Golf

Team USA's Pat Hurst lobbies for more Solheim Cup captain's picks; Team Europe has six


With the COVID-19 pandemic shrinking the number of playing opportunities on the LPGA, Solheim Cup captain Pat Hurst thought changing the qualifying criteria for Team USA might be in order. She first inquired about changing the points system, but when that didn’t get far, suggested increasing the number of picks.

“I think four would be great,” said Hurst in a media round table. “I don’t know if we’ll get that.”

Currently eight players will qualify off of Solheim Cup points, two get in off the Rolex Rankings and two are captain’s picks.

The Solheim committee that makes such decisions includes LPGA commissioner Mike Whan, the chair of the board, the player president and the three previous U.S. Solheim Cup captains. The committee is expected to meet later in the year.

European Solheim Cup captain Catriona Matthew said her side has already made the change to two players from LET points, four off the Rolex Rankings and six picks. (Europe previously had four picks.)

“We just felt with the players not playing as much and kind of all the schedules being up in the air,” said Matthew, “that it was just nice to do that and give you a bit more options and what you might do going forward next year.”

Earlier this year the PGA of America announced that U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker’s picks would jump from four to six after the event was postponed one year. The men’s European Team has three wild card picks.

The 2021 Solheim Cup will be contested Sept. 4-6 in 2021 at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, three weeks ahead of the Ryder Cup and about six hours away from Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

England’s Georgia Hall won for the first time on American soil on Sunday in Portland, backing up a 2018 victory at the AIG Women’s British Open. Sophia Popov vaulted onto Matthew’s radar with her stunning victory last month at Royal Troon. She’s currently ranked 25th in the world.

On the American side, Danielle Kang, Stacy Lewis and Austin Ernst have all won since the LPGA restart.



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