The great Kathy Whitworth’s pairing philosophy for the inaugural Solheim Cup in 1990 was to partner players with similar personalities. That made the bulldog duo of Dottie Pepper and Cathy Gerring a no-brainer.
Leading up to the first day of competition, the two close friends decided that Gerring would tee off on the first hole at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club. Pepper had the even holes.
“She had ripped into me every day of the practice rounds, saying ‘If you leave a putt short, I’m going to kick your ass. If you lay up and you just don’t have the guts to go for it, I’m going to kick your ass,’ ” recalled Pepper with a laugh.
But on the way to the first tee for Day 1 Foursomes, the spirited Gerring looked over at Pepper with an ash grey face.
“Pards, I can’t do it,” Gerring said.
“Can’t do what?” Pepper asked.
“I can’t hit the first tee shot,” replied Gerring, who felt like she was hyperventilating.
Gerring had won three times that season on the LPGA, and she wasn’t alone when it came to the terror of the first tee.
Future LPGA Hall of Fame member Patty Sheehan had a similar talk with Rosie Jones 34 years ago.
“She and I were walking to the first tee, and I just turned to her and said, ‘Well, Rosie, you’re going to hit the first tee shot,’ ” recalled Sheehan. “She’s like, ‘Oh man, partner, really?’ I said ‘Yeah, I can’t even breathe right now.’ ”
England’s Laura Davies, who was in the first match out that Friday, was standing on the first tee with Pat Bradley when she turned to countrywoman Alison Nicholas and said, “God, I’m a bit nervous.
“Well don’t turn around now,” Nicholas advised. “Nancy Lopez is walking onto the tee.”
The way Davies remembers it, she made Nicholas hit that first tee shot. Except that’s not what happened. Davies – using a pastel pink wood – hit the first shot for Team Europe, though she apparently has blacked it out.
As for who struck the first shot in Solheim Cup history, that honor goes to Bradley, who hit a beauty down the middle for the Americans. Bradley’s partner, Lopez, has long regretted that she turned down the chance.
“To think that Nancy Lopez passed on history,” marveled Bradley, “and she has not forgotten it.”
NASA launched a shuttle during the prelude to the Solheim Cup at nearby Cape Canaveral, and the players all scurried outside during dinner to see it. No one could’ve known at the time just how perfectly that scene encapsulated what was to come.
Nerves ran sky-high despite the humble nature of that first event, which served as a launching pad for what’s become the crown jewel of women’s golf. Even when hardly anyone was watching, players cared deeply.
The 19th Solheim Cup will be held Sept. 13-15 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia. While Team USA boasts the top two players in the world in Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu, Europe has won the last three contests dating to 2017. The U.S. still leads the overall series 10-7-1, with the event’s first tie coming last year in Spain.
For U.S. captain Stacy Lewis, it’s important that her players understand and appreciate the history of the Solheim Cup. Ten past captains are coming to Virginia, many of whom were on that inaugural U.S. team.
For England’s Trish Johnson, the success of the Solheim is due in large part to the stars who made up those first two teams.
“It was just the best of the best, probably ever, for both tours,” said Johnson of golf’s Dream Teams. “That’s what made it so exceptional. They paved the way. It’s not just about the play. It’s about the people … they probably care more than the players themselves now.”
Player strategy wasn’t the only thing thrown together for that inaugural Solheim, which was announced in August at the JAL Big Apple Classic in New York and scheduled for mid-November. Mike Milthorpe, an LPGA rules official, was approached in July of 1990 about running the event. Milthorpe called Kerry Haigh, a former LPGA rules official who had since moved on to the PGA of America and was involved in preparations for the 1991 Ryder Cup.
“I asked if they had a template of what the hell you do,” said Milthorpe. “We had 90 days.”
The idea of staging a female version of the Ryder Cup originally came from the late Joe Flanagan, head of what was then the Women Professional Golfers’ European Tour. LPGA commissioner Bill Blue latched onto it and approached Karsten and Louise Solheim, founders of Ping, as a potential sponsor during the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida, in January of 1990. The Solheims were already heavily involved in the LPGA, co-sponsoring four events around that time and working with numerous players.
At their next meeting, the LPGA proposed a two-event commitment, one in the U.S. and one in Europe. This time Karsten’s son John, who became CEO in 1995 and stepped down in 2022, was in attendance.
“If we do two events, they’ll sell it on us and be gone,” John told his father.
When mom Louise joined the conversation, she suggested they commit to 10 events. A draft of the agreement was put together in the ladies’ card room at Wykagyl Country Club in New York and finalized not long after. Blue, who was actually fired before the first Solheim took place, did not attend the event at Lake Nona.
The Solheims gave the LPGA three options on what to name it: the Ping Cup, the Karsten Cup and the Solheim Cup.
“We knew they wouldn’t take Ping,” said John. “It wasn’t likely that they’d take Karsten. We figured it would end up Solheim.”
