Stacy’s Stats Rule USA

First of all, congrats to our American friends and readers of this blog who enjoyed an outstanding Solheim Cup last week, all masterminded by their captain, Stacy Lewis (above).

A self-confessed number cruncher and stats nerd, Stacy dived deep into the analytics to come up with her pairings and every tiny detail of every day was planned so that her team had no thinking or responsibilities aside from their jobs on the course.  And boy, did it work beautifully.

The first time I saw this level of preparation by a captain was at the 2014 Ryder Cup when Paul McGinley took the role of leading a golf team to a new level.  It’s not enough to know your own team and their games, you also need to know your opponents’.  That’s why the Robert Trent Jones course in Virginia was set up to leave the US players with so many second shots requiring 6-, 7- or 8- irons in.  This was the team’s strength and where they had an edge over the Europeans and as the home team they were entitled to have some input into the course set-up.

Of course, your team has to perform on the course but when a year’s worth of stats backs up your decisions and pairings, your players buy into it all in a big way.  They understand the whys and wherefores of each of the captain’s decisions and the result is the creation of a platform for the team to perform to the best of their ability on that given week.  Stacy managed this beautifully.

Alas, it’s the destiny of a losing captain to carry the can for defeat and, while it’s never only the captain’s fault, last week there were some very strange decisions by Suzann Pettersen, the European leader.  She openly admitted that the feedback she garnered from last year’s encounter highlighted the need for better communication between herself and her players, yet her astounding decision to play Leona Maguire only once prior to the singles went unexplained to the Irish player.

Suzann also declined to elaborate on her decision at the conclusion of the matches.  It’s one thing not giving an explanation to the media, quite another not giving one to one of your players who owns a superb record in the Solheim Cup.  Granted Leona hasn’t had her best year but the captain seriously underestimated the ability of a player like Maguire to find “it” in the heat of battle.

The only comment on the situation from the Irish player came in the form of the tweet below, taken from the golfdigest.com X feed.  ‘Nuff said.

In her fourball match Leona was paired with Georgia Hall against world No 1 Nelly Korda and the firecracker that is Megan Khang.  It was hard to believe we were seeing Korda in her fourth Solheim Cup and she was yet to be on a winning side.  In those Friday fourballs, however, Nelly was sublime and when the Americans eagled the 12th hole they were dormie.  A further eagle on 14 by Korda closed the match out 6 and 4.  When Nelly putts well no one can live with her.  When Nelly looks happy, smiles on the course and seems to be enjoying herself, the opposition better look out.

A couple of other things surprised me as well.  Suzann and Emily Pedersen are very close friends but I was astounded she played Emily five times.  The Dane is one of the best ball strikers in the game, a joy to watch but if she has an achilles heel it’s her putting.  I lost count of the number of times Pedersen didn’t even hit the hole from 8-20 feet over the first three sessions.  It was well into double figures.  Was that not reported back to the captain by the assistants assigned to those matches?  If it was, it carried little weight, with the player getting the nod for the Saturday fourballs and a high placing (second) in the singles order.  The ball striking counts for little if you can’t get the ball in the hole.

Over the first day the Americans stuffed the Europeans on the greens and the 6-2 deficit at day’s end was ultimately too much to overcome.  They had managed to claw back a whitewash in the first series last year and earn a tie overall but this time it was not to be.  The golf was mesmerising, the atmosphere electric and there was an hour and a half in the middle of the Sunday singles where the Americans must have been scratching their heads, wondering just where the final point and a half were going to come from.  That served to raise the hopes of the European fans but ultimately, in the vernacular of the Madill household, it was a BBU – a brave but unavailing effort by the yellow and blues to reach a winning points tally.

Being caught up in the absorbing tussle over the last few points helped dull somewhat the disappointment of Rory McIlroy coming up short at Royal County Down in the Amgen Irish Open.  A couple of late bogeys, a missed 10-footer for eagle on the last and an exemplary 65 by Rasmus Hojgaard, featuring four birdies in the last five holes, sealed the win for the Dane and Rory was consigned to runner-up spot once again.

That’s largely been the story of his year but he did have an unforgettably warm and emotional level of support the entire week from the Irish fans.  I think that’ll be his lasting memory of the week and it was a reminder to him of how much he is loved over in Ireland.  He admitted to being away from the Emerald Isle “too long”.

So, come back more frequently, Rory – it’s good for the soul.  It’s not only grounding to come back to your roots, it’ll help you realise how big a deal the golf is to the Irish.   And perhaps the enormous support, and yes, love, the fans have for you won’t take you quite so much by surprise as it did at the 2019 Portrush Open.  So, come back again and again………and do us all a favour and win the Open at Portrush next July!