The verbal jousting has started to crank up ahead of this week’s 14th Solheim Cup in Germany, with Europe and the US both suggesting they are the underdogs to win the biennial team event.
The hosts, captained by Sweden’s Carin Koch, want to make it a hat-trick of victories for the first time, while Juli Inkster’s US side are hoping to end a six-year wait to triumph in the women’s equivalent of the Ryder Cup.
The world rankings indicate the US are by far the stronger team, 10 of their 12 players are in the top 40 and Europe can only boast Suzann Pettersen, Anna Nordqvist and Azahara Munoz.
“They [the US] are going to go in as favorites,” said Scotland’s Catriona Matthew, who is to be making her eighth appearance in the event.
“They pretty much every year go in as the bookmakers’ favorites,” the 46-year-old added. “We just try to enjoy it. Obviously you enjoy it more if you win, but we’ve been lucky in the last couple, we just need to go out there and give it our best.”
The US’ Angela Stanford, who is ranked No. 35 in the world, disagreed with the Europeans.
“I’ve never met somebody who wasn’t holding a trophy that said they were the favorites,” she said. “I wouldn’t consider them [Europe] underdogs. I don’t think any team that hasn’t held the trophy the last two times could be the favorites, so it’s obviously their opinion, but I don’t agree.”
Inkster is an experienced campaigner, having earned almost US$14 million in prize money on the LPGA Tour, won seven major championships and played in nine Solheim Cups, and she said nothing beats the special atmosphere of the biennial team event.
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