I was a walking Marshall for this and looked after Charley Hull for the Saturday and Sunday. She's a nice kid, and her hubby to be (mma fighter) is a really nice guy. He was part of the friends and family so allowed to walk round with us - but not go on the fairways. Had to ask him a few times to move back towards the ropes and managed not to get drop kicked.
Charley really should have had her game sewn up against Megan, but firstly couldnt nail a putt to get back from 2 down although she had chances. Then had chances to finish the game earlier.
Walking up the 18th and Megan was short of the green and Charley took her wood out I was shouting (in my head) noooo just knock it up with hers. I've played that hole and up and down from either side of it when the flags in that position is an absolute nightmare. Much easier shot from the front of it. Then called that she would knock her putt over the green after she came up short and ran off. I've done it myself and just knew she was going to do it. I was gutted for her.
When she finished I sat next to the right hand bunker with a great view of the hole. The american girls were congregated to my right and when it was 3 matches left and only a half point needed lets just say they were very very confident. Which was only fair really. They were high fiving each other all over the place and generally just being exhuberant youngsters. One of the USA players mothers (I think it was Kangs) was up bouncing about getting their crowd wound up, and up to a point generally winding people up as they were briefed to behave if inside of the ropes. Don't think anyone got too upset about it though.
From where we were we couldnt see the live scores as the bottom matches were covered by the crowd from our view. We knew something was up though as Juli was just up from us and her demeanor had changed, and the rest of the USA team seemed a lot more subdued. That must have been when the rookie put it in the bunker on the 17th. The next we heard was someone on our net saying (in bad voice procedure) "Bloody hell shes won it here on the 17th, its all on the 18th, whats going on there?"
When Suzann hit her ball on we watched it coming in and I was thinking "sit down sit down". Not many players had had a lot of spin on the greens and was relieved when it spun back, then started shouting "slow the fuck down, slow the fuck down." Great shot in and matched by Alex. Putting comp with someone whod played twice (maybe 3) in the last 2 years and missed 2 cuts.
Cue pandemonium when she nailed it.
Funny bit was when the crowd got on the green and it was all a bit mental a copper and a green steward asked me if I could "start getting all these people off the green". Yeah good luck with that lad - not my remit. We just had to make sure the players got out safely.
We took the american team back to the practice chipping area and surprisingly they didnt seem THAT upset. I'd have been gutted/livid. Although Lexi didnt seem happy at all. Apparently she hadnt been happy for a few days and it's thought she had a back spasm that was affecting her putting and she was in a lot of pain.
We then took them to the staging area prior to the presentation and they were in good spirits. 2 of the girls necking a pint of lager in one while they waited with us. Or trying too :-)
Then team Europe arrived and they seemed delighted but quite subdued really. I'm sure the party afterwards was boss though.
The biggest thing I'll take out of it was how polite ALL of the players/caddies/team staff were to us... and how much slighter the players were compared to what I thought they were. And they can knock a ball... with regularity.
Got a couple of pics and a vid from the 18th but we werent allowed to take pics when working so not great ones.
