Women's golf Solheim CupEurope, in scintillating fashion, won the Solheim Cup here yesterday, demolishing the United States of America by a margin that will never properly be known.

With a brilliant display of matchplay golf, Europe took five of the top seven singles matches, enough to reach the winning mark of 14 and a half points. At that point the US had eight and a half but as word of the win spread down the field an unwelcome element of confusion crept in.

The Europeans in the five remaining matches wanted to celebrate, the Americans wanted to find a quiet corner, and the games were conceded willy-nilly.

That made the "official" score 17 and a half to 10 and a half but, by whatever method of computation, winning the Solheim means that for only the second time in history three of the four cups rest on this side of the Atlantic. The Ryder Cup was won at The Belfry in September 2002 and the Walker Cup last week at Ganton, so 2003 matches 1989, when the Ryder, Walker and Curtis Cups were held at the same time.

The winning point was gained by an unrecognisable Catriona Matthew. The North Berwick player, for whom the words "dour" and "undemonstrative" might have been coined, became a beaming, running, leaping and finally crying Scot when she had two for it from eight feet and Rosie Jones conceded the match and the cup overall.

Matthew raced across the green, where she was engulfed by team-mates, caddies and her captain, Catrin Nilsmark, who had battled through severe back pain to be as omnipresent as possible.

Matthew was two up playing the 17th and, after a good drive, knew all she had to do, essentially, was hit the green with her second. She swung and then uncharacteristically shouted "Go, go" as it was in flight. Go it did. It stopped eight feet from the hole and when Jones missed her birdie putt she was gracious enough to pick up Matthew's marker.

Matthew, like most of the team and many of the caddies, had had her hair coloured blue and yellow, appropriate for both Sweden and the EU, and despite the eight different nationalities involved, there was a real sense of "team-ship" abroad.

Another Scot, Janice Moody, led the European challenge. Moodie revels in Solheim Cups, her outgoing personality perfectly fitted to the chanting and cheering of the 50,000-strong crowd yesterday. Her opponent Kelli Kuehne, despite being of like temperament, lost the first to a birdie, then the third and fifth, and by the turn was four down.

Behind Moodie, Sophie Gustafson with no bogeys and, five birdies, was heading for a 67 or better when Heather Bowie had to give best.

Iben Tinning had played only twice before yesterday and got only a half-point, but she hit one of the shots of the week to win her game. Wendy Ward, one up playing the 17th, saw the Dane hit her second to two feet.

Then there was Annika Sorenstam, with four points from five matches, the most successful player on either side.

Patty Sheehan, the American captain, was far from happy with both the result and her European counterpart's decision to keep some of her players on the sidelines as long as possible. The Scot Mhairi McKay, Spain's Ana Belen Sanchez and the mother-to-be Patricia Meunier-Lebouc saw little action before the singles.

"I try to give all my players equal time because we're a team. I feel very strongly that that's the right thing to do," said Sheehan. "My goal is to win too, but I also feel that it's appropriate to play everybody as much as I can - because every one of my players is great. I couldn't pick a person to sit out three matches."