Sweden is coming off a strong performance in the 2023 International Crown, where they overachieved in the opening round before faltering a bit with a loss to Australia in the semifinals and a loss to the United States in the third place round. Now, they come back with a younger team that has a lot of upside.
The team is led by Maja Stark, who despite winning a major this season, has been wildly inconsistent. She isn’t alone on this team, as lack of consistency is a common theme with the Swedish squad. Stark does have the win at the U.S. Women’s Open, but has also missed half of her cuts, including in four of her last five starts. She does have good match play experience, having gone 3-3-2 across two Solheim Cup appearances, but went 2-3 in the last International Crown. She should come in with more confidence and experience, plus she has a couple comfortable pairings.
Madelene Sagström is another player who had a big win at the Shadow Creek Match Play, but has only made 7/13 cuts. Sagström is a massively long hitter who can go super low when the other aspects of her game are clicking. She has shown that in her Solheim Cup career as well, which has been full of low lows and high highs. Sagström is 5-6-1 in her Solheim Cup career, but is coming off being one of the stronger competitors in 2024, going 2-1-0.
There are few players on the LPGA Tour with more pure talent than Linn Grant. The problem? You guessed it. Consistency. Grant has three top-10 finishes on the season, including at the U.S. Women’s Open, where despite leading the field in birdies, she finished T9. Grant’s Solheim Cup appearances are a mixed bag as well. In 2023, she was one of the stars of the team, going 3-2-0 and forming an electrifying partnership with Carlota Ciganda. In 2024, it was the opposite story, going 0-4-0 and often she was the victim of blowouts.
Finally we get to the rookie of the team, both in this event and on the LPGA Tour, Ingrid Lindblad. The hype was massive for Lindblad entering the Tour, after her incredible career at LSU. She got an early win at the JM Eagle LA Championship, but has struggled ever since. Lindblad has missed six cuts and only finished in the top 30 once since that win. Like all of the players on the Swedish team, the raw talent is clearly there, but it is tough to count on them on a week-to-week basis.
Sweden is fairly easily the toughest team to rank in this event. Yes, the pure, raw talent is impossible to deny. Sometimes in these events, that is all it takes to advance through the first round. It is just hard to count on any of these four players to get a point.
