“We would not have finished today had we not covered the greens with tarps."

Granted, the Evian situation was unique because the greens were so new but it is cause for concern that the success of tarping the greens overnight could influence this practice more in the future.

Randall Mell on how tarping saved the 54-hole Evian Championship from further misery.

A half-inch of rain fell over Evian Resort Golf Club through late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Thursday’s first round was washed out by a third of an inch of rain. That came on top of all the rain that saturated the course earlier in the week.

“We weren’t sure, honestly, how it would turn out, and if it would help because we had never done it before,” Daly-Donofrio said. “And the grounds crew had never done it before.”

Tarps Come Out At The Evian

Some agronomists have always contemplated incorporating infield-style tarps to cover greens during a championship and as Randall Mell reports, it's finally happened.

Sort of.

More like selective tarping.

Sophie Retiring From The LPGA...For Now

Beth Ann Baldry tracks down Sophie Gustafson who says she's not retiring from competitive golf, just the LPGA Tour for now, with sights set on a return to Europe to find her game.

It seems in vaguely Tweeting she forget to tell mom and dad.

“I want to go back home and just have fun again playing,” Gustafson said. “If that brings my confidence back who knows. All I know is I won't be on the LPGA in 2014.”

Gustafson Tweeted on Friday after missing the cut at the Safeway Classic that she was stepping away from the LPGA. On Saturday, she followed up with this classic: “My parents got a bit of a shock watching the sport news at home tonight.. Guess I forgot to tell them.. Daughter of the year?”

Blumenherst Walking Away From LPGA Tour?

Randall Mell with news of a blow to the LPGA as one its classiest and most engaging players, 26-year-old Amanda Blumenherst, is walking away at year's end to spend more time with her husband, Oakland A's first-baseman Nate Freiman.

From Mell's exclusive on the 2008 U.S. Women's Amateur champion:

“I don’t want to say I’m retiring, because you never know what will happen,” Blumenherst said. “Maybe I’ll decide in a couple years to come back, and this will just be a little break, you never know.”

It sounds like more than a break, though. Blumenherst, 26, would like to start a family. She said this season has been tough.

“I started noticing that my heart was no longer in it,” Blumenherst said. “I was just going through the motions in practice. I want to be with Nate.”

Mell discussed Blumenhurst's story on Morning Drive with Gary Williams:

Catriona Backed For Euro Solheim Cup Captaincy

While the 18-10 loss at Colorado Golf Club has left the Americans in disarray about what to do next, Europe appears to be building a consensus toward a Catriona Matthew Solheim Cup captaincy in 2015.

Martin Dempster reports.

Roundup: Europe Trounces U.S. In Solheim Cup

Doug Ferguson's game story on Europe's historic win over the U.S. at Colorado Golf Club notes Europe's 6-rookie squad and Caroline Hedwall's amazing 5-0 record in leading her team to an 18-10 rout.

Phil Parkin's post-match interview with an eloquent, modest Hedwall.

Steve DiMeglio captures the losing moment and the essence of what separated the two squads.

Following a 55-minute weather delay, Sweden's Caroline Hedwall, 24, playing in just her second Solheim, defeated Michelle Wie with a last-hole birdie from 5 feet to give the Europeans the 14 points they needed to keep possession of the Cup. Hedwall become the first player in Solheim history to go 5-0.

The USA, on the other hand, could never get a handle on the undulated, firm and slick greens throughout the tournament and now has lost their grip on the Solheim Cup.

Jay Coffin on the other star from this Solheim Cup, 17-year-old Charley Hull who pummeled Paula Creamer, then asked for her autograph.

John Strege wonders where this leaves the state of American golf.

A Solheim Cup is not entirely indicative of the strength of any specific group of players, but the signs aren't good for the U.S. For the first time, Europe has won consecutive Solheim Cups, and its victory at the Colorado Golf Club was its first in America. Caroline Hedwall, only 24 herself, a star heretofore still in the assembly stage, went 5-0 in these matches, securing the cup for Europe with an 18th-hole birdie to beat Michelle Wie.

Left unsaid in all of this is how yet another American team (male or female) struggled in formats other than singles, and really never quite grasped how to deal with the sensational firm-fast golf presented by Colorado Golf Club.

That may have been part of Dottie Pepper's thinking in issuing this ominous statement about the depth of American golf, as reported by Beth Ann Baldry in her roundup of the last day.

And now, as Dottie Pepper sat beside the 18th green waiting for the final match to come in, the Europeans an hour deep into their celebration, one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen stated an obvious, yet painful fact about American golf:

“The world has caught up and passed (us),” Pepper said.

Baldry also handed out grades. The Americans will be going to summer school.

And mopping up a Saturday controversy when Michelle Wie left a green early in celebration, Coffin has her apology Tweets.

Golf Central's highlight package.

The jovial European team interview.



The not-so-jovial USA post match interview, helmed by the classy Meg Mallon.

And just as a viewer, this was yet another win for architecture. While most of these team matches would be interesting if played on a polo field, Colorado Golf Club's brilliant agronomic presentation highlighted Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw's architecture. What a joy it was to watch the ball spending so much time on the ground, doing wonderful things when the players controlled their shots.

Throw in some super hole locations and fresh camera angles from Golf Channel that allowed us to better understand the scale and strategy of the holes, and we once again saw why the powers insisted on team match play for the 2016 Olympics why team events are still better than 99% of the stroke play events.

Kudos to all involved for an entertaining presentation of our sport.

Solheim Madness! 25 Minutes To Take An Incorrect Drop!

Julie Williams with a nice wrap of Friday's day one Solheim Cup brouhaha over an incorrect drop taken by Carlota Ciganda.

Ciganda hit her fourth shot onto the fringe and made the par putt to secure an unexpected halve with Lewis and Thompson.

“Obviously I’m not happy about it,” Mallon said. “The thing I’m most unhappy about is that it took ... about 25 minutes for this to happen. And from our perspective, the momentum, which was coming in our favor at that point in time, obviously had stopped.”

Questions were posed at the time of the drop, Mallon said, but perhaps not the right ones. Play proceeded, and Pettersen birdied the next hole to take the Europeans 1 up. They won by that margin at the 18th, when Pettersen made a clutch two-putt par.

Golf Central has the video and also the Captains talking about what ended up being an incorrect drop.