Suzann Pettersen hails "dream come true" to win the Solheim Cup with Team Europe

With the King of Spain looking on, home favourite Carlota Ciganda secured her fourth win from four matches in the penultimate singles against Nelly Korda to ensure the trophy would remain in European hands.

That sparked wild celebrations on the 17th green, which then had to be cleared to allow the final match to finish, Lexi Thompson holding her nerve to close out Emily Pedersen and make certain of the first tie in the biennial event’s history.

“Does it get any better than this?” Pettersen, who holed the winning putt at Gleneagles in 2019 before promptly announcing her retirement, said.

“I mean, this is a dream come true. We had a massive challenge ahead of us today. We’ve created history yet again in the Solheim Cup, and these girls are legends.”

Pettersen’s side had lost the opening foursomes session 4-0 on Friday morning, but won both fourball sessions 3-1 to head into the final day locked at 8-8.

Wins for Leona Maguire and Anna Nordqvist and promising positions in other matches had Europe on course for victory at one stage, but Georgia Hall and Gemma Dryburgh both surrendered good leads late on and the pendulum swung narrowly in favour of the visitors.

However, Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall, a controversial captain’s pick who had sat out the first three sessions, turned her match against Ally Ewing around with five birdies in the last six holes before Ciganda birdied the 16th and 17th to make sure of at least a tie.

“We got off to a rocky start, but I wonder if it was almost a nice wake-up call for all of us,” Pettersen admitted.

“We’ve all been on a pretty much high road for a few years now, and maybe that was a good… I believe in fate, so maybe that was meant to happen.

“I just said (to the players), you get knocked down, you stand back up. You know what, life can be tough, but it’s how you stand back up, and that shows character. I think it really shows the character of this team sitting here.

“I can sit here and talk about each and every one of them, but today, I also would like to give some extra credit to Caroline Hedwall that turned around the match.

“I feel like she had the crucial point. She teed it nicely up for Carlota to just bring it home on 16 and 17.”

Ciganda, who was disqualified from the Evian Championship earlier this year for refusing to accept a slow-play penalty, said: “I mean, obviously an amazing week for me, being in Spain.

“Very, very special to play here in front of my home crowd, family, lots of friends. It’s very special to hear my name so much on all the holes.

“I want to congratulate the whole team. It’s not just me. It’s the whole team. There’s a lot of people behind this, and I think this is a team effort, and I’m so proud of everyone here.

“Europe is always a team. We are united, we fight, and after that Friday morning, we just went out there and we knew we could do this, and I’m very proud of the whole team. So very happy.”

Pettersen and United States captain Stacy Lewis will lead their sides again in 12 months’ time as the Solheim Cup switches to even years to separate itself from the Ryder Cup, and Lewis is relishing the chance to regain the trophy.

“I don’t want to sound like a sore loser, but it was a tie and I think that’s a lot for this team to build off, especially coming over here, coming into this environment with five rookies, a very young and inexperienced team,” Lewis said.

“This week was really, really good for them. I just wanted to tell them how proud I was of them. Fortunately, we only have to wait another year to go get this thing back.”

READ MORE: A look at how Europe retained the Solheim Cup in dramatic fashion