Pepper first heard about the Solheim Cup at a mandatory players’ meeting at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship in June.
“Points have already started to accrue,” she recalled, “so your first thought is where the hell do I stand?”
The first Solheim Cup teams only had eight players. (It increased to 10 in 1992 and 12 in 1996.) Team USA used the top seven from the money list and one captain’s pick. Kathy Whitworth, the winningest player in all of golf with 88 titles, was selected captain.
“Everybody knew that Lopez was going to be the pick,” said Pepper, who locked up the last qualifying spot, edging out Danielle Ammaccapane.
Five of team USA’s eight members went on to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame (Beth Daniel, Betsy King, Lopez, Bradley and Sheehan). Together, the great eight won 214 LPGA titles, including 24 majors.
European captain Mickey Walker recalled King saying on the record she expected the Americans to win all 16 points.
“I didn’t even know some of them,” recalled King. “I didn’t think there would be any chance in the world that we could lose.”
Whitworth paired King with her former Furman teammate, Beth Daniel, who won seven times that season on the LPGA and Player of the Year honors. King, the 1989 POY, had won six times the year prior. It’s no wonder the Euros nicknamed them “God and God.”
“I know everybody talks about the first one as basically an exhibition,” said Daniel, “but I have to tell you that our team took it very seriously.”
Pepper bristles at the mere mention of the word “exhibition.”
“Hell no, my God,” she said of such an implication. “Not in any way.”
With 1988 U.S. Women’s Open champion Liselotte Neumann of Sweden and 1989 LPGA Rookie of the Year Pam Wright of Scotland competing full-time in the U.S., the Europeans took two players off the LPGA money list, five from the European Order of Merit and had one wild card pick to form their first team. The pick went to Dame Laura Davies, who’d won the 1987 U.S. Women’s Open as a non-member.
The late Dale Reid of Scotland and France’s Marie-Laure de Lorenzi, who combined for 40 titles on the LET, rounded out the team along with Helen Alfredsson, who’d recently given up a career as a model.
(In time, Davies, Reid, de Lorenzi and Johnson would become the four winningest players in LET history.)
The British-owned Lake Nona was mostly unknown at the time, situated on a two-lane road with only a 7-11 nearby. Before Chris Higgs, now a VP at Octagon, became the LPGA’s Chief Operating Officer, he worked for Executive Sports International as a tournament operator. Milthorpe called up his longtime friend and said something along the lines of “Hey, we’ve got a new event, it’s like the Ryder Cup, but it’s in 11 weeks’ time.”
“That’s very funny,” Higgs replied.
Except it was no joke. And once Higgs found Lake Nona on a map, the LPGA and ESI set out to lay the foundation of what would grow to become one of the largest women’s sports events in the world, and a financial cornerstone of both growing tours.
Tina Budd Barnes began her decades-long career at the LPGA in January of 1990 as a promotions assistant and among her tasks for the Solheim Cup was outfitting Team USA. Izod was the official apparel partner for uniforms, but the turnaround was too short to create something special.
“We looked at their line,” recalled Barnes, “and the closest thing we could get to red, white and blue was purple, navy and gold.”
For the opening ceremony outfits, JCPenney CEO Bill Howell told Barnes to go to the local store in Daytona Beach, Florida, and pick out what she wanted, and they’d ship it.
Barnes selected navy pleated skirts, navy blazers and red silk shirts along with 10 pairs of navy panty hose and 10 pairs of navy pumps.
The Spruce Creek High School band from Port Orange, Florida, performed at the open ceremony, which was closed to fans.
The opening gala was held at sparkling new Universal Studios, which first opened its doors in June. It was a black tie and tennis shoes affair because dinner was on the cobble-stoned streets of a New York City set. Sections of the park were closed so that players had the rides to themselves.
“I remember they had a guy who would train the animals for films,” said Walker. “He got Nancy of course, as you would, and worked with this parrot to get things off Nancy’s body.”
Lopez doesn’t remember the parrot, but she does remember what it felt like for tour rivals to come together that week.
“Players at that time,” said Lopez, “we were all kind of loners.”
While fiery and animated inside the ropes, Sheehan didn’t feel so comfortable at places like cocktail parties.
“I was so shy and not outgoing at all,” said Sheehan, “and I didn’t try to make friends.”
But at the first Solheim Cup, Sheehan looked around the room at players she’d long admired and the idea of dying over every last putt for each one of them sounded really cool.
“I think it really helped change me and helped me understand my position on tour as being one of the better players,” said Sheehan, who’d already competed on the LPGA for a decade at this point and won 25 times.
Alfredsson turned professional in 1989 after playing collegiately in the U.S. but was disqualified from the final stage of LPGA Q-School because she missed the sign-up deadline. The colorful Swede went back to Europe, where she won the 1990 Weetabix British Open in the month leading up to the Solheim.
She paired with Reid over the first two days at Lake Nona and mostly remembers being scared inside the ropes.
