Suzann Pettersen has lost her voice in the build up to the Solheim Cup but spoke very highly of European captain Catriona Matthew. Picture by PHIL INGLIS

SUZANN Pettersen has never been afraid to speak her mind but this week she may have to let her clubs do the talking after losing her voice in the lead up to match.

“My golf game is in great shape,” Pettersen croaked while attending a press conference ahead of Thursday’s opening ceremony. “But my voice is gone. This is as good as it gets.”

Under the circumstances, the veteran Norwegian went on to do a good job explaining how the atmosphere in the European camp differed from her eight previous appearances in the Solheim Cup.

“I guess every team has different players,” Suzann said. “I just think these new youngsters on the European team have a lot of character. Their personalities are different but go (gel) together so that’s very good.

There was also agreement among the European players that new captain Catriona Matthew had a lot to do with the high spirits within the camp.

“With Beany (Matthew) what you see is what you get,” said Pettersen. “She’s as natural as you could be. She’s as relaxed as she looks and she’s confident about what’s she’s doing.

“If I’d been in her shoes, I don’t know if I would have done anything different from her so far. Over the last two years, as I’ve got to know her a little better, I’ve realised she’s as calm as it gets.”

Jodi Ewart-Shadoff is finally playing pain-free having been given a captain’s pick.
Picture by MATTHEW LEWIS

That view was shared by Swede Anna Nordqvist, Germany’s Caroline Masson and England’s Jodi Ewart-Shadoff.

“I think Catriona is a big part of it,” said Nordqvist who is making her sixth Solheim Cup appearance at Gleneagles.

“She’s very relaxed, very experienced, and she’s so easy going. I think that kind of transfers to the team.

“She’s made things very easy for us this week, and I feel she’s putting a lot of thought into our schedules and the way she’s set everything up.

“Of all the teams I’ve been on, I feel like this is the closest everyone’s been and the best team spirit we’ve ever had.”

“I also think that everybody feels we have the best 12 players in Europe on this team, which is great.

Nordqvist added: I think it’s crucial that everybody in the team feels they’re in the right spot here. Nobody feels they have to hide, and I think that’s huge.

“I also think Catriona has done a great job being very open and honest, communicating really well with everybody.

“Everybody knows their role and where they stand. It gives the players a lot of a lot of confidence, knowing where they stand.”

The last word goes to Ewart-Shadoff, who has recently had keyhole surgery and is free of the back pain that plagued her for much of the earlier part of the season.

“She’s very approachable,” Jodi said. “Obviously, Catriona has played a lot of Solheim Cups, so she knows what it’s all about and she’s very experienced in putting pairings together.

“She knows what she’s doing. I’m just personally very honoured to play on her team.”

Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist believes Catriona Matthew’s calm manner has made for a great atmosphere in the teamroom. Picture by PHIL INGLIS

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American Jessica and Nelly Korda (right) will become the first sisters to play together in a foursomes match whenthe Solheim Cup gets underway at Gleneagles on Friday morning. Picture by TRISTAN JONES

SISTERS Jessica and Nelly Korda will create a slice of Solheim Cup history when they play together in the Friday Foursomes over the PGA Centenary course at Gleneagles.

Annika and Charlotta Sorenstam were the first sisters to be named together on a Solheim Cup team in 1998 – but they did not play alongside each other in either the foursomes or fourballs.

So the American sister will be breaking new ground at 8.34am when they set off in the third foursomes match against Germany’s Caroline Masson and Yorkshire’s LPGA winner Jodi Ewart-Shadoff.

The honour of hitting the first shot will go to America’s Morgan Pressel, who plays alongside Marina Alex in the first foursome at 8.10am, against Spain’s Carlota Ciganda and Yorkshire’s Bronte Law.

Dorset’s Georgia Hall and Celine Boutier make up the second European pairing at 8.22am against Lexi Thompson and Brittany Altomare, while the last match on the course at 8.46am will feature Woburn’s Charley Hull and Spaniard Azahara Munoz against Meghan Kang and Annie Park.

