Players believe Solheim Cup should not be tampered with – Golf news
Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam believes that a European Solheim Cup victory in Ireland, will kill talks of the biennial match play event becoming too one- sided. United States is the leader of the series at 8-3, and a win in this three-day match beginning on
Friday will make it their fourth consecutive one. The event will be played at the Jack Nicklaus designed Killeen Castle course in County Meath, 25 miles north-west of Dublin.
Sorenstam, a ten-time major winner, who is one of Europe’s captain, Alison Nicholas’ non-playing assistants this week, believes that the tournament’s format should not be tampered to see US taking on an international team. While admitting that many of the
world’s best professional women golfers are from Australia, South America and Asia, she would still prefer tradition maintained.
Sorenstam, while speaking of her hopes for a first European triumph since 2003, said, “It would mean a lot. Otherwise you’d go 10 years without winning, then people start thinking about should we change the format and everything. Just look at our Majors,
we don’t have the history that we as golfers enjoy and if we start changing format or the name, how can you compare. I just want to continue and have the Solheim Cup for 30 or 40 years. We have a great competition lets keep it.”
Ever since the Solheim Cup was held in 1990, European teams have only won three times out of eleven editions of the tournament. There have been plenty of debates about the way the event is played and to try and make the competition stronger. Players, however,
feel that tradition should be maintained and this year’s contest will be much more competitive than previous ones.
American Juli Inkster, who is the vice captain this year also believes that this year’s European team is one of the strongest ever, despite US winning the last two events. Although she also mentioned that even though she has a strong team this year, they
will still be going out there with the mindset of being underdogs and the squad are keen do their best to create an upset.
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