Solheim Cup: How a revolutionary club sparked a golf revolution
Six of the 10 players in that 1992 American team would go on to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame – Betsy King, Beth Daniel, Patty Sheehan, Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster and Meg Mallon. Their players boasted 21 major titles between them, to just two on the European side – Laura Davies and Liselotte Neumann.
The US were red-and-white-hot favourites.
But they lost captain Kathy Whitworth, winner of an LPGA record 88 tournaments, who returned home on the day they arrived at Dalmahoy, following the death of her mother.
Whitworth had been inspirational in leading the US team to the first victory at Lake Nona, Florida in 1990 by pairing “personalities rather than anything directly related to golf”, according to Dottie Mochrie (formerly Pepper).
And then major winner Daniel stirred the pot, while talking to a US golf magazine. “You could put any one of us on the European side and make it better, but the only Europeans who could help us are Laura Davies and Liselotte Neumann,” she was reported as saying.
Sporting history is littered with such statements that only serve to fuel the underdogs, and while Daniel disputes she made those comments, Walker recalls it differently: “She said it.
“And, of course, what she said was absolutely right, but when somebody tells you you can’t do something, or that they’re better than you, you think ‘I’ll show you’.
“It wasn’t nice for us to hear and it made us want to beat them even more.”
Daniel was made to chew over her words on the first morning.
England’s Davies had won just one of her four major titles by 1992, but was well on her way to becoming one of the best in the world. She won all three of her matches at Dalmahoy, including the opening foursomes where she teamed up with Alison Nicholas to beat Betsy King – and Daniel, of course.
Davies and Nicholas then defeated Sheehan and Inkster on day two as Europe opened a one-point lead to take into Sunday’s singles. Davies again led the team out, winning the top match against Brandie Burton to set the platform as Europe dominated the final day 7-3 for the unlikeliest 11½-6½ triumph.
“It was Laura’s best performance playing for Europe – she was unbeatable and just brilliant, a natural leader,” remembers Walker.
The weather also played its part.
“It was October in Scotland and horrendous,” says Walker.
“It was wet, it rained, the course was waterlogged and if it had been a regular tournament we wouldn’t have played.
“It was miserable, but we were used to those conditions. The Americans absolutely hated it. They didn’t really do horrendous conditions and that played into our favour.”
In fact, it took until Loch Lomond in 2000, again in typical autumnal Scottish weather, for the Europeans to triumph for a second time.
