BBC Sport's golf correspondent Iain Carter looks at the finer details behind the United States' triumph in the 2024 Solheim Cup
Finding those intangible advantages; an unlikely but successful partnership, cajoling an out-of-form player into an unerring demon, identifying your team’s strengths and exposing an opponent’s weakness.We saw Luke Donald do it for Europe last year at the Ryder Cup, likewise Catriona Matthew for Great Britain and Ireland at this month’s Curtis Cup and now we have witnessed the same from Stacy Lewis for the United States at the Solheim Cup.
She had enlisted stats guru Justin Ray to provide performance insights that could inform her decisions. As importantly, they offered empirical justification to players and so they could understand and accept potentially contentious strategical calls. An aggrieved Maguire, Europe’s most successful player in the previous two Solheim Cups, says she was not given an explanation for being benched. She deserved better and after the contest Pettersen refused to elaborate.
"He's been a huge asset for the last two and a half years, from all the phone calls to the random texts," Lewis said of her statistical ally. "So we did some research, and the last five winning Ryder Cup teams didn't play all of their players in fourball. We've done that in the past to get everybody ready for singles."
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