By: Max Bechtoldt
For the second year in a row, Suzann Pettersen and Stacy Lewis were the Solheim Cup captains. Both clearly have wildly different philosophies that have been heavily publicized over the last two years. Obviously with captains, we don’t see everything that happens in the team room, but here are my grades for the two captains from what we did see:
Stacy Lewis – A+
For the second year in a row, I think the United States captain did a terrific job, but even better in my opinion in 2024. I think the most jarring thing was seeing just how much the team seemed to come together as opposed to previous seasons. When I asked Lexi Thompson about the team dynamic this week, she downplayed the difference in previous seasons, but at least from the outside, it seemed night and day. Generally we think of the European team as being the energetic, chemistry-driven team. This year, the dynamics looked reversed. A lot of that I think came from Stacy Lewis coining the motto of “unfinished business” which obviously hit home for the team.
We know Stacy Lewis is all about analytics, and she did a terrific job with pairing players, using successful past partnerships like Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz while mixing in new, exciting ones like Korda and Megan Khang. Lewis stuck firm to her goal of not playing anyone all five sessions and playing everyone at least three, which is the one thing I didn’t totally agree with. I did think Korda and Lauren Coughlin should have been out there more. Regardless, it was otherwise flawless captaining.
Suzann Pettersen – C
This year, I think we really saw the limitations of Pettersen’s captaining style. While Lewis takes the more numbers-based approach, Pettersen goes by feel, which I think hurt team Europe. Most notably, in the use of Leona Maguire. Maguire has been Europe’s best player over the last two Solheim Cups, yet sat on the bench for three full sessions. Pettersen was pretty cagey as to why exactly Maguire was sitting, citing form, but other players not in good form played much more. Maguire was clearly upset about her role but proved she should have gotten more chances with her win in the singles portion. I also think Pettersen didn’t use some of her best pairings enough, like Carlota Ciganda and Linn Grant, who lost their only match, but should have been trusted to go out together again. I also thought it was a mistake not pairing Charley Hull and Georgia Hall until Saturday four ball, where they won together. That was always a pairing that made a lot of sense to me.
On the positive side, the European team did respond well to the nightmare start. After the first day, the Europeans actually earned a half a point more than the Americans. On Friday, team Europe looked shell-shocked, with body language that was showing their clear disappointment. The team did rally back to play well over the last two days, particularly on Sunday, and some of that credit must go to Pettersen.
