CASARES, SPAIN | Stacy Lewis wasted no time in revealing the bold nature of her captaincy in the 2023 Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesín on the Costa del Sol. Moreover, she did so in an intriguing echo of the recent past.

When the cup was last held in Europe, in 2019 at Gleneagles in Scotland, home captain Catriona Matthew placed absolute trust in one of her continent’s superstars by more or less plucking Suzann Pettersen (this year’s captain) from maternity leave to play a key role in regaining the trophy as a wild card.

Four years on, Lewis played a similar gambit by not only electing to play the apparently out-of-form Lexi Thompson in the Friday morning foursomes, but thrusting her into the first game with orders to pull her driver from the bag and set the tone for the week.

Her task? To take aim at the green of that short par-4 opening hole and throw down the gauntlet to the Europeans.

For some observers, it was deemed less a gambit than a gamble, and those doubters insisted they were supported by the numbers. Thompson had, after all, made only three cuts in 11 LPGA starts in 2023. She had also won just one of her last nine Solheim Cup matches.

Lewis, however, was having none of it.

“Lexi has looked unbelievable this week,” she said on Thursday evening, adding that she had digits of her own: “I have strokes-gained statistics from practice, and she’s off the charts. I want her to go out and have that first tee shot. She’s earned it.”

Next morning, Thompson made her way to the range in the dark. Some might have suggested that was metaphorical, but it was literal: It was pitch dark at 7:30 a.m. Indeed, fans made their way to the first tee by sound rather than sight, following the growing cheers and the DJ-led mass-karaoke.

By the time Thompson was contemplating her tee shot, the bleachers were creaking as those supporters joined Survivor in singing the remarkable apt: “Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past / You must fight just to keep them alive / It’s the eye of the tiger / It’s the thrill of the fight.”

When finally called forward, her wait over the ball seemed to take forever.

Wandering down the fourth fairway, Thompson blew bubbles with her gum while party tunes from the first tee continued to blast across the valley. The Lewis Strategy Looked nothing less than inspired, but a blip was to come.

“Find land, Lexi. Please just find dry land,” an American voice in the gallery whispered, wary of the water short left and the potential damage to the Florida golfer’s fragile confidence if her ball were to make a splash.

Thompson was as bold as her captain had anticipated and as accurate as the fan had hoped. The ball found a greenside bunker and, although Thompson and partner Megan Khang failed to make birdie, they won the hole when their opposition, the Swedish pair of Linn Grant and Maja Stark, could only complete a nervous bogey.

Thompson converted a short birdie chance at the second for another win, and then her approach to the third set up yet another opportunity. Behind the green, a buoyant U.S. vice captain Morgan Pressel asked two French fans, incongruously dressed as American eagles in support of the visitors, for a selfie. They were soon tooting their toy trumpets in joy when Khang and Thompson went 3-up after a jumpy error by the Swedes.

Wandering down the fourth fairway, Thompson blew bubbles with her gum while party tunes from the first tee continued to blast across the valley. The Lewis strategy looked nothing less than inspired, but a blip was to come.

American fans have huge affection for the 28-year-old Thompson, and no name was cheered louder by them at the opening ceremony. She is admired for her stellar ball-striking perhaps because, rather than in spite, of the way that she holds her follow-through, like an angler clinging to the rod when a big fish has been hooked.

But European fans know Thompson well, too, and one of them highlighted another element of her golfing DNA as she stood over an 8-foot putt at the fourth to go 4-up. “Lexi’s not so good on these tiddlers,” she said and then gasped as she was proved right.

Thereafter, Grant and Stark began to find their feet. They won the sixth to reduce the deficit. Immediately, they began to chat with one another, to point at their many fans, and then to clap in time with their chants. Thompson and Khang started to follow them down fairways and to take the back foot in the battle.

The Swedes won 11 with a par and 13 with a birdie to pull all square. Thompson’s mettle was about to be tested.

Faced with a 12-foot look at a birdie to revive their lead at the 15th, she drained it, clenched a fist in Khang’s direction to thank her for the opportunity and maybe did the same when nodding at her captain seconds later.

Grant holed a 30-foot putt to halve 16 but then missed a tiddler to lose 17 and the match, 2 and 1.

Afterwards, Thompson was grateful.

“It means a lot to hit the first tee shot out there,” she said. “I kind of live through this tournament. It’s my favorite. I love representing my country, to be alongside my partner, my team and playing under Stacy. It’s incredible.”

And then Lewis revealed that her game plan, for all the talk, and use, of analytics, had been more of a hunch than she had originally admitted.

“I just had a feeling yesterday,” she said. “Lexi wasn’t in the lineup that I’ve had for a couple weeks. But the way the last four days have gone, the way she seemed mentally, I had a good feeling about it.”

Lewis ultimately was vindicated in all of her first-morning pairing decisions as the Americans swept the foursomes, 4-0, for the first time in the match’s history. It was also the first time the visitors have led after the opening session in nine editions.

Europe was almost as good in the four-balls as the visitors had been in the foursomes, winning the series, 3-1, to trail overnight, 5-3.

The American quest is far from over, however.

Europe was almost as good in the four-balls as the visitors had been in the foursomes, winning the series, 3-1, to trail overnight, 5-3.

What’s more, Thompson endured the agony of shanking a chip on 18, which cost her and Lilia Vu a half-point against Leona Maguire and Georgia Hall.

What the opening day of the 2023 Solheim Cup gave with the first blow had taken with very nearly her last.

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Top: Lexi Thompson delivers the first shot of the 2023 Solheim Cup. Photo: Angel Martinez, Getty Images

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