Pettersen insists it was a necessary intervention, despite the seeds of the fightback having already been sown by winning the afternoon session. “I feel like the players were waiting for that speech,” said the 42-year-old from Oslo.
“It was like I’d been too nice to them earlier in the week and finally I had showed up with the feistiness, the fighting spirit that I kind of had through my playing career.”
All was quiet when Pettersen, her husband Christian and her vice-captain Davies left the golfers to attend a news conference. “We walked out the room and it was dead silence after she finished,” Davies said.
“And she asked ‘was that too much?’ And her husband Christian said ‘no that was brilliant, I really enjoyed it’. That was the point where the girls realised that they’re not just there for a fun week, they are there to try to win this thing.”
The following morning’s foursomes session was shared before Carlotta Ciganda and Linn Grant dramatically closed out a 2&1 fourball win over Danielle Kang and two-time major winner Lilia Vu to level the overall score at eight-all heading into the final day.
Fortune fluctuated throughout an enthralling denouement, but again Europe appeared beaten when they trailed 13-11 and Caroline Hedwall seemed to be headed for defeat against Ewing as they started to come down the closing stretch.
Pettersen was convinced her team would come up half a point short of the 14 required to retain the trophy. But, three down, Hedwall canned a monster putt on the 13th and it proved the catalyst.
The Swede won the last three holes to secure the vital point that meant Ciganda had the chance to complete the job by beating Nelly Korda. The Spaniard birdied the 16th to go one up and her breathless captain issued another telling message.
“I just looked at her and said, ‘is this how you wanted it?'” Pettersen revealed. “‘All in your hands, in Spain, at home, with this crowd watching. It’s all yours, so here you go. It’s on a silver plate, show me what you are made of.'”
Ciganda duly obliged, nearly holing her tee shot at the par-three 17th to claim the point that meant Europe could not be beaten. “That was very special,” the Spanish star told the programme.
“I was very inspired by her and it was an amazing moment for me.”
It capped an extraordinary three days that – from a European perspective – had begun in such an unpromising way. Pettersen’s heated words on the Friday evening proved pivotal in providing one of the great golf stories of the year.
“It almost made it sweeter that we could pull it off after such a rough start,” she said. “It was a huge team effort to get everyone on board and turn the ship around.”
