Golf betting tips: Solheim Cup

4pts USA to lead after each day and win at 2/1 (Sky Bet)

1pt e.w. Jennifer Kupcho top overall scorer at 18/1 (Sky Bet 1/4 1,2,3,4)

2pts Linn Grant Europe top scorer at 6/1 (General)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Being absolutely factual about the 2023 Solheim Cup, no-one won it. But you wouldn’t have known that in the immediate aftermath of a conclusion that saw the home heroine, Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, tap in a birdie two at the 17th hole to secure both a tie and Europe’s retention of the trophy. What happened next might best be described as El Caos with players, support staff, friends, family and fans rushing the putting surface in an orgy of celebration.

Europe, remember, had trailed 0-4 after Friday morning’s foursomes and trailed again by 11-13 with one of the remaining matches on the course essentially a point-in-waiting for the visitors.

Of the three matches still undecided, Caroline Hedwall had trailed Ally Ewing three-down with six to play. The American parred her way home but it was not enough. A resurgent Hedwall made four birdies and had an eagle conceded to win two-up and when her compatriot Maja Stark defeated Allisen Corpuz the focus of two golfing continents was centred on the clash between the world number one Nelly Korda and Ciganda.

The Spaniard had led three-up at one stage but the proud Korda fought back, applied pressure and, when Ciganda clattered her ball into the forest on 15, they were back to all square. The American’s approach to 16 finished four-feet from the flag but Ciganda responded by leaving her own ball closer. This time Korda blinked. She missed her putt, Ciganda didn’t, and she then knocked her tee shot at the par-three 17th to a couple of feet.

Korda, despite a superb attempt to chip in for birdie, could only par so Ciganda’s putt was not only for the tie and retention of the Cup, but also for confirmation of an epic fightback from two desperate situations.

The team celebrated all of those factors, but the latter is critical to explain the extent of the delirium. Had they been in control of the match and let it slip there would have been wry smiles and many what-ifs to ponder. So we can understand their treatment of the tie as a triumph.

But we can also appreciate the steely-eyed response of the Americans to the festivities. Watching a team that didn’t defeat them party like it was 19-9 will have smarted and, as such, we can consider those moments in Andalucia as the first act of this year’s Solheim Cup.

Because, yes, have no doubt that USA captain Stacy Lewis (who, like Europe’s Suzann Pettersen, has retained her role) has a fire in her belly and have even less doubt that she will have stoked the embers in the tummies of her players. At the time she drew her team together on that 17th hole and the gist of her words were that they’ve retained the Cup but let’s make sure we retain the raw emotion we’re feeling now and run with it.

Last month in St Andrews Lewis said: “It has felt like unfinished business. It’s worked out nicely that Suzann and I are both coming back. I’m sure she feels differently but I feel like it’s time to settle the score.”

In one sense it was not only the teams but the captains who tied. They both made some outstanding calls and prompted fine performances from key players.

Both are as tough as nails but in subtly different ways. The leadership of Lewis is like that of the hard-nosed leader of well-drilled agents dropped behind enemy lines. Pettersen would more straightforwardly be riding a chariot, blond hair flying behind her, one arm outstretched with a putter in it. Their rematch should be terrific.

USA

Captain – Stacy Lewis

A curiously underwhelming Cup player (5-10-1), few were surprised that Lewis impressed as a tough but empathetic captain and she will be building on 2023 rather than seeking change. “We were close,” she said. “I don’t see a lot changing because it worked. It could have been very different with one or two shots here and there.”

Allisen Corpuz

Last year’s US Women’s Open champion has a mild manner and yet she was a rock for Lewis on debut in Spain, winning two foursomes with Nelly Korda, getting a fourball half with Jennifer Kupcho and her singles went down 17. Her form this season is slightly down on 2023 but she was a season’s-best fourth last time out.

Lauren Coughlin

The transformation of the 31-year-old has been one of 2024’s great stories. She began it with not one LPGA top-five finish but contended in two majors (the Chevron and Evian Championships), rode the wave to win twice and with them secured a pick. “Probably playing the best golf of anybody on tour right now,” Lewis said.

Ally Ewing

The Mississippi native is better than her logbook suggests. She won the LPGA’s match play in 2021, thrived with Jennifer Kupcho in this year’s pairs event and has four top-10s in her last six majors. How will her memories of the Hedwall backlash last year impact? Lewis has untapped points available if she can find a partnership.

Meghan Khang

Undefeated in the singles (two wins and a half), the 26-year-old embraced her role as team cheerleader last year and was sufficiently respected by Lewis that she went out first with Lexi Thompson in the Friday morning foursomes and also led the singles. Like Korda it will grate that she’s yet to end a Solheim Cup week as a winner.

Nelly Korda

The number one’s 2024 has been nothing more or less than an exercise in the sublime (winning five times in seven starts) and the ridiculous (carding a 10 and a 7 on par-threes, getting bitten by a dog) but she contended for the Women’s Open last time out and thumped Solheim Cup giant Leona Maguire 4&3 to win April’s matchplay event.

