More Solheim Stuff

The Solheim page at lpga.com has a plethora of information on this year’s Cup, past competitions and the two teams in general. If you so desire you can read about Morgan Pressel’s hair ribbons, each player’s favorite American food or download Solheim Cup wallpapers. I chose to concentrate on the more trivial things like:

The all-time individual player records. It is fortunate for the U.S. that Carin Koch hasn’t played very well the last two years and didn’t make the European squad. Koch’s all-time record in Solheim competition is 10-3-3 with an undefeated record in foursomes play (5-0-2). The best winning percentage with a minimum of four matches by any active U.S. player not on this year’s team is – you guessed it - Christina Kim.

The hole-by-hole layout of Halmstad Golf Club. Only one hole lacks a greenside bunker while most have two or three. The par-4 12th compensates for the lack of sand by running a creek right across the front of the green. Water also comes into play on the par-3 16th. Trees are very prominent – the long hitters had better be somewhat accurate, too.

The 2007 teams “analysis” page. It’s just another stats page, really. The benefit here is the records of the current team members, giving you an idea who to expect the most (and least) from. Team USA needs Inkster, Creamer, Gulbis, Hurst and Steinhauer to continue their previous good play while Team Europe needs the same from Annika, Pettersen and Davies. Kerr, Diaz, Matthew and Gustafson have only broken even in previous events and Hjorth has been surprisingly poor (2-5-0). Of course Maria’s only two Cups were both played in America. Trish Johnson has played in all but two Solheim Cups and she is a dismal 5-12-5. However, her last two home-soil Cups were outstanding – 4-2-2 in 1996 and 2000 combined. This page also shows that Team Europe’s players have nearly twice the total experience as the U.S. – 154 total matches to 84. The U.S. has only three players (Inkster, Hurst and Kerr) with more than two previous Cup appearances while Europe has seven.

“How To Watch Match Play”. Apparently corrective lenses are required, because trying to read this blurry page gave me a headache.