What makes Solheim Cup's match play so compelling?

May 6—The final hour of the 2019 Solheim Cup encapsulated why match play is so compelling.

The American and European teams each thought victory was theirs, delivering a spellbinding series of events that culminated with two players in the final group of the three-day tournament having Cup-clinching putts on the 18th green.

Marina Alex's 10-foot attempt slid by.

Suzann Pettersen's 8-footer found the center of the cup.

A European victory in the most dramatic of fashion.

"There are wild emotional swings," said Toledo native Jerry Lemieux, a USGA rules official who's officiating the Walker Cup at Seminole this week, a biennial match play event between the top male amateurs from the United States, and Great Britain and Ireland.

All of the hoopla, tension, passion, and pluck is coming to Toledo on Labor Day weekend. The Solheim Cup, a golf tournament mimicking a rock concert, will feature a rollercoaster of emotions, with each shot eliciting a reaction from the crowd as roars reverberate across Inverness.

"There are always only four groups at a time. It's like an amoeba," Solheim Cup director Becky Newell said. "People are lining up. It's exciting. I think back to when Suzann Pettersen made that historic putt and secured the Solheim Cup for team Europe, I was standing at least 10 people deep jumping in the air just to see what was going on. Just wearing your colors and supporting your team and the camaraderie across the golf course."

Match play differs significantly from stroke play in that each hole is a competition as opposed to adding up a total score after 18 holes. Whoever wins the most holes, wins the match. A player can record a 10 on a hole or shoot an 80 to their competitor's 70, but if they win more holes, the point is all theirs.

"It's the oldest part of golf," Lemieux said. "Stroke play rules didn't appear until 100 years after the introduction of the game. For people who watch golf, you're playing a single 18-hole or 72-hole contest. It's a big field and everyone is playing everybody else. But in match play, it's really 18 one-hole contests."

The Solheim Cup, Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, U.S. Amateur, British Amateur, Walker Cup, and Curtis Cup, among golf's oldest and most prestigious events, are all match play.

Inverness is no stranger to the format. The Inverness Invitational Four-Ball was a PGA Tour event in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s featuring two-man teams playing four-ball matches. The winning names read like a Hall of Fame roll call: Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Walter Hagen, Roberto De Vicenzo, Jimmy Demaret, Horton Smith, Henry Picard, Ralph Guldahl, Lloyd Mangrum, Lawson Little.

In 1973, Craig Stadler won the U.S. Amateur at Inverness. Texas A&M was crowned the first NCAA champion of the match-play era at Inverness in 2009. A decade later, Preston Summerhays won the U.S. Junior Amateur at the venerable Dorr Street course.

Some of golf's most defining moments have occurred in match play competitions: Pettersen's heroics at the 2019 Solheim Cup, Justin Leonard's putt at the 1999 Ryder Cup, the entirety of the 1991 Ryder Cup, Tiger Woods' triumphs at the U.S. Amateur, Hagen's 22-match win streak in the PGA Championship.

The go-for-broke element encourages players to be aggressive, resulting in tremendous shots under pressure. The anxiety associated with match play and playing for one's home country has also produced some of golf's most infamous shots.

"When you officiate these events, everybody is really chatty about the first nine holes," Lemieux said. "Then you get to the back nine and it gets quieter. You see people strain more and hit shots they wouldn't normally hit. They're backing off putts two or three times. It's palpable."

Mark Calcaveechia's meltdown at the 1991 Ryder Cup, highlighted by a cold shank into the water on No. 17, remains an indelible image. On the second day of the 2017 Solheim Cup, Jodi Ewart Shadoff hit her opening drive well right and found the water, a shot that a pro wouldn't hit absent the nerves.

"The pressure is so much more amplified at the Solheim Cup," Alex said. "I would assume it's similar to being in contention to win a major championship. That whole element wasn't overwhelming, but it was definitely something I didn't have a handle on. I don't think it was a situation where I made an error to lose, it was more like I was outplayed."

What quickly becomes noticeable is the strategy, deviating greatly from stroke play. Putts can be conceded. The order of play is important. Players often make decisions based on their opponent.

In the 1994 Open Championship, Jesper Parnevik, leading by two shots on the 18th hole, failed to check a scoreboard. He played the hole aggressively thinking that he needed a birdie to win. Instead, he bogeyed. Combined with Nick Price's miracle 50-foot eagle putt on No. 17 and par on No. 18, Parnevik lost by a stroke.

The mistake would be impossible to make in match play.

"It's much more intimate in terms of knowing each other's score and the strategy of play," Lemieux said. "It's a fun way to play golf."