Mel Reid has insisted that Team Europe would have never posted a celebratory video before the Sunday singles at the Solheim Cup, as she also responded to Angela Stanford’s comments about the greens at Bernardus.
Europe have the Solheim Cup back in their possession after a 15-13 victory in the Netherlands last week. In truth, the scoreline ended up flattering Team USA, who never looked like actually winning the event during the final day’s play.
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It was something of an anticlimax given that the two teams could not be separated after either of the first two days. Having said that, Europe would have felt at the end of Saturday’s play that they should have been 9-7 ahead. However, Jennifer Kupcho made two incredible putts on the final two holes of the last match out to earn Stanford’s side a remarkable point and level things up.
Understandably, the away team were in high spirits as they made their way onto their bus. Unfortunately, a clip of Stanford presenting the team with beers to celebrate was posted on social media. It was certainly not the best look, particularly with 12 singles matches still to play. And it did come back to haunt the American team.
Mel Reid criticises the video Team USA posted during the Solheim Cup
Speaking on Quiet Please about the clip, European vice-captain Mel Reid admitted that she could not believe what she was seeing.
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“It was like they’d won the bloody thing. You can’t give a team that kind of motivation, especially the calibre of team that Europe or America is. We would never do that. Don’t post it, leave it, just have it as a special moment. No-one posted about us singing on the bus, because it was a special moment between us. People were filming it, but everyone knew not to post it. It’s a special place, a bond of trust. When we saw that, we were like, ‘that’s interesting’. It just gave us extra motivation,” she said.
“It’s just stupid. Why do that to us? It p—– us off. You can’t p— us off. Number one rule, we even said at the start of the week, number one rule, don’t purposely p— them off, don’t do stupid s—, and don’t get involved because we don’t need to give them motivation. They’re too good.”
Mel Reid reacts to Angela Stanford’s comments about the greens at Bernardus during the Solheim Cup
With team events becoming increasingly one-sided, it is often the case that the losing captain will see a number of their contentious decisions analysed in the court of public opinion.
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However, in Stanford’s case, there is arguably little that she seemed to get seriously wrong. In fact, the most bizarre decision throughout the week – golf-wise – came from her opposite number, with Anna Nordqvist putting Charley Hull and Lottie Woad out together for four successive sessions.
But Stanford did not cover herself in glory in the press conference after the Sunday singles. Stanford seemed to suggest that Europe had an advantage given how slow the greens were.
Unsurprisingly, Reid was not at all impressed by Stanford’s claims.
“The greens were slow, they were at 10.5 and Angela was like, ‘we weren’t expecting it to be that slow’. I’ll give you some inside knowledge, neither did our players. We had five days to prep, so did you,” she said.
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“She makes out that it was to benefit us, and we were like no. One was weather, we were predicted a lot of wind, so if we had it at 12, they were going to go off the green. The greens were so undulating. So that was reason number one. And reason number two, our players are used to playing on fast greens. It literally doesn’t benefit us any more than it benefits you.
“So you did have five days to prep the way that we did. Our players aren’t used to playing on greens like that either. Our players are like, ‘wow, these greens are slow’, and it’s like, ‘yeah, get used to it because they’re not getting any quicker. Deal with it’.
“If that’s what she thought, it’s not true. These are the best players in the world. I’m sorry, if you can’t get a green speed right in five days, there’s something wrong.”
Keegan Bradley bizarrely made a similar statement to explain why Europe were so much better on the soft greens at Bethpage during the 2025 Ryder Cup, conveniently overlooking that the all of Luke Donald’s team played on the PGA Tour as well.
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It was an extremely poor look for Stanford. Based on the three days’ play, she was arguably a contender to lead Team USA again at Valhalla in 2028. However, her comments on Sunday will have surely done little to help her cause if she is interested in staying on.
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