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The Week: A Hair-Raising Cup

Rounding up the heroes and zeros from a vivid Solheim

By Alan Shipnuck

Koch found a unique way to fly the flag. Darren Carroll

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Nick Faldo is going to be the star of the Ryder Cup as NBC's guest commentator -- if he can wrestle the microphone away from Johnny Miller. Faldo has a bone-dry English wit as well as an analytical mind, and as the alltime points leader, no one can offer more insight about the Cup.

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Carin Koch went 4-0-1 at the Solheim Cup, and Kelli Kuehne went 0-4, but there were plenty of other winners and losers in the wake of the U.S. comeback.

WINNERS

Ozzy Osbourne. The MTV family man is no longer television's most offensive potty mouth, thanks to Suzann Pettersen's nationally broadcast f-bomb during an NBC interview following her Sunday singles match.

Mark Calcavecchia. Calc's famous fold at the 1991 Ryder Cup is no longer the standard for match-play meltdowns, thanks to Michele Redman, who allowed Pettersen to win the final five holes and steal a halve.

Laura Diaz. She was a fist-pumping birdie machine in her debut, putting together a 3-1 record and continuing to prove she's more than just a pretty face in short shorts.

Mr. Blackwell. The Solheim Cup offered a rainbow of fashion don'ts: Cristie Kerr's ugly red-white-and-blue shoes; Kuehne's oversized heart-shaped rhinestone belt buckle, which was so ostentatious that Liberace would have blanched; and Patty Sheehan's face-painted stars and stripes, which is cute if you're five years old, not 45.

Emilee Klein. Another rookie who went 3-1, Klein stoked the U.S. comeback with her victory over veteran Helen Alfredsson in the third singles match.

Catrin Nilsmark. The loose-lipped 2003 European captain created a firestorm with her prematch jabs at Kerr, Kuehne and Redman, but Nilsmark was prophetic. Her punching bags went a combined 2-9-1.

Sheehan. Her captain's picks-Pat Hurst and Kelly Robbins-came up with huge singles wins, and her celebratory cartwheel was the most impressive athletic achievement of the Cup.

Laura Davies. She ran out of gas against Meg Mallon, but over the first two days the big-bopping Brit pulled off a series of outrageous shots, a reminder that she is still the women's game's most overpowering, if uneven, talent.

LOSERS

Annika Sorenstam. She was reduced to tears at the last Solheim-and that was before getting thumped 5 and 4 by Juli Inkster in singles. This time around she was lucky to squeak out a halve against lesser light Wendy Ward, choking on a three-footer to lose the 14th hole, then flushing a jittery chip at 18.

NBC. It was shameful that the network ended Saturday's telecast before the completion of play, depriving viewers of the excitement of three matches that were decided on the final hole. All the more galling was that throughout its dismissive coverage, NBC was constantly flogging its upcoming 15 1/2 hours of Ryder Cup overkill.

Dale Reid. She rode her stars too hard over the first two days-Davies, Koch and Sorenstam played all four matches-leaving them spent on Sunday, and her four captain's selections went 0-3-1 in singles.

Karine Icher. Not only did she blow a 2-up lead in singles, but she also unwittingly put a buzz-kill on the Cup-clinching moment, snatching Rosie Jones's ball mark and storming off the 15th green.

Redman. The affable veteran suffered a historic collapse, and did so in front of the home folks-the Minneapolitan gave out 130 passes to family and friends.

Ryder Cup. We've had to wait three years for what figures to be a letdown. Meanwhile, there is going to be another Solheim Cup next September.

O.B.

On the charter flight from the Pennsylvania Classic to the American Express Championship in Kilkenny, Ireland, a blackjack game broke out featuring, among others, Mark Calcavecchia, Chris Riley and caddie Mike (Fluff) Cowan. "I didn't play, I was the pit boss," says Scott McCarron. "I got them their chips, girls and comp dinners." The big winner? Fluff, of course.

The Mount Juliet Estate, site of the AmEx, has a riotously entertaining 18-hole putting course hard by the clubhouse, and it was a popular hangout for caddies, reporters and more than a few players. Many of the holes were cut on ridges that sloped severely toward water hazards, making the putting course a stern test at a par of 53. The best round of the week was believed to be a 54 by Brad Faxon, who was cajoled into testing his chops by a British reporter.

Jerry Kelly received a warm welcome during his first visit to his ancestral homeland. "I'm from a Kelly clan in County Cork," he said on Saturday while scribbling autographs with a green pen.

Karrie Webb of Australia attended the Solheim Cup as a spectator, spending most of the match following her friend Kelly Robbins inside the ropes with a purloined media armband.

U.S. team members at the Solheim received so many goodies upon arrival -- including a video camera and a diamond-ruby-sapphire necklace -- that Kelli Kuehne said, "It's like Christmas in your room." She added that when her teammate Emilee Klein spied all the loot, "her mouth dropped open and she started bawling."

During the first round of the Tampa Bay Classic the heat index reached 105¡, and by day's end six caddies required intravenous fluids. Terry Travis, Brandel Chamblee's looper, was helped off the course after he vomited on the 15th hole. "I heard him right after I hit my chip," says Chamblee, "and I said to myself, Man, that chip was bad, but not that bad. But I quickly realized it wasn't a funny situation." Chamblee plucked from the gallery a gent who identified himself as "Jim Cusack from an hour south of here." On their first green together Chamblee was handed his driving iron instead of his putter by his novice bagman.

During the second round at Tampa Bay, John Daly, playing the par-5 14th hole, drilled his second shot 50 yards to the right of the green, leaving a nasty dent on the trunk of a Buick Park Avenue Ultra that was being displayed atop a raised platform behind the 15th tee. After making double bogey on 14, Daly, citing illness, abruptly bid adieu to his playing partners, Robert Damron and Billy Mayfair, and disappeared into his motor coach, which happened to be parked nearby.

Issue date: September 30, 2002

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