Pettersen has 'no regrets' after Solheim Cup loss

Suzann Pettersen also captained the European team that retained the Solheim Cup in 2023

Captain Suzann Pettersen says she does not "have any regrets" after Europe were beaten 15½-12½ by the United States, relinquishing their five-year hold on the Solheim Cup.

Having trailed to a record 6-2 opening-day deficit on Friday, Europe produced a gutsy display to win Sunday’s single matches 6½-5½ and, at one point, appeared capable of reaching the 14 points required to claim the trophy for an unprecedented fourth successive occasion.

However, Norwegian Pettersen then came under scrutiny for her selections, having chosen to leave Ireland's Leona Maguire - a star of the previous two editions - out of Saturday's foursomes and fourballs matches where the spoils were shared and the US held a 10-6 advantage before the final day of action.

"I've never lived my life regretting any decisions," said the 43-year-old. "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. We tried our best."

Ireland's Maguire, who won seven and a half points in her first two appearances in the competition, sat out of three sessions overall. She played in the Friday fourballs with England's Georgia Hall, but they were beaten 6&4 by Nelly Korda and Megan Khang.

And the 29-year-old, who appeared a frustrated observer on Saturday, responded with a comfortable 4&3 singles success over Ally Ewing to keep Europe in touch at 13½-10½ behind, before the US side closed out the victory.

"I feel like 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," said Maguire.

"[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 proved [on Sunday] there's more than one way to skin a cat - and I think I made plenty of birdies.

"It's Solheim Cup, I don't need any extra motivation but yeah, there probably was a little bit extra there, I am not going to lie."

While Pettersen, who was serving her second term as captain, said she had "no idea" if there would be a third stint for the 2026 edition in the Netherlands, she stressed Europe's players would come back "equally as hungry" as the US following their first defeat since 2017.

"You look at the final scores, it doesn't really relate to kind of how close it was," said Pettersen, who was also at the helm for the dramatic 14-14 draw at Finca Cortesin in Spain 12 months ago.

"I think coming off a very slow start on Friday morning is kind of what hurt us. That's something we internally have to work on because it's tough over and over to kind of always feel like you're coming from behind.

"But you also need a little bit of luck. I don't feel like we made an awful lot of putts overall throughout the week and, at the end of the day, it is a couple of points' difference.

"As hungry as the Americans were leaving Spain last year, we're going to be equally as hungry going in two years."