CROMVOIRT, Netherlands — Lindy Duncan dreamed of a week like this, and it’s finally here. The 35-year-old LPGA veteran who almost quit golf a few years back, teed it up for the first time in the Solheim Cup during Friday’s morning foursomes matches.
Duncan is the oldest player on the U.S. team and the second-oldest player in this year’s matches. But unique to her circumstances is that she’s the oldest rookie playing for the Americans since 2000. Duncan’s career has had its share of struggles, and that’s what makes this dream realized—which was hatched more than a decade ago—even sweeter.
“I think when I was an early professional, probably 25-26 years old, that felt like the ultimate goal to be one of the best Americans to play in Solheim,” Duncan said. “I don’t know there’s a specific moment. I’ve watched it on TV and felt like ‘gosh, I’ve got to be there.’ I’ve just got to get a little bit better. There’s so many good things that come with getting better. And that was my mindset.”
Duncan was paired with Andrea Lee and hung in there until the final hole of their match before falling to Leona Maguire and Esther Henseleit, 2 up. Down 2 with a few holes left in the match, Lee told Duncan that their goal was to take them to 18.
U.S. captain Angela Stanford made the American pairing for a couple of reasons.
“For us to get Lindy out there in her first match, Andrea is very steady,” Stanford said. “Andrea’s one of the best drivers of the golf ball on the tour. To get Lindy out there with her and have some steadiness, that was key. And just their demeanor, they’re both pretty even-keeled. Andrea now, I kind of see her as a veteran. Get Lindy out there and get her feet wet. The way Lindy matches up with Andrea, statistically, was really good. We felt like that would be a really good combination.
The atmosphere around the first tee was hopping on Friday, with a DJ and vocal fans filling the grandstands at 8 a.m. Duncan’s mom was in there cheering for her daughter as well as other American fans.
“It was totally surreal. Unlike anything I’ve experienced with all the people and the fans chanting,” said Duncan, the only potentially comparison being when she played on the U.S. Curtis Cup team in 2012. “It was so cool to play alongside Andrea and Esther and Leona. We had a great time. The bounces just didn’t quite go our way today.”
Duncan was not out in the afternoon’s four-ball matches, but she has said she’ll fill whatever role she’s asked, including hype woman, and play with anyone. Her career has been defined by grit and determination, which Stanford has said she loves.
“I sure hope it’s an advantage, because I know what it feels like to struggle with golf, and to not have the results that you want, and at the end of the day, a bad day of golf is just that. It’s just a bad day of golf,” Duncan said on the eve of the Solheim Cup. “We have the next hole. And it’s just all about how you bounce back and persevere.
“I also feel if we’re in a good flow to just let it out and play freely, because, and I think I can speak for the other girls on the team, that’s actually what we want. Play freely and have fun with each other. Soak up this amazing experience that doesn’t come around that often.”
Had Duncan quit the sport, she’d be missing out on a week of fun, games, bonding with her teammates and hair and makeup artists. Duncan loved the gala earlier this week, especially because she didn’t have to worry about hair and makeup. On the eve of the Solheim Cup at Duncan was mic’d up for the tour’s social media content.
When Stanford made Duncan one of her three captain’s picks, it was because of two main things.
“With Lindy, my two big things going to Europe are putting and chemistry,” Stanford said. “Lindy has proven to be one of our best putters, if you line her up against the other 11. Putting was important. She edged out the other ones we were looking at. Then, just her awareness. I think when it comes to chemistry, people can miss this about team rooms, but you think that everybody is just going to be loud. You need those people that are aware enough to know their place in the room. Lindy is going to be really good at that. I think she’s going to be a nice addition in the team room.”
While having held a tour card since 2016, Duncan is still searching for her first career win and has 15 career top-10s. She won last year’s Heather Farr Perseverance Award and gave a heartwarming speech. She made five consecutive cuts coming into the Netherlands after disappointing missed cuts in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the Amundi Evian Championship.
She surely showed Stanford what she needed in playing well leading up to Stanford making her picks after the FM Championship in Boston.
The LPGA Tour posted a video of the meeting between the two when Stanford acted like she was about to deliver bad news. It took Duncan a while for everything to sink in and the emotions came out when Duncan called her mom.
“The immediate emotion was a little bit shocked. I went into it feeling like it wasn’t maybe going to go my way because the setting felt very serious,” Duncan said. “It seemed like I was pulled away from everybody in case it was bad and I was going to be pretty upset. If it hadn’t happened, I would’ve been pretty upset.
“I was very nervous for the weeks leading up to the qualifying period. I felt I was playing really well but I was so, so nervous. It was on my mind a lot. It’s very hard to play golf when you have any kind of weight. I had a really cool moment talking to my mom after the selection and we got a little emotional because she’s seen it all.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
