By: Max Bechtoldt
In 2023, the European Solheim Cup team got significantly deeper with the addition of two young Swedish superstars in the making, Maja Stark and Linn Grant. The two are back again, ready to expand on the strong legacy before them.
Grant and Stark have had wildly successful careers so far. They each have won six events on the LET and one on the LPGA Tour. The two were the Olympic representatives for Sweden at the Paris games, each their first games competing in.
For the second year in a row, Sweden is the most represented country on the European Solheim Cup team. In 2023 there were five Swedes, Stark, Grant, Madelene Sagström, Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall. This year, all but Hedwall return.
“It feels nice to have other Swedes on the team, just to chat with, to be a bit closer with,” said Grant. “Like you have things in common. You know what to talk about. You don’t always have to say every detail. You have each other.”
Grant and Stark both grew up in the tail end of Annika Sörenstam’s prime, but it isn’t just the greatest of all time who was an inspiration.
“Kind of around when we were born, you had Helen Alfredsson, Annika Sörenstam, Charlotta Sörenstam, Carin Koch,” said Stark. “You had so many people that it doesn’t feel like it’s that uncommon for so many Swedes to be here.”
To say it isn’t uncommon may be an understatement. Of the 19 European Solheim Cup teams, seven of them have been captained by Swedes. The second most behind England. In both 2013 and 2015, the captain and all assistant captains were Swedish. Nordqvist is the longest tenured player on the European team.
There isn’t any lack of confidence in Stark that her and Grant will continue the legacy from those before them, as she jokingly said about Sweden:
“Yeah, I don’t know. We’re just — we are the best. We’ve always been. We’re always going to be.”
