(Update: Pepper is still causing controversy, even though now she's announcing the Solheim Cup rather than playing in it. See Chokin' Freakin' Dogs)

The Solheim Cup begins on Friday in Sweden, Team USA vs. Team Europe. It occurs to me that the Solheim Cup never had much in the way of an "age of innocence" - a time when the golfers involved said things like Trip Kuehne said at the Walker Cup:

I've no doubt that Kuehne, and most other Walker Cuppers, are sincere when they express "for the good-of-the-game" sentiments and talk about how the experience itself is more important than the score (well, OK, maybe I doubt the latter half a little bit). They're still amateurs, talking about amateur golf, and someone like Kuehne who has remained amateur has a keen appreciation for the history and traditions of the team competition.

You still occasionally hear Ryder Cup veterans say things along these lines, too (it's about sportsmanship, it's about the game of golf), but we kind of know better, right?

But the Solheim Cup seems to have gotten very serious, very fast: the teams are highly competitive and aren't afraid to go public with how much they want to crack skulls.

For a competition that began so recently (1990), there's already been a lot of controversy and a little bit of ill-will involved in the Solheim Cup.

What happened? Dottie Pepper happened.

These days Pepper is best-known as a television personality, one with a calm demeanor and measured tone, one who sometimes words her analysis strongly but more often than not chooses her words carefully.

She's come a long way from "Snottie Dottie." That's what Pepper was called by some of her peers when she first arrived on the LPGA Tour. She was also known as "Hot Pepper" for her temper and temperament. She wasn't very well-liked; to be blunt, many of her LPGA peers thought she was a jerk. (Fans always loved her, and over the course of her career she became much better-liked among her peers, too.)

She was a heck of a golfer, though. Had injuries not curtailed her career, Pepper would almost certainly have entered the Hall of Fame some day (she still finished with 17 wins and 3 majors).

The Solheim Cup debuted right around the time the Ryder Cup was starting to get very serious itself. Perhaps that contributed to the ultra-competitive tone so early in the Solheim Cup's history.

But what really stoked the competitive fires was one little word that Pepper uttered in 1994: "Yes."

Pepper and Laura Davies were in a close match that reached the 18th green. Davies had a putt she had to make to halve the match. She missed. Pepper let that word slip out - "Yes!" - as Davies' putt missed.

This breach of etiquette didn't sit well with Team Europe. Pepper has always been unapologetic. She was asked about the European reaction that year and replied, "I really don't care."

By 1998, Annika Sorenstam was using Pepper to fire up her teammates. She put Pepper's photo on a punching bag in the European team room. (You know Pepper was unpopular among the Euros when it's Annika - the epitome of class - who's doing that.) Pepper, by the way, went undefeated that year.

Mickey Walker, who captained several European squads, told Golf World that Pepper epitomized the intensity with which the players view the Solheim Cup:

So Pepper set the early tone of intensity that has carried through at the Solheim Cup, but others came along to back it up:

• 
  
• In 1998, Sorenstam was reduced to tears when American captain Pat Bradley and partners Pat Hurst and Kelly Robbins made Annika replay a shot after she'd holed out a chip. Sorenstam had played out of turn, a breach of the rules in match play, and the Americans - justifiably - called her on it. She had no choice but to replay the shot, and on the re-chip she missed.
• In 2002, European captain Catrin Nilsmark, in prematch comments, called Cristie Kerr a brat, said that Michelle Redman had no talent, and that Laura Davies was arrogant.
• During the 2002 match, Suzann Pettersen let the f-word loose on live TV in an interview on NBC.
  

And the guys talk about Ryder Cup pressure?

The Solheim Cup (like the Ryder Cup) is nothing but an exhibition. Nothing is at stake, really, except the burning desire of the competitors to win. And Dottie Pepper is the one who helped this competition get very serious, very fast.