Suzann Pettersen found something on a Sunday afternoon at Gleneagles that many athletes spend their entire careers dreaming of. After nearly two decades in professional golf, the Norwegian stepped onto the 18th green with the Solheim Cup on the line. She sank the winning putt, watched Europe celebrate, and then saw her husband in the crowd holding their young son, Herman. In that moment, Pettersen knew she had found the perfect ending. So, she retired.

Seven years later, the two-time major champion is stepping back into the world she left behind. She knows the game will not be as easy as it once was. At 45, Pettersen is now about to find out if she still has some of that magic left.

Pettersen is set to play this week at a $2 million championship on the Ladies European Tour (LET), and the return comes with a hard decision.

“I’m not going to come back and play a full schedule ever. That’s me being very honest. I could hardly see myself playing five or six events a year. I don’t have a category anymore where I can actually use the reasoning to see where my game is at. I fancy that a little bit if I get my hands around the game,” she said in a press conference, before explaining why she wants to do this now.

“I want to keep the game going in my body, so I haven’t played for three years, and that’s going to be a problem…”

Pettersen is set to play at the Aramco Korea Championship this week, and the event itself is a breakthrough for a low-pressure restart.

The event runs from October 8 to 11 at the New Korea Country Club and is in its third edition. This year, it will be played as a traditional 72-hole individual stroke-play event, with 108 players competing and a cut after 36 holes. Pettersen briefly returned to action in Jeddah in 2022 for a one-off event thanks to a sponsorship invitation, but this marks her proper return to competitive golf. However, this is not the first time Pettersen has taken a long break from the sport.

She spent about 20 months away after giving birth to her son in 2018. When she returned in 2019, her form was shaky. After playing only two events in two years, she missed the cut at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational and fell to No. 635 in the world.

Pettersen had also missed the cut at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. Then, she missed two of her next three LPGA cuts. Even so, Matthew gave her a captain’s stake, partly because of her record in the event.

And that pick certainly paid off at Gleneagles all those years ago. With Europe needing a final point on Sunday, Pettersen sank a 10-foot birdie putt to win her match and the cup. But soon after, she announced her retirement from the sport. She finished with an 18-12-6 Solheim Cup record, 15 LPGA Tour titles, including the 2007 LPGA Championship and 2013 Evian Championship, with 22 professional victories overall. Naturally, the news took the community off guard.

“That’s it, I’m done. I’m closing it down tomorrow. I think it’s the perfect closure; there’s no better way to end my professional career. I never thought I was going to be here four months ago until I met Beany (Catriona Matthew). So, to end it this way, that’s very special,” she said in her retirement statement.

Now, after seven years, she’s returning to Korea, where that has been an important stop for her.

She’s a two-time winner of the LPGA’s Hana Bank Championship and became the first non-Korean to win the event. One of those victories came at Mauna Ocean Golf & Resort in Gyeongju, where strong winds forced officials to cancel the final round, and she was declared champion on her 36th-hole lead.

Whether she can make a strong comeback and bag a win remains to be seen.