Leona Maguire was left frustrated by her limited role in this year’s Solheim Cup and said it provided “extra motivation” to win her point for Team Europe in the Sunday singles.
Maguire had played in all 10 sessions in her first two appearances in the biennial contest, winning seven and a half points in the process, although featured just twice this year in the 15.5-12.5 defeat to Team USA.
The Irishwoman partnered Georgia Hall in a 5&4 loss in the Friday fourballs and then sat out both sessions on Saturday, before returning with an impressive 4&3 victory over Ally Ewing in the Sunday singles.
“I feel like I’ve been playing really great golf all week in practice and it was a bitter pill to swallow to be sat out for as many sessions as I was,” Maguire said. “I thought, ‘I have got a point to prove today’. I love the Solheim Cup, I love match play and I really wanted to deliver a point for the team today, and nice to do that.
“[Pettersen] didn’t give much reason, to be honest. The feeling I got was that I was a little bit too short and didn’t make enough birdies, but I think I proved today there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and I think I made plenty of birdies today.
“It’s Solheim Cup, I don’t need any extra motivation but yeah, there probably was a little bit extra there, not going to lie. But ultimately it’s what’s best for the team this week.
“I would have loved the opportunity to try and deliver more points for the team, but I did what I could today.”
Rookie Albane Valenzuela also sat out all of Saturday and only played in two of the five sessions, with Pettersen backing her decision to give both players such a limited role over the three days.
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Team USA Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis describes the stress of watching the Sunday singles unfolded and admitted it could have gone either way
“I’ve never lived my life regretting any decisions,” Pettersen said in her press conference. “You’d rather play with your gut feel and your heart. Sometimes you get outplayed. There was a reason why Leona and the line-up in the back was what it was. We know what they’re capable of.
“We know what they’re facing. If we were going to have a chance at this, we needed all 12 players. It would have been nice to have an anchor like Leona in the back knowing she can take it and get it done.
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Team Europe captain Suzann Pettersen praised the efforts of her side during the Solheim Cup and suggested there were a lot of small victories for her team despite missing out on retaining the trophy
“I mean, it’s a 12-woman team, and it’s always going to be hard to do the pairings. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get outplayed. Maybe we could have played other players that maybe could have faced different opponents that could have changed the outcome.
“You can always look back, but at the same time I don’t think we as a team have any regrets of what we did. We tried our best.”
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What went wrong for Europe?
Europe were four points behind after the opening day and held the same deficit going into the Sunday singles, where Pettersen’s side won 6.5 points on offer but still fell to their first Solheim Cup loss since 2017.
“I think coming off a very slow start, again, on Friday morning is kind of what hurt us,” Pettersen added. “That’s something we internally have to work on because it’s tough over and over to kind of always feel like you’re coming from behind.
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World number two Lilia Vu birdied the 18th hole to claim a half-point that secured Team USA the Solheim Cup in Virginia
“It’s very doable. We showed it again today. I thought yesterday [Saturday] was a good kind of fair competition, 2-2 in both sessions. Yeah, we’re right there. But you also need a little bit of luck.
“I don’t feel like we made an awful lot of putts overall throughout the week, and at the end of the day, it is a couple of points’ difference.”
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