Golf-U.S. team put right a Solheim Cup wrong, says Lewis

By Tony Jimenez ST LEON-ROT, Germany, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. were galvanised into putting right a Solheim Cup wrong, said Stacy Lewis after her team mates rallied from 10-6 down to secure a remarkable 14-1/2 points to 13-1/2 victory over Europe on Sunday. The Americans were left seething earlier in the day when Alison Lee and Brittany Lincicome lost to Suzann Pettersen and Charley Hull by two holes in the morning fourballs carried over from Saturday. With the fourball match all square, rookie Lee mistakenly believed her tiny 16-inch putt at the 17th had been conceded by her opponents and picked the ball up, leaving the referee no choice but to award the hole to the Europeans. American Paula Creamer told reporters golf was "about sportsmanship and unfortunately that was not shown there". Team mate Lewis agreed, adding: "I think the motivation (for the fightback) came from what happened to Alison this morning. "All of us are really protective of her this week and we wanted her to have a good experience," added Lewis after losing 2 and 1 to Sweden's Anna Nordqvist in the final singles session of the biennial team event. "When that happened to her we all jumped in there and said we've got to change this, we've got to right a wrong and I think that's where a lot of the motivation came from." U.S. captain Juli Inkster admitted she was "mad" at the time of the Lee incident but was equally keen to push the issue to one side once the dust had settled. "I don't really want to get into it, I think it's over with," said Inkster. "My team played great this afternoon. We did what we needed to do. I was just disappointed they took away the opportunity for Alison and Brittany to even have a chance to win their match." Inkster said it was "an incredible feeling" to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. "These 12 ladies never gave up, they played with class and integrity and with heart and fire in their bellies," she added. "I think maybe that (incident) just lit the fire a little bit more and I think in their bellies they just wanted to do a little bit more, and that little bit more got us the Solheim." (Editing by Pritha Sarkar)