iron or putter technology, but Karsten was ”dead on” with this competition. As we walked around in the heat at Colorado Golf Club, I was impressed that many of the spectators were already looking forward to St. Leon-Rot in Germany and the 2015 competition. Hang on! It’s mid Sunday afternoon and it is agreed that Paula Craemer is woefully behind. Within active matches however, the US is up in 7, Europe 2 and the rest is AS (All Square). So let’s chill, hope and have respect that we all know what happened in the Ryder Cup last year. Don’t throw in the towel or ride around in a golf cart with a white flag. Play this tournament to its fitting end. Europe needs 14 to retain the Cup. A sudden reversal of fortune could potentially happen with a dramatic comeback by the US women’s TEAM captained by a truly great person and player, Meg Mellon.

Ann Nordqvist is clearly a top 5 player in the world when it really matters (today). Thousands of people watched her open the final day with loud European chants just like Olympic events. There is “ICE” running through her veins like no other athlete presently. She certainly rivals the ultimate US Iceman, the NBA’s former George Gervin. She may have not had her best day paired against Stacy Lewis (recent British Open Winner and last year’s LPGA player of the Year). Her mid iron on 17 that curled toward the hole was a superb pressure shot with a billion people watching. The 20 foot birdie putt was a mere formality: dead center. Nordqvist is the male equivalent of Tiger with both having the demeanor of the Iceman. Anna nailed another mid iron into 18, putting a ton of pressure on Stacy Lewis to halve the hole and match. Unfortunately with this experience as a coed, Nordqvist (Swedish) will be more than ready for Germany in 2015.

The Solheim Cup is sponsored by PING Inc.

The Lewis vs. Nordqvist match and the Solheim Cup, in my mind however, was decided on 16. The toughest shot in golf faced Stacy Lewis after she hit a superb drive and wood behind the par five 16^th green. The flopper with a lob wedge was clubbed a tweak too much, leaving her about 6 feet. Standing in the gallery, I almost ran onto the green to tell her that ALL putts in Colorado break away from the Rocky Mountains 100% of the time. This putt did also as it did a 270 degrees toilet run around the cup – immediately breaking away from Pikes Peak in the distance (Ground Zero of Putting on Colorado’s Front Range). Game/Set/Match really loomed. Two years prior at the US Open at the Broadmoor, it took three days for the gals to figure out the break away from the front wall of the Rocky Mountains. I witnessed 8 inch putts not even close with women questioning their livelihood after playing under Pikes Peak. Guys like me living here adjust everything in life based on those mountains. We all fall out of bed, drive off roads, 4 putt, and miss the potty a few months until we get it right. Plumb bobbing in Colorado is never advised. It flat out doesn’t work. Putts on Colorado’s Front Range break uphill if falling away from the 14,000 foot peaks looming in the distant. I hope Meg Mellon used Colorado Golf Club locals for practice sessions on the greens. This is where matches are usually decided. It’s routine at the Broadmoor to pull some of these local members out of work to impart MAJOR knowledge to pros typically playing at sea level. Ask Jack Nicklaus with his storied career where the toughest place to putt in the world is. It’s the Broadmoor in the Springs, only about 50 miles from the 2013 Solheim Cup site.

Anyway, while we’re on “Lews,” (that’s what Paula Craemer called her) this is perhaps the best athletic story you can find in golf. Stacey Lewis has had a successful scoliosis operation which is a big deal medically. Ace Hardware is in her back and the common female condition of curved thoracic and lumbar spine can today be treated with “minimally invasive” surgery, allowing competition at the highest athletic levels. As an Anesthesiologist and Pain Management Specialist treating many people with rods and screws in their back, “Lews” in my estimation literally beat the entire world of athletics and medicine. Power, finesse, spark, work ethic and precision are all packed into a small athletic frame. Many of my patients with hardware in their back are at putt-putt courses if they even golf. Some take enough meds to kill a herd of elephants, just to stay out of agonizing pain. Lews was scurrying around after the match when a seemingly 12 year old girl behind 18 asked for an autograph. She immediately stopped and signed it, along with a few others. This reminds of Phil Mickelson. This is truly the very best sportsmanship: knowing you had Nordqvist on the ropes, halving when she had this match and then not hesitating to sign autographs. Solheim, his family, Europe, golf in all ways and even God as a spectator wins with this event. Don’t think they are not watching live in Seoul and Peking.

