Sky Sports News' Jamie Weir is at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia for the Solheim Cup, where Team USA chase a first win since 2017 and Team Europe chase more history; watch live on Friday from 11.30am on Sky Sports Golf
Thursday 12 September 2024 18:45, UK
From team-room friction between USA and Europe to the caddie with divided loyalties this week, Sky Sports News' Jamie Weir brings you up to speed with some of the storylines brewing ahead of the Solheim Cup...
The Solheim Cup wouldn't be the Solheim Cup without a bit of controversy. It routinely has more needle and flashpoints than the Ryder Cup - with Suzann Pettersen quite often at the centre of it!
This year's is "house-gate" and concerns the two teams' on-course bases for the week (they're staying in hotels off-course). As home team, the US had first dibs and went for the bigger of the two houses; a stunning and spacious villa next to the range.
'Next to' being the operative words, because while the US house is tucked around the corner, the European house - the smaller of the two - literally backs onto the range. Given the lack of space inside, the European team have elected to open the driving bays on their ground floor and move dining tables and chairs outside, effectively onto the range!
The US claim this breaches the terms of the Solheim Cup contract, but Pettersen and her backroom team are nonplussed and have continued to play their music at full blast while the American players are left to walk directly past their house on their way to the far end of the range. Your classic case of the noisy neighbours!
I remember noticing instantly last year in Spain that you couldn't have two more contrasting characters as captains and that view has only been intensified in Virginia.
Stacy Lewis is calm, reserved and methodical but clearly has the total respect of all her players. Her style of leadership very much reminds me of Catriona Matthews' - Europe's victorious captain in 2019 and 2021. Pettersen by contrast - whilst still having the compete respect and devotion of her team - is a bundle of energy. Loud, in-your-face and combustible. A powder keg waiting to explode.
Their approaches are poles apart too. Lewis has left no stone unturned and leans heavily on the data, with a team of statisticians behind her advising her on the optimal pairings, whereas Suzann seems to very much let gut instinct inform her decision-making.
Pettersen has sent a combination of players out together for practice rounds each day, putting far more emphasis on vibes, on creating a cohesive team of twelve where all the girls are so comfortable in each others' company, as opposed to Lewis who clearly has a plan that - in an ideal world - she's intent on sticking to.
What's the best approach? Head or heart? Analytics or pure vibes? Who's to say. Twelve months ago both operated the same way and it resulted in a 14-14 tie.
European chat about 'four in a row' or 'doing the four-peat' has clearly rankled the Americans and they're not even trying to hide that fact.
They absolutely do not consider last year's Solheim in Spain as a European win. They're insistent it was a tie, and that Europe only kept the Solheim Cup on a technicality. It's evidently got under the skin.
They view last year as the one that got away; as one that slipped through their fingers and the mantra we keep hearing - from Lewis and the players alike - is 'unfinished business'.
Understandably, there's been lots of focus on Lexi Thompson this week. Playing in her seventh consecutive Solheim Cup, she remains the taliswoman of the team. She's a focal point who the younger members of the team - which is hilarious, considering Thompson herself is 29 - turn to and very much lean on.
Having announced she'd be retiring earlier this season, she's at times appeared to row back on that this week, conceding that she still probably will play the odd event and that this MAY not be her last Solheim Cup.
She was one of the stand-out players in Spain last year and still brings so much to the side, simply with her aura never mind the quality of her actual golf.
She also has her puppy in tow this week, who's staying with the team and has clearly become something of a US mascot. She is the only player in this American side who survives from their last success in 2017, but she'll be desperate to change that this week.
Esther Henseleit and Albane Valenzuela are Europe's two rookies this time around, with the United States also having two in Sarah Schmelzel and Virginia native Lauren Coughlin.
Last year, the infectious enthusiasm of then-rookies Maja Stark and Linn Grant was so vital to Europe's ultimate success, and it appears Henseleit and Valenzuela have seamlessly taken on that mantle.
They're loving every second of it this week, smiling from ear to ear, and entering into the fun atmosphere Pettersen has been so keen to cultivate. They're keeping everyone else's energy levels up with their evident excitement at being involved in what both of them are openly calling the biggest week of their lives.
Spare a thought for Leicestershire's Olly Brett, Rose Zhang's caddie but also Emily Pedersen's boyfriend - a unique dynamic which has added another bit of intrigue to the week.
Rose insists he's fully in on being an honorary American for the week and has brought so much energy to the team room. He and Emily, whilst obviously not ignoring each other, are staying separately from each other this week.
Tension? Awkwardness? Not a bit of it. Both players would relish the chance to be drawn against each other in Sunday singles and find the prospect of that utterly hilarious.
Whether poor Olly - caught in the middle - feels the same way is another matter!
Who will win the 2024 Solheim Cup? Watch exclusively live this September on Sky Sports! Live coverage from the opening ceremony begins at 9.30pm on Thursday, with the opening day's play live on the Friday from 11.30am. Stream the Solheim Cup and more with NOW.
