Shirtless caddies, a karaoke machine and Barack Obama: Team USA’s keys to Solheim Cup glory

Stacy Lewis had put on a brave face for her players but, some 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, with her young daughter dozing on her lap, the dam finally broke.

Stacy Lewis had put on a brave face for her players but, some 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, with her young daughter dozing on her lap, the dam finally broke. Team USA’s captain had a long flight home to stew on defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory at last year’s Solheim Cup in Spain, as Europe staged a stunning late fightback to reel in a young American side and retain the trophy. Perhaps inevitably, then, rumination eventually gave way to uncontrollable sobbing. “I just lost it,” Lewis told CNN’s Patrick Snell. “We did all this work and we didn’t win. What has been driving me from then on was, ‘How do we change this? How do we make sure we get them across the finish line?’” Exactly a year on, Lewis has the answers to both questions, and they range from karaoke machines to dinners with former US presidents. The former world No. 1 guided her squad to a cathartic triumph in Gainesville, Virginia last Sunday, the host winning 15½ - 12½ over Europe at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club to end a seven-year wait to hoist the Solheim Cup.