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By Iain Carter
BBC golf correspondent
There has been so much to observe in a stunning European Solheim Cup success that generated iconic golf memories that will last a lifetime.
As the Scottish sun shone and Suzann Pettersen cast a shadow on Gleneagles’ 18th green the sport couldn’t have asked for a much better orgasm.
This is a women’s sporting event which had created huge crowds and those 90,000 crowds were rewarded with spine-tingling sporting drama.
This thrilling denouement sits with people we recall in Ryder Cups at Medinah (2012), Oak Hill (1995) along with Kiawah Island (1991) as well as the Solheim success at Killeen Castle at 2011.
Really the parallels with that victory in Ireland are difficult to ignore. Europe needed to acquire the 3 singles matches as Catriona Matthew’s team needed to in Scotland on Sunday.
We wondered what it might mean to women’s golf in Europe going forward when the dust settled on that victory eight years ago. Could it be the catalyst to reinvent the Ladies European Tour?
The response was shown to be a resounding’no’, in the United States a couple of decades after despite a record-breaking 18-10 win.
In the past decade that the LET has contracted to an extent which its players struggle to make a living. So it would be naive to think that the victory in Gleneagles will immediately make material difference to women’s golf clubs in Europe.
But here’s a golden opportunity for the sport to develop and develop. Anyone who watched the ebbs and flows along with Pettersen’s putt that preceded it will know about the capacity of the sport.
Here’s a little time to capitalise and make the heroines of the success figures within the sporting firmament of Europe. It is the least they deserve.
Pettersen provided the greatest sporting fairytale. She threatens to return to retirement later becoming a mom for the very first time having hardly played for the last two years.
The Norwegian heads back to the shadows but for radically holding her nerve on that last 21, using legendary status.
She is surely a future Solheim skipper – even for the decoration defence in just two decades’ time? Equally, a second crack may be fancied by Matthew.
She was an excellent leader, although quietly going about her organization. It was a huge call, despite insisting it was never a gamble to select Pettersen for a Solheim Cup.
To parachute at a golfer that had so little competition required courage – but it was an inspired move.
Her selection also exemplifies a lack of strength in depth near the peak of the game. This leave Pettersen’s putt insignificant and would have become the subject of the post mortems’d Marina Alex birdied the last for the Americans.
These will be the margins that are fine. The US beginner missed her putt, Pettersen pounced and Europe’s leading women can devote nursing hangovers.
The kind of both Georgia Hall and Celine Boutier (another inspired wildcard) who won four matches from four provide further cause for celebration – especially for the English player, who has struggled for much of the season.
This was a massive week for the 23-year-old from Bournemouth, who tenaciously reminded us title.
Gleneagles may establish a career turning point that puts her back on track.
Her compatriot Bronte Law is yet another who can power on from this succeed. Already genuine steel was shown by a winner in the LPGA Tour on her introduction to catch the win that set up the enormous second of Pettersen.
These triumphs provide cause for optimism, however the game of the women must address its rate of play to get any chance of flourishing.
Amid the celebratory scenes it would be simple for the unhappy six-hour rounds on Saturday day to disappear in the memory, but they shouldn’t.
Yes states were brutal, however, there was still no excuse.
The men’s European Tour states LET and the LPGA have to get ahead of this game although it is getting tough on the sluggish trainers, there are potential moves too about the PGA Tour.
Referees have to authorities pace of play with penalties for people who take long because they are destroying the spectacle. And Gleneagles Sunday proved golfing – and women’s golf particularly – is highly watchable.
This creates opportunities build the sport to detain decrease and take advantage of this developing movement for feminine sport.
But if the action is permitted to stay as turgidly slow because it was in the Friday and Saturday fourball sessions golf does not have any chance of capitalising.
That would be a travesty in the wake of a milestone victory like the one we’ve just witnessed.
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