Europe's Charley Hull, right, asks Paula Creamer to sign her ball
after beating the American in their Solheim singles match.
Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters

Paula Craemer is deserving of everything she gets later in life. After walking off 5 and 4, she immediately joined the gallery to cheer on ”Lews.” This is what Karsten Solheim intended: match play (real golf) with four ball, alternate shot and singles—and he got it. Ryder Cup atmosphere within a TEAM concept was quite evident reminding one of Olympic events. Though Craemer was trounced by a surging star (Charley Hull), she was all TEAM. It’s not easy to keep going after you lose early; anyone who has seriously golfed “gets” this. Craemer’s cheering wasn’t enough in the end. Everyone and golf again really won anyway at the Solheim Cup.

Meg Mellon gets a ton of credit. The captain decision isn’t something you just turn away from. If you win, it’s expected. If you lose, well ….you didn’t back load (better players at the end), pair correctly (as if you can predict who will shoot “lights out”), or practice qualitatively and quantitatively correctly. My only criticism is that one literally has to drive up Pikes Peak and look down to be impressed at the unseen break your putt will serenely course. There is gravity, and then there is mountain putting.

Liselotte Neuman, European captain, says it’s not the Solheim Cup if as a player you don’t vomit, lose sleep, tremble and have uncontrolled diarrhea. Again forget the match ups, front loading and all the rest of the strategy implied by the media. The strategy was to go after not greens, but pins. This aggressive nature was much in evident on Hole 1, a long par 5.I was sitting on the sprinkler head reading 266 yards to the green center - and the actual #1 pin is in the back of a narrow mounded green. America’s Gerina Piller with a superb drive was 30-40 yards behind this in the middle of the fairway facing a funnel shot at the green. I said the prudent play was a 4 iron down to sand wedge distance. But no, Piller unhesitatingly pulls a 3 wood out of the bag and aggressively attacks a 300 yard narrow second shot. Most guys wouldn’t even consider this move. Meg Mellon’s TEAM is going down swinging! “GAME ON!”

Solheim Cup TEAMS are picked by World Golf rankings, Ladies European Tour (LET), LPGA points based on top 20s for Americans and captain’s picks at large by both TEAMS. A controversial pick by not formally qualifying based on points was Michelle Wie. Michelle played TEAM 100% and was superb during the interviews discussing the great competition displaying a calm fierceness throughout. In fact Michelle discussed how truly great the European ladies played and that she was happy for them: the gals from across the ocean were deserving of the win. Again, that’s sportsmanship and competition. Michelle played as well as any American, batting .500 for the three days.

Finally, the Golf Channel/NBC Sports excellence continues. Last year I was trapped in a Houston Marriott gym with these gregarious fun loving guys while visiting my daughter. These fellows have been performing excellent work for years. If you’re a golfer, saying you don’t like this channel is obvious lying because all their announcers provide some uniqueness in reporting or experience to the coverage. Jimmy Roberts Golf Channel specials are as good as it gets (watch Salas/Simons). Golf Channel people love the game of golf; and the professionalism, passion and love of the game of golf is quite evident. I’m convinced many would announce for free!

Ending the final ceremonies “Ryder Cup like” is what Solheim intended. Karsten (dying in 2000) received through his family a ton more though. I knew in my youth when few girls played sports except cheerleading, that this was essentially unfair. Today women golfers have essentially caught up with the men in every way. The Solheim Cup competition was as good as it gets in any sport. Though Wie played well, Michelle’s European foe, Hedwall (5-0 in the competition) nailed a superb mid iron into the 18^th green for an easy birdie and European point. Wie had nothing to feel ashamed of, as she hit the back of the18th green on Sunday and played well all three days. Lang and Thompson played very well on Sunday, each providing a solid US point and hope for Germany in 2015.

