Solheim Cup challengers say Rich Harvest Farms course has it all

She sits among acres and acres of sprawling land, with a handful of ponds stocked with fish and a spick-and-span garage furnished with collectible sports cars and other vintage automobiles.

She boasts a horse farm, a plantation house, breathtaking cottages and so many things to do that the Solheim Cup players might not want to their leave their "campus," as they call it, after this weekend.

"It's really beautiful, this whole area," said Natalie Gulbis of the U.S. Team. "Everywhere you look, it's just really, really pretty."

And she - Rich Harvest Farms, that is - is quite the attractive golf course.

"Mr. Rich did a wonderful job," Michelle Wie, Gulbis' teammate, said of Rich Harvest Farms owner/course architect Jerry Rich. "I don't know how he made the golf course and figured it out. I think it's a lot of fun."

When the biennial Solheim Cup commences its three-day match play tournament Friday morning in Sugar Grove, players from the American and European squads will get to experience a par-73 golf course that promises to challenge them.

"Depending on pin placement, pars are good scores," American Kristy McPherson said. "I think 17 is going to be a key hole out here, which is a long hole."

The par-4 17th features a narrow green with a carry over water that protects the green. Players can make a splash there, or maybe watch their ball splash.

"I think throughout the week you'll see a lot of excitement on 17," McPherson said, "and maybe some of the matches ending there."

Another U.S. teammate, Brittany Lang, agrees:

"It's a very fair course. There's a lot of holes where you can capitalize and make birdies and hit 8iron, whatever, something like that," Lang said. "I'm not as long as Michelle (Wie), but I'm probably 10 yards behind her - a fairly long hitter - and I'm hitting driver, 3- and 4iron into some of these greens maybe four times throughout a round.

"Most of the other girls are hitting 3woods or 3irons, so I think it's a fair course. It's definitely a good challenge, sloping greens and the rough."

One advantage to playing a private course and one that is as exclusive as Rich Harvest Farms is that the course doesn't get the amount of heavy traffic that a public facility does. Fewer golfers on a course mean fewer spike marks on greens.

"The course is great," Suzann Pettersen of the European Team said. "It's in very, very good shape. Obviously there hasn't been too many players out here before we got here. There's only 50 members here."

Heavy rains soaked the course Monday. If more rain hits the area, that will make the 6,670-yard layout even longer, and that might benefit the Europeans.

"If it stays wet, it's going to play long, which I think is good for us," Pettersen said. "We have a lot of good ball strikers on our team. We can hit the ball high and soft and kind of shape it both ways."

Not so fast, say the Americans.

"It is drying out," veteran Juli Inkster of the U.S. Team said Tuesday. "They've got some good holes out there. But they're the type of holes you've got to shape the shot. The Europeans have a very long team. They all hit the ball, and most of them hit the ball extremely long. So it would probably favor them on the par 5s. But we've got a few girls that can bomb it too."

Ultimately, Rich Harvest Farms is like all courses in that conquering it will require sinking putts.

"It's a pretty wide-open golf course," American Paula Creamer said. "You miss the fairways, you're in very thick rough. These greens are humongous."

And so is Rich Harvest Farms.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=314617">Tuesday images from the Solheim Cup </a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=314310">Monday images from the Solheim Cup </a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/multimedia/?category=18&type=video&item=2">Solheim Cup After Sundown party </a></li> </ul> <h2>Related links</h2> <ul class="moreWeb"> <li><a href="/packages/2009/solheimcup/">Complete Daily Herald coverage of the Solheim Cup</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>