The defeat of the Europeans a few days earlier in the Junior Solheim Cup was a bad omen, and on top of that it was the first time the Americans had won on the Old Continent. However, it seemed that their ‘big sisters’, with a four-point advantage in the absence of Sunday’s individual matches, would not have too much trouble to defend their title and win their third consecutive victory. Big mistake. The 12 points at stake in the singles put paid to the Europeans’ aspirations and the U.S. team was proclaimed Solheim Cup champion after its impressive comeback, a feat that will probably go down in history as the “miracle of Leon-Rot”, the German club where the prodigy took place.
It was a replay, but in reverse, of the so-called “miracle of Medinah” of the 2012 Ryder Cup, in which Europe managed to come from behind in spectacular fashion on Sunday to claim victory.
On September 30, 2012, the team then captained by Spaniard José María Olazábal achieved a historic feat at Medinah Country Club, near Chicago. The Americans reached the final day with a score clearly in their favor of 10-6.
In Sunday’s individual matches, the European team was obliged to do what seemed unlikely: win eight of the twelve points at stake. But the improbable came true and Olazábal’s team lived a dream day in which they won eight, lost only three and added a tie, in the closing duel between Tiger Woods and Italian Francesco Molinari.
In the end, Europe won by 14.5-13.5 (the same score by which the American girls won in Leon-Rot) to revalidate the title won in 2010 at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, by the same score.
All this with the memory of Severiano Ballesteros, who passed away on May 7 of the previous year, always present during those three days in the continental team.
In the 2015 Solheim Cup, the Americans, captained by Juli Inkster, won this Sunday by a final score of 13.5 to 14.5 to break the streak of two consecutive victories of the Europeans, winners in 2011 and 2014. This is the ninth title for the Americans to five for the Europeans.
Following the completion of the last games of the first round of the fourball (postponed from the day before due to lack of light), Europe dominated the scoreboard by a clear 10-6. But in the subsequent individual matches, the United States won eight and a half points to claim a title they had not won since 2009.
France’s Karine Icher, England’s Melissa Reid and Sweden’s Ana Nordquist signed the only European victories in the twelve individual matches of the closing day, in which Malaga’s Azahara Muñoz lost her match against Lizete Salas by 3 and 1, while Pamplona’s Carolota Ciganda drew with Lexi Thompson in the only duel resolved in a draw.
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