Europe's skipper Nordqvist faced intense scrutiny throughout her captaincy, especially over her faith in Woad's partnership with Charley Hull. But she was ultimately vindicated, especially with her wildcard selections, which also included veteran Leona Maguire. Between them they yielded eight and a half points, compared with five contributed by America's three captain's picks. Nordqvist's singles line-up leaned heavily on trusting youth. Of the youngsters tasting Solheim singles action for the first time only Rhodes failed to win, and it took a brilliant performance from world number one Nelly Korda to beat her on the final day. Positions six, seven and eight — Nadaud, Lopez Ramirez and Woad — held significance to the final outcome. All three delivered vital wins.

Rookie Lottie making the winning putt. It's been really fun to have them and they bring out a fresh perspective.

It fell to Woad to sink the putt that ensured Europe would win, with four matches still to be completed. Her 2&1 triumph over Auston Kim took Europe to 14 points with Carlotta Ciganda already unassailably three up. Europe were guaranteed to reach the magic number of 14½ points and there was nothing America could do about it.

All of the four I had, I never felt like they were rookies. And the first day when I send out Nastasia and Mimi a lot of people questioned why would you send out two rookies, but I said why not. And they delivered.