Jennifer Kupcho

“Jennifer more so than anyone is a great fit for the course,” Lewis said when adding her to the team, going on to praise the accuracy and aggression of her driving. Undefeated in fourballs in the Curtis and Palmer Cups of 2018 and the Solheim Cup of 2021, she played only one last year and halved it. More untapped potential?

Alison Lee

Lee was at the heart of the 2015 controversy and this year marks her return to the match. At least one journalist is all set to ask questions of her part in it so her response will be intriguing and a key test of the captain’s management skills. She struggled in pairs in 2015 before recording an emphatic win in the singles.

Andrea Lee

A veteran of the Junior Ryder Cup, Junior Solheim Cup, Arnold Palmer Cup and Curtis Cup, Lee impressed as part of the Friday morning sweep of the foursomes last year but only added another half point in the week. She’s twice led after three rounds this year (including the US Women’s Open) without adding to her one LPGA title.

Sarah Schmelzel

Lewis, as any sensible captain ought to, bigged up the 30-year-old when revealing her as a wildcard. “Sarah’s just super solid and doesn’t beat herself up,” she said. “She can play both pairs formats with a lot of different people.” She’s nearly doubled her LPGA top 10 total this year (seven this year, eight before) but is yet to win.

Lexi Thompson

One of the great enigmas of the modern game, the 29-year-old has been playing the US Women’s Open for 18 (eighteen) years and will retire at the end of the season with the feeling that she didn’t win as often as she should have. Lewis, however, both admires and trusts her, and that drew a generally strong performance last year.

Lilia Vu

The 26-year-old’s debut last year was a little messy with three defeats alongside three different partners before defeating Madelene Sagstrom 4&3. However, she was a two-time major champion last year, is a two-time runner-up this year and was 7-1-1 through 2018’s Curtis and Palmer Cups and 2023’s International Crown.

Rose Zhang

Much was expected of the 21-year-old when she turned pro last May and she delivered when winning in her first start. With a fine record in team golf, anticipation was also high for her Solheim Cup debut. But she didn’t play a foursome, gained only a half in two fourballs and Leona Maguire thumped her 4&3 in the singles.

Europe

Captain – Suzann Pettersen

A ferocious competitor as a player the Norwegian has been much the same as captain. Of her team talk following last year’s first day of action she said: “It would not be appropriate to repeat what I said but it was needed. They got the message.” They also acted on her nuclear invective (it was almost certainly along those lines).

Celine Boutier

The Frenchwoman found herself on the wrong end of gossip last year, with suggestions that she turned her nose up at playing with two team-mates and was therefore left to twiddle her thumbs. Whatever the truth of that, her points record has hurtled in the wrong direction: 100% on debut in 2019, 50% in 2021, 0% in 2023.

Carlota Ciganda

A superb debutant (3-0-0) and simply sensational on home soil last year (4-0-0), the 4-8-4 in-between wasn’t nearly so influential. The Spaniard adores the matchplay format, the event and the European cause. She was brilliantly managed by Pettersen last year and the captain will hope she can once again press the right buttons.

Linn Grant

Last year’s match might have been the Swede’s debut but Pettersen believed in her potential enough to include her in all five sessions and to lead the singles on Sunday morning. It was faith well-rewarded and we can expect a repeat (of the expectations at the very least). The highlight of her year was a second Scandinavian Mixed win.

Georgia Hall

When carding a first round 71 in the worst of the weather at the Women’s Open the Englishwoman looked set to add pep to a year of largely flat golf but, fatigued by the fight, she drifted outside the top 20. She needed a captain’s pick but one of two top-five finishes in 2024 did come alongside her old mate Charley Hull in the pairs event.

Esther Henseleit

The German is almost certainly the first-ever Solheim Cup player with two wins in Kenya on her CV but, more importantly, she has also proved herself in high-class company in 2024. Seventh place in both the Chevron and Evian Championships, and second in the Olympics and also the Scottish Open, secured automatic qualification.

Charley Hull

A debutant way back in 2013 when just 17 she thrashed Paula Creamer 5&4 which remains her highlight in the singles with her best golf coming on the first two days (she’s 5-2-1 in both foursomes and fourballs). It might be a slight concern that her fine record is somewhat reliant on going 6-2-0 through her first two Cup starts.

Leona Maguire

The good news? She won four points in the 2016 Curtis Cup, she’s been a semi-finalist and finalist in the LPGA’s match play event, she was an unbeaten top-scorer on debut and second best scorer last year. The bad news? She’s played some really bad golf at times this summer including opening the Olympics with 78-79-83.

Anna Nordqvist

A veteran of eight Cups, there is little the Swede hasn’t done. She’s top-scored, gone head-to-head with Lexi Thompson in a classic (their better ball score was 60) and made a hole-in-one. She’s also a conundrum. Everyone assumes her straight long game is best suited to foursomes (7-8-0) but her fourball record is better (5-3-0).

