‘A bitter pill to swallow’ – Leona Maguire airs grievance with Europe captain Suzann Pettersen, who has ‘no regrets’

A tense Sunday, which once again re-emphasised the Solheim’s propensity to produce high drama as the hosts limped over the line in a 15½-12½ victory, was given a sour note by Maguire’s personal grievance.

The Cavan woman arrived at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club with the best winning percentage on either side, having racked up a remarkable 7½ points from a possible 10 in the previous two Solheim Cups.

But having never been benched before, Pettersen put the former world amateur No 1 on the sidelines for three of the opening four sessions, her one outing being alongside Georgia Hall in defeat in the Friday fourballs. Everyone plays in the Sunday singles and Maguire highlighted her matchplay quality with a 4&3 triumph over Ally Ewing. Then she expressed her unhappiness.

“I’ve been playing really great golf all week in practice, and it was a bitter pill to swallow to be sat out for as many sessions as I was,” the Irishwoman said. “But I thought I got a point to prove today. She [Pettersen] didn’t give much reason, to be honest. The feeling I got was that I was a little bit too short and didn’t make enough birdies, but I think I showed today there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and I think I made plenty of birdies today.

“Captain’s decision. I’m a team player, and all I could do today was come out and win my point, and that’s what I did. It’s a Solheim Cup and I don’t need any extra motivation to go out and try to win my point, but yeah, there probably was a little bit extra there. I’m not going to lie!”

In a contest of tiny margins, Maguire might well have made a difference had she been employed more regularly, but Pettersen was unapologetic about her decisions throughout a two-match reign that is now over, saying she always did what she thought best. In truth, it was a rousing fightback on the weekend, which they shaded 10½ to 9½.

Pettersen insisted she had no regrets and declined to reveal why Maguire played just twice in Virginia.

“I’ve never lived my life regretting any decisions,” Pettersen said. “You’d rather play with your gut feel and your heart. Sometimes you get outplayed.

“There was a reason why Leona and the line-up in the back was what it was. We know what they’re capable of.

“It’s a 12-woman team and it’s always going to be hard to do the pairings. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get outplayed.

“Maybe we could have played other players that maybe could have faced different opponents that could have changed the outcome.

“You can always look back, but at the same time I don’t think we as a team have any regrets of what we did.”

Pressed as to why Maguire was left out of Saturday’s play, Pettersen would only say: “It’s extremely difficult to sit any players on this team. The way it turned out, that’s how it turned out.”

Pettersen also declined to say if she would captain the side in 2026 if offered the role, with two of her assistant captains – Mel Reid and Anna Nordqvist – among the likely candidates to succeed the Norwegian.

“I’ve done my best. I’ve tried my heart out and I’ve tried to pass on the values that I picked up from my previous captains, from my previous teams that I’ve been on,” Pettersen added.

“I think we have a great culture on the European side and it’s been nice kind of helping, recruiting new monsters into this team.

“We have Albane [Valezuela], Esther [Henseleit], we have people coming from behind who’s ready to take on these big tasks, these big challenges, and I’m really proud of that.”

Victorious United States captain Stacy Lewis relied heavily on statistical analysis in deciding her pairings and was delighted to see that approach pay off following last year’s frustrating 14-14 tie in Spain.

“I loved the pairings that we came up with to start the week, and then you just have to hope that the right people play well to make those pairings work,” Lewis said.

“We were fortunate that they did play well and I didn’t have to make any adjustments.

“We’ve always tried to play all of our players in fourballs, so we did some research and the last five winning Ryder Cup teams didn’t play all of their players in fourball.

“So this year I said I’m going to put out the best possible pairings I can for every session, and if it doesn’t get everybody in fourballs, then so be it.

“That was something I learned last time that we’re probably going to keep doing going forward.”

As for her future plans, Lewis joked: “The job was to get the Cup, and we finished the job. I don’t know what we do now. I hadn’t thought past this moment to be honest.

“I’ve got to get my daughter back home to go to school on Tuesday, but past that, I don’t know what’s next.”