Team Europe faces tough defence against Team US

The biggest global event in women’s golf returns in 2021 as the Solheim Cup is set to tee off from the iconic Inverness Club in September.

After being cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the biennial competition that pits the best golfers from the United States against the best from Europe is back.

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The Inverness Club has hosted six men’s majors in the past and this is the first big-time women’s event to be played at the Toledo, Ohio-course. It’s a Donald Ross design, established in the early 1900s. It hosted the Drive On Championship on the LPGA Tour in 2020 as a make-up event as the Tour tried to add more tournaments to the schedule with many getting cancelled due to COVID-19. That event was won by Danielle Kang, who is one of the stars of the U.S. team.

The rest of the U.S. team is made up of a mix of the game’s top players, a few rookies, and a couple of Solheim Cup stalwarts.

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Team USA is led by world No.1 Nelly Korda who went 3-0-1 in her Solheim Cup debut in 2019. She was a perfect 2-0 with sister Jessica in the team competition and won her singles match, too. In ‘The Year of Nelly’ (she has three victories already plus won the Olympic gold medal) she should be the team’s leader, despite being only 23 years old.

Kang, Jessica Korda, Ally Ewing, Austin Ernst, Lexi Thompson, Megan Khang, Lizette Salas, and Brittany Altomare are the returning players while Jennifer Kupcho, Yealimi Noh, and Mina Harigae are the rookies.

Team USA’s captain is Pat Hurst, while her assistants are Angela Stanford, Stacy Lewis, and Michelle Wie West.

The American squad is trying to avenge a heart-breaking loss at Gleneagles in 2019.

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After the first two days of the competition (it’s a three-day affair with 36 holes of team golf the first two days followed by single matches in the final day) it was tied at 8-8 but Europe won the singles 6.5-5.5 and won the Solheim Cup for the first time since 2013.

Team Europe won all of the final three matches to win the cup, punctuated by a dramatic roll from Suzann Pettersen (who originally was an assistant captain after being away from golf for 20 months for maternity leave but got moved into a player role) to clinch the win for the Europeans. Pettersen, who is now 41, retired immediately after the event.

Pettersen is back for 2021 but as an assistant captain this time. The squad is led by Catriona Matthew with Kathryn Imrie and Laura Davies as the other assistants.

Pettersen Holes Solheim Cup Winning Putt Then Retires
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Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, who just captured the AIG Women’s Open, is one of the leaders of the team alongside Emily Kristine Pedersen (Denmark), Englishwomen Georgia Hall, Charley Hull, and Mel Reid, Carlota Ciganda (Spain), Celine Boutier (France), and Madelene Sagstrom (Sweden).

Rookies Sophia Popov (Germany), Matilda Castren (Finland), Nanna Koerstz Madsen (Denmark), and Leona Maguire (Ireland), round out the European team looking to defend its title from 2019.

The 2021 Solheim Cup starts September 4.

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