Solheim Cup - The Teams

In about seven weeks, the U.S. and Europe will stage their bi-annual match-play competition known as the Solheim Cup.  Europe gets to host this time around and Killeen Castle in Ireland will be the venue.

Ten of the U.S. team's twelve members are selected via a points system.  With only one event remaining (Safeway) before the team is announced, these are the nine players who are assured of making the team:

Cristie Kerr, Morgan Pressel, Stacy Lewis, Angela Stanford, Paula Creamer

Michelle Wie, Brittany Lincicome, Brittany Lang, Juli Inkster

Inkster is a lock because there are not two players close enough to her total of 188.5 who could both pass her.  The Safeway winner will receive 60 points and the runner-up will get 30.  Juli could fall to tenth place should Christina Kim, Katie Futcher or Kristy McPherson win but none of them could catch her by finishing second.  This has added importance because about three weeks ago, Inkster announced she would play Solheim only if she qualified on points.  She had previously maintained that she would only appear as an assistant to Captain Rosie Jones.

Futcher, McPherson and Vicky Hurst could steal the final automatic spot by winning Safeway.  Kim could overcome a Hurst victory by also finishing sixth or better but Christina wouldn't be able to overcome a win by Futcher or McPherson.  Also - if Kim finishes outside the Top 20, Futcher would take the spot by finishing tenth or better and McPherson would take it by finishing eighth or better.  If both Katie and Kristy surpass those barriers, McPherson would need to finish at least two positions ahead of Futcher to beat her out.

Since Christina has a decent hold on the final position, let's assume she retains it and focus on who the two Captain's picks should be.  The next ten players in the points standings are Futcher, McPherson, Hurst, Wendy Ward, Pat Hurst, Natalie Gulbis, Stacy Prammanasudh, Amanda Blumenherst, Paige Mackenzie and Heather Bowie Young.  Previous captains have tended to pick players from this group who have been playing the best of late.  Based purely on this season's performances, my system rates Mackenzie, Futcher and Gulbis the highest with Prammanasudh a close fourth.  Pressed to choose from these, I would certainly select Futcher and probably take Mackenzie.  Paige only has one Top 10 this year and has missed two cuts but has three other Top 20 finishes.  If she and Futcher were the Captain's picks, they would be the only Solheim rookies besides Stacy Lewis.  The automatic qualifiers already have plenty of positive Cup experience so while the other choices may have Solheim experience - especially Gulbis and Pat Hurst - I'll take the better recent performers.  Pending the outcome at Safeway, of course.

There is one other eligible player whom I have rated even higher than Mackenzie or Futcher - Ryann O'Toole.  In six starts this year, O'Toole has missed one cut and only finished better than T32 one time - but that was ninth place at the U.S. Open.  While I believe my system has Ryann's 2011 performance rated fairly, I would hesitate to make a rookie with so few starts a Solheim team member.

Team Europe will be announced on Monday August 29 following the publication of the weekly Rolex Rankings.  The team will consist of the top four players on the LET Solheim points rankings, the top remaining four players from the Rolex Rankings and four at-large picks by Captain Alison Nicholas.  At the moment, the first four are Laura Davies, Melissa Reid, Christel Boeljon and Suzann Pettersen while the second four are Maria Hjorth, Anna Nordqvist, Catriona Matthew and Sophie Gustafson.