Scottish golf needs new Solheim Cup poster girl like Charley Hull or Lottie Woad
Swede with a Scottish grandfather and a Scottish caddie were all home of golf had to shout about in Netherlands
Having covered the first Solheim Cup on European soil at Dalmahoy in 1992 - really, was it that long ago? - it’s an event that has always been close to my heart. It was a thrill to watch a side captained by Mickey Walker and including two Scots - Dale Reid and Pam Wright - beat the United States on that occasion, as was the case in two other clashes in the transatlantic tussle on Scottish soil.
The first was at Loch Lomond in 2000, when Reid was the winning home captain in an absolute mud bath due to the weather, then Gleneagles in 2019, when Catriona Matthew was at the helm as Europe pulled off one of the most dramatic victories in any team golf event.
The only other contest I’ve attended was the 2017 match in Des Moines as the state capital of Iowa staged the encounter before Gleneagles and, therefore, interest in it was deemed to be greater than normal.
It’s an event that has a rich history in terms of Scottish staging and involvement, though a trend is developing that is a bit worrying and, hopefully, can be addressed over the next few years. Four of the last five Solheim Cups have taken place without a Scottish player representing Europe and, to put that into context, it had never happened in the first 15 editions.
We were very lucky, of course, to have had Matthew flying the Saltire in the biennial bout, the North Berwick legend making nine playing appearances before creating history as the first European captain to preside over back-to-back victories as she followed up her Gleneagles glory but also masterminding a tight victory at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, in 2021.
It was always going to be tough for someone to fill her Solheim Cup shoes and, in fairness, Gemma Dryburgh did really well indeed to raise her game to a level that was good enough to make the European team for a drawn match at Finca Cortesin in Spain in 2023.
It wasn’t to be, though, for Dryburgh in the two encounters that have now taken place since then and, with Matthew attending these days with a microphone in her hand rather than a golf club, it’s a situation that certainly shouldn’t be taken lightly.
If you discount the fact that Swede Linn Grant’s grandfather, James, was a Scot and won the Scottish Boys’ Championship in 1958 at North Berwick, the Caledonian connection last week at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands was provided by Michele Thomson, who was on caddying duty for French rookie Nastasia Nadaud.
As she did in the Curtis Cup at St Andrews in 2008, It would have been Thomson’s dream at one point to have been the player hitting shots against the Americans as opposed to working out yardages and factoring in weather conditions. However, the Aberdonian has now decided to go down the caddying route and, in fairness, what a thrill it must have been for her to see Nadaud shine for European captain Anna Nordqvist in her side’s brilliant 15-13 victory at the end of an enthralling three days.
‘Onwards and upwards for women’s golf’
Thomson, one of the most bubbly characters you will ever meet, will have stories to tell - from out on the course. in the team room and on the team bus, where it certainly looked to be very lively indeed on Sunday night - for the rest of her life and good on her for that.
Europe winning an event like the Solheim Cup is absolutely huge. “Couldn’t be prouder of Anna and Team Europe,” wrote Tom Phillips, the CEO of the Ladies European Tour, in a social media post on Sunday night. “But equally proud of the team behind the team at the LET. Onwards and upwards for women’s golf.”
That’s a sentiment that will be shared by Robbie Clyde, Scottish Golf’s CEO, at a time the governing body is pushing hard to get more girls and women playing golf through a strategy that was launched last year and has been tagged as a “long-term vision for equal gender representation in golf across Scotland”.
By all accounts, it has been warmly met around the country, but, at the same time, it surely can’t be denied that young girls in particular need role models to inspire them, which England, for instance, certainly has at the moment in the likes of Charley Hull and Lottie Woad.
There will be young Scottish girls who will also have been inspired by them and the likes of Nadaud and Mimi Rhodes as well over the weekend, but, as the home of golf and with all that Solheim Cup history, it is imperative that someone is back flying the Saltire on one of golf’s greatest stages before too long.
Shane Lowry was hurting like hell when he tossed away the Dubai Invitational at Dubai Creek in January, yet the Irishman still stopped to speak to a small group of reporters. “That was a disaster - that's what that was,” he told us. “What can you do? You have to just learn from it and move on, lads.”
Lowry then suffered another sore one a few weeks later when “throwing away” a three-shot lead in the Cognizant Classic on the PGA Tour in Florida, after which, by his standards anyway, he went into freefall and missed out on the season-ending Tour Championship.
Boy, did Lowry banish those 2026 demons in spectacular fashion by winning the Amgen Irish Open by a record 11 shots on Sunday and there can be no denying, surely, that the man who holed the key putt in the last Ryder Cup can be an asset for Europe in next year’s contest, especially one on home soil at Adare Manor.
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