By: Max Bechtoldt
Believe it or not, the Solheim Cup in early September is fast approaching, and with all the majors plus the Olympics happening in the meantime, it can be easy to forget about. But team speculation is a fun aspect of women’s golf discussion. So here, I will be breaking down who I would make as a captain’s selection if the Solheim Cup were this week.
Note, I won’t be selecting any players currently qualifying. That means for the purposes of this exercise, Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Allisen Corpuz, Ally Ewing, Andrea Lee, Megan Khang, Rose Zhang and Jennifer Kupcho are all on the team.
So without further ado, these are the players I would choose to round out that Solheim Cup team:
ALISON LEE
I think Lee should be a fairly easy pick for Stacy Lewis in 2024 if she isn’t already qualifying. Though her game has slowed significantly over the last couple of months, she still had strong moments at the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024. She should be a solid chemistry piece, especially considering that she and Megan Khang have played in the Dow Championship together. Lee is ranked No. 18 in the Rolex Rankings and is gaining strokes everywhere except the putting green. She’s a really good ball striker who should contribute both on the golf course and in the team room.
LEXI THOMPSON
I think you have to take Thompson, and Stacy Lewis has already heavily alluded to her having a spot on the team. This will be Thompson’s last chance at a Solheim Cup considering her impending retirement, but that won’t be the only reason she is on the team. In 2023 she had her best Solheim Cup performance of her career, and there are a lot of options to choose from. She’s played in six cups, with a career 9-7-7 record, but she went 3-1-0 in 2023. 2024 has gotten off to a similarly slow start for Thompson as 2023, but that didn’t stop her from having a good event last year.
CHEYENNE KNIGHT
This is an almost impossible choice between Knight, Alexa Pano and Lauren Coughlin. I think you could make a strong argument for any of the three, with Pano being the future, Coughlin being the current best player and Knight having strong past results. I went for the strong past results. Knight didn’t have a loss in the 2023 Solheim Cup, going 2-0-1, and her halve was a really strong finish against Dryburgh. Knight won a match in both foursomes and four ball and also was a winner at the 2023 Dow Championship. She is clearly strong at partner golf, and nobody else is playing well enough to jump her in my opinion. Europe has built this mini dynasty by picking experience and match play ability over current results, I think team USA could follow that lead.
