By: Max Bechtoldt
Winning a major championship, specifically one played at the Old Course at St. Andrews, is obviously important for every player in the field this week, but there are a few who it means a bit more to.
On Sunday, the automatic qualifiers for the Solheim Cup will be set and the captains will make their selections. Those captain picks will be announced on Tuesday, locking in the full teams. This puts extra pressure for those on the Solheim Cup bubble.
Andrea Lee of the United States is one of those players. Currently, she holds the final qualifying position on Solheim Cup points, a position she found herself in for the final event of qualifying time last year as well. She did get through in that scenario and while the numbers aren’t impressive going 1-2-1, but she had good moments.
Those solid moments probably aren’t enough to make her an absolute lock for a potential captain’s pick, but it is reasonable to assume she will be one of the 12 players considering her points position.
Still, no player wants to leave it up to their captain to make the team. Which makes Lee’s -3 round so important. Lee currently sits at -3 with a little over half of the afternoon wave yet to finish. She is one back of leader Ruoning Yin.
Lee kept her round relatively clean with four birdies, one bogey and the rest pars. The middle of the round is where most of the action happened, with birdies on 5, 7 and 9 and a bogey on 8. She finished off her round with an easy birdie on 18.
Great ball-striking generally isn’t thought of as one of the elite ball strikers on tour, but she is quite accurate. She showed that Thursday with 13 fairways hit and 16 greens. While the afternoon wave found slightly easier wind conditions, finding the short grass was a rarity for a lot of the field today.
There’s still three rounds left, but it is looking good for the 26-year-old from Los Angeles.
