now-retired Swede<\/a> is the right person for the job. \u201cShe\u2019s quiet, but she\u2019s such a strong character,\u201d Davies says. And it means the \u201cplayers don\u2019t have to worry about being a leader\u201d.<\/p>\n\u201cMaybe I\u2019m wrong and someone will step up,\u201d she continues. Contenders include Charley Hull and Carlota Ciganda, who will each be making their eighth Solheim Cup appearance in the Netherlands, and Celine Boutier, who will playing in her fifth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not particularly vocal players, but they have brilliant Solheim Cup records,\u201d Davies explains before focusing on Hull.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharley leads with her golf clubs. She\u2019s very much her own person and she will do what she does \u2013 and that\u2019s best for her because she\u2019s a little bit different. I love the way she goes about it. I love her free spirit. Her attention span\u2019s not the best to be involved in a team environment, and sometimes in team golf you could criticize someone like that, but Charley\u2019s so natural, so just let her go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will the lack of vocal support in the team room affect the performance, though?<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d Davies admits. \u201cI certainly wasn\u2019t. I was like Charley in that I tried to lead with my golf clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would never be one for rousing speeches. But over the years, players have done that. I remember at Loch Lomond [in 2000] when [the US won four of the first five singles matches] before the rain delay, and Catrin Nilsmark gave this big speech in the team room, and it really made a difference. So if players naturally like being like that, then I think I think it\u2019s great if they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"USA's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nelly-korda-charley-hull-solheim-cup.jpg\")
Laura Davies expects Charley Hull to \u201clead with her golf clubs\u201d. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Instead, \u2018Damo\u2019 expects a much more vibes-based atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at this year\u2019s team, I would say it was quite a quiet group,\u201d she explains. \u201cOther than Lottie, I don\u2019t really know a lot about the rookies, but from what I\u2019ve heard, they\u2019re lively characters and really good fun. So maybe, rather than leading with rousing speeches, they will bring their energy to the team room, and that\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also singles out one of Nordqvist\u2019s vice-captains for praise.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know who else is really good for that? Mel Reid. She can definitely get a team going.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the European team have three of the top five, Angela Stanford\u2019s US side is once again the dominant force when it comes to the Rolex Rankings, with her 12 players averaging 39th in the world to the hosts\u2019 54th. But it\u2019s not a concern for Davies, who notes that one of Nordqvist\u2019s rookies is 22-year-old Lottie Woad, who will head to the Solheim Cup as the World No.7 with four wins and five major top-ten finishes on her resum\u00e9.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say \u2018rookie\u2019 with an asterisk,\u201d Davies smiles. \u201cBack in the day, a rookie meant a genuine rookie. Now, the players come through the college system and they play a lot of high-level individual and team golf.<\/p>\n
\u201cLottie will go into the Solheim Cup feeling super confident and it will be interesting to see, when she stands on that tee for the first time, whether her face changes at all. But she does seem extremely calm. I spoke with Leona [Maguire] the other day and she said all the girls pretty much know who they\u2019re playing with. It\u2019s not a pod system, and I can one hundred percent see Lottie play with another rookie because she\u2019s not your average rookie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, Davies says world rankings and experience are mere minor worries when you throw home advantage into the equation. That, she explains, is where the fans play their part.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know that if you hole a putt, the noise level and the energy goes up and that gets you going,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt an away Solheim Cup, it\u2019s the complete opposite, because you\u2019re trying to shut the crowd up \u2013 and that will be the American\u2019s job this time. They will have some fans there, but it will be overwhelmingly in favor of the European crowds, and they need to silence them. If you can just keep the keep the momentum going in your direction, the crowd get more and more into it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd sometimes you might get that extra eight inches out of a putt you might normally roll up to the hole because you\u2019re hitting them with more authority. I used to putt my best at a Solheim Cup \u2013 absolutely no question about it. It\u2019s the excitement of it. So that\u2019s your home advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for who she thinks will win, Davies was only ever going to give one answer \u2013 even if it was far more specific than we anticipated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Europe will win by a point,\u201d she says. \u201cWho\u2019s going to play late on Sunday? Someone like Carlota, so I\u2019ll say her to hole the winning putt for 14 and a half to 13 and a half win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laura Davies\u2019 Solheim Cup record<\/p>\n
No one has played in more Solheim Cup matches or put more points on the board than Laura Davies, who played her part in the victories of 1992, 2000, 2003 and 2011. Here is her full record in the blue and yellow of Team Europe\u2026<\/p>\n
YEARMATCHESTOTAL
W-L-HFOURSOMES
W\u2013L\u2013HFOURBALLS
W\u2013L\u2013HSINGLES
W\u2013L\u2013HPOINTS199032-1-01-0-00-1-01-0-02199233-0-01-0-01-0-01-0-03199431-2-01-0-00-1-00-1-01199653-2-01-1-02-0-00-1-03199853-1-11-1-01-0-11-0-03.5200041-2-11-1-00-0-10-1-01.5200252-3-01-1-01-1-00-1-02200341-2-10-0-10-2-01-0-01.5200553-2-01-1-02-0-00-1-03200742-1-10-1-01-0-11-0-02.5200920-1-10-0-00-1-00-0-10.5201131-1-10-0-01-1-00-0-11.5TOTAL4622-18-68-6-19-7-35-5-225<\/p>\n
Watch every moment of the Solheim Cup live exclusively on Sky Sports and Now from September 11-13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laura Davies was asked a number of times to take the Solheim Cup captaincy, only to repeatedly turn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-884808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/annanordqvist_pleasecredittristanjoneslet.jpg\")
European captain Anna Nordqvist played in the Solheim Cup nine times. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n