Solheim Cup Thursday Pre-tournament News & Notes

2015 The Solheim Cup 
Golf Club St. Leon Rot, Germany 
Thursday Pre-Tournament Notes 
September 17, 2015

The 14th staging of The Solheim Cup will be underway tomorrow at Golf Club St. Leon-Rot in Germany. Steady rain continued to fall on Thursday shortening practice schedules and making the already lengthy track even longer. The forecast for Friday calls for a mix of sun and clouds and a slight chance for isolated showers.

“I think the layout is great,” said Cristie Kerr. “It is a shame we’re getting all this rain because late Monday and Tuesday it was in perfect shape. It is what it is, though. Hopefully it will dry out a bit and I think we all really like the golf course. The greens are rolling really true, even yesterday with all the rain they had yesterday. So it will be a good test.”

COMPLETE MORNING MATCH-UPS>>

Most Feared Singles Opponent

Team USA: Lexi Thompson  
Thompson’s only got experience in one singles match, sure, but she dominated Caroline Masson 4&3 in 2013. In match play Thompson’s aggressive, pour the birdies on style is a potential buzzsaw for opponents, and she also dominated in singles play at the 2010 Curtis Cup with a 6&5 victory. She also is the 2008 U.S. Girls Junior Champ, which is a match play bracket style competition. Even more importantly perhaps is the fact that no one in the entire competition is playing better golf right now than Thompson. She won two months ago and has three consecutive top-10s with a runner-up last week at the Evian Championship. This is a bomber’s track and it’s going to take the European’s absolute best to get a point against Thompson in singles play.

Team Europe: Carlota Ciganda
Ciganda’s only played one match in singles at the Solheim Cup, but she cruised to an easy 4&2 victory over Morgan Pressel in 2013 who was previously unbeaten in three singles matches. She also dominated Na Yeon Choi 8&6 in singles at the 2014 International Crown. Simply put, Ciganda’s a different player in match play, and her aggressive, bomber’s style is perfect for this golf course. Combine that with the fact that she won the 2007 British Ladies Amateur Championship, a match-play event, and finished runner-up in 2009, and there’s no one on the European team that should be more feared in singles play.

Wild Card

Team USA: Paula Creamer
No one on the U.S. side comes in with more intrigue than Paula Creamer right now. Despite a stellar Solheim record, her form has been less than ideal entering her favorite competition with four of her 13 career missed cuts coming in the last four consecutive events she’s played. Of her last eight competitive rounds, Creamer’s shot 75 or above four times and hasn’t broken 70. With a load of pressure on her to validate Captain Juli Inkster’s pick of her, everyone’s eyes are on Creamer to see if she can rediscover any sort of form in time for her favorite event.

Team Europe: Melissa Reid
Melissa Reid is making her second appearance at the Solheim Cup but she didn’t play in 2013 and was 1-3 in 2011. She’s shown she belongs at the highest level with a ninth place finish at the RICOH Women’s British Open, but she missed the cut last week at the Evian Championship. She’s posted five top-10s including a win on the Ladies European Tour this year in what’s been a career resurgence after experiencing personal family tragedy a couple years ago. Reid’s got game but how will she handle the biggest stage in women’s golf? To be determined. 

Most To Prove

Team USA: Angela Stanford
The six-time member of Team USA has only won 1.5 points in her past three appearances in the Solheim Cup. Stanford went 0-4-0 in Colorado in 2013 and failed to record a single point. She hasn’t had the best season on Tour either and is coming off a missed cut last week at the Evian Championship after shooting rounds of 78-71. She has the most to prove in her four-ball matches as she’s never won in the six four-ball matches she’s played.

Team Europe: Caroline Hedwall
Hedwall made Solheim Cup history two years ago in Colorado when she became the first player to go 5-0 in her five matches. But the Swede has struggled this season on Tour and battled a wrist injury since last year. She’s missed eight cuts in 18 events including two in the last three starts and is coming off a round of 79 last week at the Evian Championship. The match-play stalwart said earlier this week that the format brings out the best in her.

Biggest Strengths

Team USA: Backs against the wall
The Americans don’t need any other extra motivation other than the will to win. Many players have said playing on European soil may play to their advantage. They’re trying to keep the Europeans from winning three in a row for the first time in history. Every player has said the team has meshed more than past years and growing together through two consecutive losses helped create a stronger bond.

Team Europe: Confidence
Every player on the team with the exception of Gwladys Nocera was a part of either the victorious 2011 or 2013 teams and believe whole-heartedly that they have more team chemistry and play better in team events. The bookkeepers have the Europeans as the underdogs on paper and they’re more than happy to be playing under that label. The home-field advantage will be on their side as well.

Friends Make A Good Duo

Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer are close friends off the golf course and say that their friendship has helped them play well together in the past when paired up for team play. They have yet to lose together and were paired up for four-balls in 2007 (halved) and in 2011 (won) and will lead off the Americans on Friday morning in foursomes as they take on Suzann Pettersen and Anna Nordqvist.

“I think the fact that we’re such good friends,” said Creamer. “We have very similar games. There is never, “I’m sorry,” or any of that. It’s just, all right, here we are. You go in and we can definitely -- we thrive off of each other. There’s a lot of confidence in one another. It doesn’t matter where you put the person, we’re going to figure out a way and we’re both grinders.”

Inspiration

Media on Thursday found out something new about Solheim Cup veteran Cristie Kerr: that she’s a self-proclaimed cheese ball.

“It’s pretty amazing and I’m a little bit of a cheese ball in that I like inspirational quotes and things,” said Kerr. “And there are two quotes that I really take away from what I’ve looked at the last couple of days.”

Kerr, who is the most experienced American player and making her 8th appearance in the Solheim Cup this week, has looked to Joan of Arc and Babe Ruth for inspiration.

“Joan of Arc actually said, ‘We were born to do this, be not afraid.’ And the second one is by Babe Ruth, ‘you just can’t beat the player that never, never, never, never gives up,’” said Kerr.

Quotable

“Our job is to go out and put points on the board. Everybody wants to put as many points up as they can. Paula and I are no different. Past history, yes, we’ve certainly had success, but we’ve got to go forward. Past history won’t determine who wins this week. Just got to win every hole that we can, that’s our job.”- Morgan Pressel on embracing the pressure of being successful in her past appearances

“Evian is a big week for me, and everybody, being the last Major Championship of the year. It’s a big week. To go over there and play well and come in second, I tried my hardest the last day, Lydia was just on fire on that back nine. But just taking a lot of confidence going into this week on just how well I hit it and the putts that I made. It helps out a lot. But I’m just going to go to this week, focus on doing my routine and stay in the moment.” - Lexi Thompson on riding a wave of confidence after her runner-up finish last week