USA Captain Stacy Lewis Suggests Playoff After Solheim Cup Tie

USA captain Stacy Lewis has suggested that the Solheim Cup could be settled by a playoff in future after Europe retained the trophy following their 14-14 draw.

Europe and America were locked together at 8-8 heading into Sunday's 12 singles matches, with the hosts and defending champions needing to get to 14 to keep the cup for a third straight time. 

The visitors, under Lewis's captaincy, required 14½ points to regain the trophy they last won in 2017 and got off to a fast start on Sunday as they won the first hole in each of the top three matches before Europe, who lost the opening session 4-0 on Friday, fought back to secure the first ever tied Solheim Cup.

Lewis admitted: "We were talking about whether there should be, when it is a tie, should it be a playoff, should it be a retain the cup? I don't know, I mean, it obviously would be better TV. 

"It would be a better experience for the fans whether it was a team playoff or something like that, I think that would be pretty cool. But if you want to stick with the history of the event and history of what the men do as well, you probably stick with retaining the cup. I don't know how I feel about that either way, to be honest."

Caroline Hedwall produced the most stunning turnaround on Sunday, winning five of the last six holes to claim her match against America's Ally Ewing despite being three down after 12. But it was Carlota Ciganda who inflicted the final blow as she birdied the 16th and 17th to beat Nelly Korda, which prompted emotional scenes among the visitors after Lexi Thompson finished her final game.

Lewis, who will captain USA again on home soil next year, explained: "I made them all cry, which was not my intent. I just told them how proud I was of them and just the fact that , I don't want to sound like a sore loser, but it was a tie, and I think that's a lot for this team to build off of.

"Coming over here, coming into this environment with five rookies, a very young and inexperienced team, I mean, this week was really good for them. I just wanted to tell them how proud I was of them. Fortunately, we only have to wait another year to go get this thing back."