Jessica Korada of the United States hits her second shot
from the bunker on the second hole during the final day singles
matches of the 2013 Solheim Cup.
Photo Credit: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

It seems closing the deal down the stretch was a US problem. Holes 15–18 proved troublesome for the Americans. This has nothing to do with pairings, food, sleep or upbringing. It is regrouping at 16, and saying the match has just begun. I need to win at every shot. Perhaps a sports psychologist may tame errant shots and put some ice in the American’s lymph vessels and veins. I honestly thought a miracle might occur, but it DID NOT. Thus busing back to lot G with screaming Europeans made me think that Europe seems to have our number when it comes to bobsledding, skiing and figure skating. But golf?

Watching young Thompson hit dart after dart off the practice tee made me think we should win this thing. In fact, all the Americans were hitting well off the practice tee, and Meg gave them a pep talk prior to the first tee. Maybe Karsten Solheim should have put Isaac Newton’s gravity formula on every putter shaft sold. Alternatively, maybe we do need “legal” Prozac like drugs for events like this–everyone in the gallery is on them. Hold on! The answer is the trip up Red Rock Canyon and looking down to see the breaks only God understands; and maybe some psyche help from someone who really knows how to finish (below).

The matter on number 15 on the first day was an incorrect ruling. The field being held up was the same for both sides—it didn’t ICE the Americans as some have reported. Life and sports are NOT always fair, but generally the best TEAM wins. I feel one needs to suck it up, regroup and play your heart out to spell any momentum shift. I would add the sports psychologist guru, because I feel the Americans are just as good, if not athletically better. However we are not always as mentally tough in sports (Tiger was an aberrancy). Europe’s captain, Liselotte Nuemann, is as well respected as anyone in the game. I feel she provided quiet confidence to the European players, especially the rookies. All sports stay with their primordial origins in tough times (fundamentals). These were tough times with the heat, pressure, TV and mountains. In sum, European golf fundamentals were excellent at the 2013 Solheim Cup.

The Solheim Cup gave Colorado a needed sports boost. The trade of Tim Tebow will linger longer in Colorado than Babe Ruth’s in Massachusetts. The Hail Mary in last year’s playoffs by Baltimore is only the beginning. Every young female in Colorado pleaded with Bronco management to keep this guy on the TEAM, even 3^rd string QB or water boy. The ladies have more insight into most matters in life, and that’s why they are also correct in relationships. It’s just that the European women winning over here doesn’t sit well with me. We had home court advantage and couldn’t use it. Therefore, the lesson plan for next time is to drive up the mountains and hills around the German course (St. Leon-Rot); get out of the car and visualize how putts break (God’s view); and hire some sports psychologist for finishing and not repeat what we did wrong in Colorado.

Team USA salutes team captain Meg Mellon as the Solheim Cup competition draws to a close.
Photo Credit: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Most losing and winning golf TEAMS regroup with a new captain/coach. That’s just how it’s done. I would break routine in Germany. Hire Tiger for a few small group winning golf psychology sessions with the TEAM with emphasis on finishing strong. Like tie breaker practice matches in tennis, play tie breakers repeatedly from 15 on in when you are fatigued and stressed. Hire some real closers to coach this TEAM like Nicklaus, Lopez, Woods or Inkster. Heck, Europe had Annika Sorenstam as Co-Captain and don’t think her presence didn’t have something to do with their winning—especially with six European rookies lighting it up. Forget about all the “crap” any of these people have incurred privately because everyone has issues. Walk the terrain around Germany and see God’s view of putting. And finally, hire Meg Mellon back; she “gets it” more than ever now. I firmly believe she’ll come through with a win in Germany in 2015 if given the chance. The Solheim Cup is the world’s best women’s TEAM golf competition and sportsmanship, and that’s what Meg Mellon is all about.

Sportademics.com feels the true camaraderie emanating from this event is highly contagious for sports and a very good things in life itself. A sports escape is far better for the mind than “feel good” pills. The Solheim Cup allows a clear break from the mundane and truly frightening things surrounding us worldwide. Karsten Solheim is on a roll. At least he’s way the heck up there smiling, watching those putts break away from the mountains and defying Newton in the process.