Suzann Pettersen sits down with TG to discuss her defining Solheim Cup moments – and not being involved in the 2026 matches in the Netherlands…

In an adult life inextricably linked with battles against the United States, Suzann Pettersen has managed to conjure feelings of resentment, redemption and deep satisfaction. She is the Solheim Cup’s most defining figure but also the most controversial, having stirred moments of implausible drama in European colors that have helped the matches blossom into the unmissable showpieces they are today.

It has been a quarter of a century, however, since Pettersen was the outsider. Nine times a player and twice a captain, the fiery Norwegian will be on the sidelines this week for the first time since her 2002 Solheim Cup debut. That, Pettersen admits, is taking some getting used to.

“I’m there to do some corporate stuff,” she tells TG ahead of Europe’s trip to Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands. “I’m there to indirectly to support Team Europe. I definitely wouldn’t miss it for anything. But it’s been very odd, to be honest. I’m going down there and I think that’s what is really going to hit me, that I’m absolutely not inside the ropes in an official capacity. It is really weird.”

Away from the course, Pettersen is a personable and warm character who now mixes her time between being a mother and running the female-focused VOXA management agency. Now seven years removed from competing, she insists her ferocious edge will never disappear and nothing stokes the flames for Pettersen quite like this often-combustible contest.

“I really feel like Solheim helped define me as a player,” the two-time major champion explains. “The bigger the moments, the bigger the occasion, the better I got. I always found something in my game to go out there and trust my skills and give it my all. For me, it was a deciding factor to make me realize that I belonged with the best players in the world.”

Pettersen has a compelling claim for the most epic retirement in golf history. Four years on from an infamous and explosive episode that descended into open acrimony and threatened to end her career, Pettersen produced the ultimate mic-drop moment when she walked away on her own terms after holing the winning putt for Europe in 2019 at Gleneagles.

Pettersen’s cathartic moment in Scotland resonated because of the high drama that had preceded it. “I don’t know if deep down inside that what happened was my own personal revenge to overcome all the emotions that came in the tailwind of [2015]. It could have been a nice way to show [that] this is how I want [my] Solheim to be remembered.”

Few golf fans, though, will forget the theatre of “Gimme-gate” in 2015, when Pettersen enforced a penalty on rookie Alison Lee for unknowingly picking up her ball on the 17th green before a two-foot putt had been conceded. Europe were awarded the hole and went on to win their match. But Lee and Pettersen’s playing partner Charley Hull were reduced to tears in the chaos and the backlash only grew after the Americans chaneled their fury into a rousing comeback to win from 10-6 behind.

Pettersen’s immediate lack of contrition led to widespread condemnation – including Solheim Cup legend Laura Davies who, covering the event for Sky Sports, said she was “disgusted” before adding: “How Suzann can justify that I will never, ever know. She has let herself and her team down. I’m so glad I’m not on that team.”

Pettersen admits it was “definitely not a high emotionally”.

She continued: “[It was] unfortunate from everyone’s side. I was younger, Charley was very young. Even the American players were fairly young at the time. I think the entire game of golf learned a lot from that incident. I definitely learned my lesson. Golf is bigger than any of us together. At that point of the match I still think it was crucial point. It was tough.”

When asked if she still reflects on the incident or indeed if she would have done anything differently, Pettersen lets out a sly grin. “I still don’t give an inch,” she says. “I’m just joking.”

Pettersen did later apologize and says the distasteful aftermath “almost killed” her desire to compete again, but there will be never be an outpouring of regret about the controversy. “There’s not much to say about it but I wouldn’t want any of my close friends or even my feistiest competitors to have to go through something like that,” she says. “It got a lot uglier than it had to be. And I think a lot of it had to do with social media and kind of the power that social media now has.”

It is remarkable that she got her shot at redemption. In 2017, an injured Pettersen was appointed an assistant for Annika Sorenstam in a comprehensive away defeat at Iowa. “I remember walking around the property and there were still some comments flying around from fans from what happened two years earlier,” she recalls. “But by then I was literally done with that.”

