Carin Koch: Why the approach to Germany will be in good spirits
One thing that I don’t need to worry about as captain is the hunger that both teams will have to get their hands on the Solheim Cup. The Americans will be as determined as ever – they’ve never lost two in a row so they definitely won’t want to make that three.
I think they were a bit shocked that we won by such a big margin in Colorado and I know that they won’t want that feeling again.
People like to build up a division between the teams but I’m not worried about the spirit of the matches at all. In fact it is not something that I have really thought about.
We want to have good competition and we’ll emphasise that to the players but the manner in which the matches are played is always excellent.
Annika Sorenstam had to replay a chip (which she had already holed) after being told that she had played out of turn Lots of the players know the other team well and, when Jodi Ewart-Shadoff came up against Jessica Korda on the first morning, she was playing against her best friend.
One of the most well-known incidents came when I made my debut in 2000 and Annika Sorenstam had to replay a chip (which she had already holed) after being told that she had played out of turn.
Of course as a team it made us angry and more determined to play better and win but the overall atmosphere in the match was fine.
In Juli Inskter, America couldn’t have a more easy-going captain. I first met Juli when I went to the States in 1995 and she was a bit of a role model for me with having kids on Tour and being a mum. I have always liked her personality and she is very popular but also, like all of us, a fierce competitor.
Pat Hurst is one of her vice-captains and we go back to our college days and we then had a battle for Rookie of the Year on the LPGA Tour. Also, our sons were born six months apart and we went to visit them at Christmas a couple of years ago so we have been through a lot together.
This month I am off to Phoenix two weeks before the ANA Inspiration, the year’s first Major, and we’ll have a team dinner to kick off the Solheim year. Hopefully there will be around 15 girls including all the team from 2013, plus Annika and our captain in Colorado Lotta Neumann.
Six months and counting!
