The Europeans clung on to their one point lead to claim the trophy in the final day of The Junior Solheim Cup here in Sweden today.
Yesterday the problems were the strong wind, fast greens and hard fairways. Today at the final day of the PING Junior Solheim Cup the rain was pouring down at the Bokskogens Golf Club, outside Malmö.
This made the greens slower and the fairway softer but the players seemed to handle the weather conditions quite well.
The American Team were one point behind the European Team going into the final day of competition.
But early on in the single matches the Americans girls took command, at least on the first hole, but then the European team fought back with team spirit, with a fanatically supportive Captain Helen Alfredsson.
The American team tried to come back into the game and won the first match, yet Europe took the following three matches before the US won two consecutive games. But since Europe went into today’s play with a lead and continued to play at their best the final result of the day was early predicted and they never let the Americans into the game.
It was an important victory for the Europeans and the whole event, because at the first PING Junior Solheim Cup the Americans defeated Europe with 17-7 last year at Oak Ridge, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
The Swedish star Louise Stahle, who is ranked number one in Europe, performed extremely well and won all her three matches and this was an big revenge for last year results when Stahle was a member of the loosing European Team at Oak Ridge.
Helen Alfredsson played all Solheim Cup from 1990 to 2002 but did not qualify for Barsebäck 2003.
Instead she got the offer to lead the European Team in PING Junior Solheim Cup, and she accepted and conquered the trophy.
“We had players from six different countries and five girls from Spain. Fortunately I speak Spanish so we managed to communicate with each other. I’m thrilled over the victory and it was a lot of fun to coach these young talented players,” said Alfredsson, who during the main event at Barseback will work as an analyst for Swedish TV.
“Of course we are disappointed at the result, but I am proud of my girl’s effort and spirit. Obviously playing at Bokskogen in Sweden was big advantage for the European Team,” said Val Skinner, the Captain of the USA Junior team.
She added, “They were more or less on home ground. And it seemed like the weather conditions today with lots of rain was an advantage for the Europeans.”
Further results can be found at http://solheimcup.golfdata.se