US captain Juli Inkster admitted the Korda sisters had requested to play together.

“You know, they actually asked me,” Inkster said. “I wasn’t too keen on it. I don’t know. But the more I thought about it, I thought it would be stupid not to play them.

“I mean, it is not often you get two sisters on one team. They should have the right to play together.

“And Jessica said, ‘why don’t you see how we play in the Dow together, if we kill each other then maybe not put us together’. So that was our kind of thinking.”

European captain Catriona Matthew decided to put rookie Bronte Law out in the first group because she has been champing at the bit to get started ever since the start of the week.

“That was my kind of reason for putting her out early and Celine Boutier in the second group. I just felt the longer they have to hang around and wait, they more nervous they were going to get.

“It’s obviously important to get off to a good start,” the Scot, who has played in nine Solheim Cups, added.

“Being the home side, I think to get off to a good start would really get the crowd into it. So, I think for us, we’re really going to go out there and try and get the crowd in and get some blue on the board early on.

“We actually didn’t ponder the parings too much,” said Matthew.

“We have a couple of ones out there for the afternoon that just kind of fitted nicely, and those were the ones we wanted, to hopefully try and play everyone the first day.

“So, they were just kind of natural pairings, to be honest.”

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AUSTRIA’S Isabella Holpher will defend her title at the English Women’s Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship at Ipswich Golf Club, next week.

The 18-year-old completed a remarkable 11-shot wire-to-wire victory 12 months ago at Coventry GC and returns attempting to become the first back-to-back winner since Yorkshire’s future LPGA player Jodi Ewart-Shadoff, in 2007-08.

The top-ranked player in the field is Essex’s World No. 23 Lily May Humphreys, from Stoke-by-Nayland, who makes the short journey to the Suffolk club on the back of a remarkable season.

Last year’s English Amateur Champion has won the Welsh and Irish Open Amateur Strokeplay Championships so will be bidding for a rare hat-trick when the three-day championship gets under way, on Tuesday, August 20.

Humphreys, who made her Curtis Cup debut in 2018, also claimed the Annika Invitational Europe in Sweden.

The 17-year-old was also runner-up to Hertfordshire’s Ellen Hume at the English Women’s Amateur Championship when defending her crown at Saunton GC.

Hume, from Mill Green GC, has returned to college in America but Humphreys is joined by Cornwall’s Women’s Amateur Champion Emily Toy, Somerset’s Mimi Rhodes – a quarter-finalist and Norfolk’s Chiberta Grand Priz winner Amelia Williamson

The quartet were also in the English team that won last week’s Women’s Home Internationals, at Downfield GC, in Scotland.

The victorious English Girls’ team claimed the Girls’ Home Internationals at the same venue and are represented in Suffolk by Gosford Ladies’ Jessica Baker, Whitley Bay’s Rosie Belsham, Ellie Gower, from Gleneagles, Huddersfield’s Charlotte Heath, Stoke Park’s Thalia Kirby and Carus Green’s Caitlin Whitehead, from Cumbria.

The latter finished second behind Germany’s Marie Bechtold at the English Girls’ Open Amateur Championship at The Gog Magog, last month.

Another player to look out for is Finland’s Kerttu Hiltunen, who last year was a runaway winner of the English Girls’ Under 16 Open Amateur Championship.

Hiltunen returns to the UK along with other Continental entrants from France, Germany Italy, Spain and The Netherlands.

The Scots are also out in force with a group including Penelope Brown, Louise Duncan, Chloe Goadby, Jasmine McIntosh, Lorna McClymont, Shannon McWilliam, Megan Robb and Clara Young.

The host club is represented by Vanessa Bell, Sharon Luckman and Abbie Symonds.

Purdis Heath – as Ipswich is also known – is a traditional heathland layout, and hosted the 2011 men’s English Mid-Amateur Championship.

The English Women’s Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship is contested over 72 holes. The full field play 18 holes on each of the first two days with the leading 40 players and ties returning to play 36 holes on the third day.

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