Emily Pedersen

If the Dane’s selection was something of a surprise last year for the conventionally wise, then her playing in all five sessions necessitated smelling salts. But she was another of Pettersen’s smart plays, winning 2.5 points in the Friday afternoon and Saturday fightback. Pettersen had no hesitation in putting her faith ahead of form.

Madelene Sagstrom

Another, if more low key, success for the captain in 2023 because prior to last year the Swede had failed to win a point on Friday or Saturday. Pettersen left her out of the foursomes but gleaned 1.5 points in the fourballs. She’s another in poor form and has actually carded a score of at least 76 in four of her last five starts.

Maja Stark

“I’ve never had so much fun in my life,” the Swede said after her crucial defeat of Corpuz in last year’s singles. “I’d hoped the pressure would make me play better and I think it did.” It was a bold debut and she clearly thrived on the wilder-than-normal atmosphere. Her seasonal high was second place in the Chevron Championship.

Albane Valenzuela

Alone among the rookies in being in her 20s rather than 30s, Valenzuela also has a foot in both camps. Well, two in one and one in the other (she has four passports: Swiss, French, American and Mexican). A graduate of Stanford, she’s the brain box of the European team room but also likely to be very good in that environment.

The course

The Robert Trent Jones GC in Gainesville, Virginia should be an upgrade on some recent Stateside hosts of the Solheim Cup. The architect himself (RTJ Sr.) described the plot as “aesthetically perfect” with a front nine that twists through trees and a back nine that runs alongside a lake.

That front nine has a few doglegs on the par-fours and par-fives, and both nines feature large white-sand bunkers around the landing areas from the tee. Plotting a path between them, or simply clearing them, ought to be key although they are wide and flat traps so far from penal.

Outright

The funniest, most delicious, result this week would be another tie but TEAM USA has a great chance to halt history.

We’ve already discussed the significance of the returning captains and, within that, good leadership at the second time of asking requires subtly tweaking the task and changing the message. Pettersen has already said: “We will be ready. I guarantee. We will go for a four-peat.” Becoming the first team to win retain the Cup four times in a row fits the bill as a motivation, but the Spanish conclusion defined the Lewis mission and will have written her team talks.

The preview kicked off with a (hopefully) subtle understanding of the European reaction to the tie but sport, and the Solheim Cup, doesn’t do subtle, and the Americans didn’t like what happened. It stung like a paper cut dressed with vinegar and they will use memories of that pain to drive them this week.

There is also a golden rule of the Solheim Cup: don’t hand your opposition motivation.

The USA fell foul in 2000 when making Annika Sorenstam replay a chip and Europe made the mistake in 2015 when Pettersen insisted on claiming the hole against a dozy Alison Lee. On this occasion it is less that Europe made the mistake than Team USA’s sense that they did. And if the Lee incident is revived it is also likely to further jam the bit between US teeth.

It needs to be noted that the collective records of Team Europe in the Solheim Cup are superior to Team USA’s. But Lewis will feel confident of Korda, have hope that Vu and Zhang have more to offer on their second outing, might be intrigued by the promise of Kupcho and Ewing combining well in the recent pairs event, will have noted that Coughlin features high in both birdie average and bogey avoidance this season, and she got the best out of both Khang and Thompson last time.

Europe’s challenge is that so many good records mask recent downturns. Hull is 3-4-0, Hall 2-4-4, Boutier 1-4-1 and Nordqvist 3-4-1 the last two matches. Pettersen found magic words for Ciganda and Pettersen but can she do so again? Can Maguire maintain her remarkable standards?

The win price has been forced shorter and shorter as the summer has gone on. But you can get 2/1 that USA lead after day one, day two and also in the match itself. It looks the call.

Top scorer

Korda is the correct favourite to top score but JENNIFER KUPCHO looks a little overpriced.

She won the first Augusta National Women’s Amateur by playing the final six holes in five-under when two behind the leader and her playing partner Maria Fassi. She also won her second LPGA title in a play-off against elite company (Korda and Maguire). So she likes a duel.

In the 2018 Palmer Cup she won 3 of 4 points, in the same year’s Curtis Cup she grabbed 3.5 from 5, she had a promising 2-1-1 Solheim debut in defeat, is in better form than last year’s disappointing effort and Lewis believes she fits the test. The 18/1 in the overall (four places) offers each-way value.

If you have faith in Maguire being revived by match play she’d be deemed a good price and Stark might have been overlooked, but with concerns about Hull, Hall and Boutier who occupy three of the top four in the European market, LINN GRANT should perhaps be shorter than she is.

Short of a bad start there seems little reason Pettersen won’t trust her again so at the very least she’ll have opportunity to score points.

Posted at 1905 BST on 09/09/24

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.