Ahead of the 2019 matches, Pettersen was once again named vice-captain, this time by Catriona Matthew. She was 635th in the world rankings and fresh from a career break having started a family. “For me to picture myself being a player on the team was never a reality until literally a month or two out,” she says. “It was always more of an internal joke that when we talked about potential picks and captains’ picks, my name was thrown into the hat by Laura Davies and some others.

“But the closer we got and the more I played, I didn’t feel like my game was too far out. So when Beanie [Matthew] asked me straight off, ‘Are you ready?’ I had to be honest with myself. Would my game be at the level I needed it to be? I was keen to prove to myself that I could get myself back to the highest level.

“I don’t think I would ever be able to live with myself if I knew I never gave it a shot. It would just kill me, even up to this day. Once that putt dropped, it was like I had proven to myself that I checked that off the list. Yes, I got my game back.”

It was also the perfect time for Pettersen to step away.

“I remember walking down the 18th on Sunday telling myself, ‘I’m getting too old for this’. I’m getting too many grey hairs from the stress. But it was huge fun, great memories. I have no regrets.

“I still love the game. I still play a lot. But I had nothing more to prove to myself to have to come back and be on the golf course. Now I just do it from pure joy. I think the competitive edge inside of you never really dies. So the more you get back into it, you always wonder how much time do I have to see how good I can be again? But that’s more from my own personal story.”

Pettersen was the villain who lived long enough to be the hero. For so long a catalyst of rocketing Solheim Cup intrigue, Pettersen will now be among the galleries supporting her captaincy successor and great friend Anna Nordqvist in another close showdown anticipated at Bernardus.

Nordqvist, who shocked many by announcing her own retirement before this contest, is a close confidant of Pettersens and the pair have had multiple conversations in the build-up to this 20th renewal. She is unlikely to rule with the same fervor that Pettersen brought to her her two-match reign, which began with the elation of a comeback on home soil in 2023 and ending with defeat in Washington a year later. But Pettersen says the pair are bound by their passion for the European cause.

“Anna is obviously a little bit more quieter than me,” Pettersen explains. “I can be a bit more loud in everyone’s face. I just know Anna is very prepared. She’s been going through plan A, B, C, D and E a hundred times, which you have to do. And I think the most difficult part is now done.

“She’s already unfortunately given the few players that didn’t make the team that notice, which is probably one of the toughest parts. Because you’re literally killing someone’s dream, right? And someone who could be very, very close, you just take a knife and you stab it in their heart and twist it. It’s brutal when you kind of feel like you crushed people’s dream.”

Captains live and die by their selection decisions and Pettersen’s run ended on a sour note when she was criticized by one of her star players, Leona Maguire, after benching the Irishwoman in 2024.

“I was 4-0 down in Spain and it was pretty bad in Washington,” Pettersen recalls. “When you fall that far behind, you literally have to play with your best players. You don’t have the time to juggle players find something special there and then. It’s tough. There are 12 players on the team. 

“The first two days, there are only eight players playing. I think that’s the beauty of the European team. The team comes first. This is not about the egos. The ego falls in your pocket and out comes what’s best for the team. If you can get everyone on board, driving towards that kind of mindset, it makes your job as a captain a lot easier.”

Pettersen is predicting another close contest at Bernardus and has urged Hull, now an eight-time veteran, to “step up and be the main character” of a European team that is otherwise lacking in experience. “I definitely think Europe is going to come out on top,” she says. “I think that’s a no-brainer. I’m super excited.

“In the beginning of my Solheim journey in 2002, I don’t think you really know what you’re up for until you’re actually standing there on Friday morning and it all hits you.

“Either you’ve got to embrace it and love it, or you’re going to hate it. It’s kind of up to you. This is the biggest stage in golf.”