Young And Relentless

From the left: Castrale sinks the clincher; Creamer and Pressel; Tinning reacts to a putt. Photos: Matthew Harris; Andy Lyons/Getty Images (2)

"She's only 21, and she is the leader of the team," said Inkster, who paired with Creamer twice last week. "She played all the matches. She's very competitive, but she gets it. She's very polite out there. She plays her game. [As a partner] she never gets too high, too low. She's 21, but she plays a lot older than that. She's a great player, and she'll be here for a long time. All these girls will be."

And that's the dilemma facing Europe. While eight of the 12 Americans were younger than 30, eight of the 12 European players were 32 or older. Sorenstam, 37 next month and planning an April 2009 wedding with fiancé Mike McGee, may have played her last Solheim Cup. Catriona Matthew, who led this year's European team with three points, is 38, and Davies, Europe's second-leading all-time points winner, is 43. In the late 1990s, when the U.S. team sandwiched that victory in Wales between wins on home soil in '94 and '98, there was talk other nations needed to be brought into the fray in order to make it more competitive.

"The United States had won three in a row, Karrie Webb and Se Ri Pak were the best players in the world and there was a concern the format was broken," Chris Higgs, the LPGA Senior VP and COO, said about the conversation then. "But Europe won two of the next three, and we can now say unequivocally the format is not broken." Maybe not. Ten of the top 17 players in the Rolex rankings on Aug. 27, when the teams were finalized, are from non-Solheim Cup eligible nations, including No. 1 Lorena Ochoa, (see page 19). Likewise, golf is robust economically in Asia, where the women's game is extremely popular. The drubbing Europe received at Halmstad very well might refuel those discussions about whether the format needs fixing.

But just as inescapable as the dominance of the American team is the fact this Solheim Cup was entertaining and well played under grueling weather conditions on the west coast of Sweden. King, when asked if her team was motivated by Dottie Pepper's comment on Golf Channel that the Americans were "choking freaking dogs" (see Bunker, page 17) after squandering several late leads, quickly cut off the conversation.

"No, I don't think Dottie's words had anything to do with how the team played," King said. "We're a good team. They don't need anything to motivate them like that." Then, perhaps indicating all is not forgiven, King added: "That's why you're commentating because you're past your prime and your abilities. It's not a slam. I'm the same way. I couldn't come out here and compete on the LPGA."

Pepper made her comment Saturday after Sherri Steinhauer and Laura Diaz halved a foursomes match with Hjorth and Gwladys Nocera, losing the thrill-ride par-3 16th hole, where everyone struggled, to a bogey and the final hole to a par when Steinhauer missed a three-footer. U.S. players said Pepper overlooked the fact players were literally blown out of their stance over putts Saturday by 40 miles-per-hour gusts and ignored the fact bad shots and missed putts are a common byproduct of the pressure of Solheim Cup competition.

The impressiveness of the U.S. team was matched by the resilience of the mostly Swedish crowds. More than 16,000 showed up Friday in ridiculously hard rain in which the Americans won the morning foursomes matches (2½-1½) for the first time since 1998, and split the four-ball matches 2-2. When play commenced at 10:15 a.m. Saturday after near-hurricane wind delayed the start for two hours, the first fairway was lined eight-deep from tee to green by some of the 33,200 hearty souls who braved 50-degree temperatures made to feel much colder by the wind and occasional rain. More than 36,000 crowded the course Sunday.