“I just felt like I didn’t want to be in their way,” said Alfredsson. “I kind of walked in the edges of the rough. I was almost embarrassed because they had to play with us.”
The tournament hustled to find 100 volunteers who were bused over from Daytona Beach. (For reference, 1,600 volunteers will work this year’s Solheim.) There was very little money for publicity, and while the event was not televised, the Solheims paid for a one-hour highlights show to be produced as well as hourly updates on CNN.
As for fans, Milthorpe estimates there may have been 1,000 people over the course of three days. The tournament sent out 750 specially embroidered pouches to guests of the Solheims that included a pair of tickets and a personal letter from Karsten.
If anything, it almost felt like the Europeans had an advantage when it came to atmosphere as the British-owned Nona attracted a number of fans for the foreign team.
“I always kind of joke that our best friends and family were there,” said Lopez, though sparse crowds did nothing to take away from the pressure players felt.
“I’m pretty sure that every single player in that locker room felt like if we were to lose, it would really be an embarrassment,” said Sheehan.
Pepper never forgot Whitworth telling the team that though the Europeans were heavy underdogs to “expect people to do things they’ve never done against you.”
While the first match of the first Solheim Cup actually went to Europe, with Davies and Nicholas defeating Lopez and Bradley, 2 and 1, there wasn’t much on blue on the board over the course of the event. With only one session each day, a team needed to get to 8 ½ points to win the Cup.
“It was a total annihilation,” said Johnson, “apart from a few players.”
Johnson lost her singles match, 8 and 7, against Bradley in an hour and a half after the American played the first 11 holes in 8 under.
“I always remember thinking she wouldn’t have done that against someone better,” Johnson said. “She’s looking at me thinking, ‘Well, who are you?’ … She wouldn’t have done that against Laura.”
Gerring went up to Whitworth at the player meeting on Saturday night and asked whether she could go off first.
“I said I’ve got a 2-year-old and I’m up at 6 a.m.,” said Gerring. “I’m already up, I’m already nervous. The less time I have to pass, the better.”
Whitworth honored the request, and Gerring dispensed of Alfredsson, 4 and 3.
“I breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn’t playing Laura Davies,” Gerring admits. “Not disrespecting Alfie … I was not familiar with her.”
Reid was the only player who earned a full point in singles, defeating Sheehan, 2 and 1. It looked liked Wright might add a second point after King started pulling shots left down the stretch. Theirs was the only match all week to get to the 18th, and there was a gasp from the gallery after King sent her second shot screaming toward the water.
King took her visor off and kicked it all the way down the fairway, only to discover that a skinny palm tree had put her ball back in play.
“That was not the reaction you’d expect from Betsy King,” said Wright, “that was not the way she behaved.”
After the match was halved, King threw both their balls into the nearby lake.
The victorious USA team with the Solheim family after the Solheim Cup in 1990 at the Lake Nona Golf Club in Florida, USA. (Photo By Stephen Munday/Getty Images)
The final tally was as lopsided as expected, with the U.S. winning 11 ½ to 4 ½. There were concerns that continued domination would keep the event from taking flight, but those fears quickly subsided when Europe shocked all of golf at Dalmahoy Country Club in Wales two years later, trouncing Team USA by five points.
The Solheim Cup had entered another stratosphere.
At the Greenbrier in 1994, fans lined the fairways from tee to green. Higgs, who at this point was hired to run the Cup, said for three competition days at the Greenbrier, there were 22,000 fans.
At the 2021 Solheim Cup at the Inverness Club in Ohio, officials reported 130,000 attendees across all activities both on and off the course for the week. Ticket revenue for 2024 has already significantly exceeded that of the 2021 event.
At the Greenbrier, Karsten wanted to make certain the event was broadcast on network television. The Solheims bought the air time, and then sold it to additional advertisers. This year’s event will be broadcast on NBC for three hours each day over the weekend.
“We’re extremely proud of the event,” said John, who created the Ping Junior Solheim Cup in 2002. “It’s part of us.”
The iconic Solheim Cup trophy was made by Waterford Crystal and members of the inaugural teams and captains received a smaller replica. Players were told Waterford broke the mold after making those replicas.
“Laura Davies said if her house ever caught on fire, that would be the only thing she’d try to save,” said Daniel, who didn’t want to reveal where she keeps hers.
Pepper actually had her replica appraised several years ago on the television program “Antiques Roadshow” and was told by the host that she’d insure it for $35,000.
When Gerring’s family basement flooded some time ago, her first thought was “Oh my God, my Solheim Cup bag.”
Fortunately, the bag stayed dry in the wine room with the trophy still in its original box. As she and husband Jim prepared to downsize, Gerring took stock of her trophies and memorabilia and shared the list with her two children.
“The only trophy they both want is the Solheim Cup,” she said.
A priceless piece of family history.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: A look back on the first Solheim Cup, two dream teams who poured their hearts out with no one watching
