If U.S. Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis stepped into Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va., today for the rematch against Europe after it retained the Solheim Cup in Spain, her roster would look similar to the one she had last week. With a season of points already being earned, Lewis’ nine automatic qualifiers would all be members of her ’23 roster, although they are not the same nine as this year’s Cup.
“Fortunately, we only have to wait another year to go get this thing back,” Lewis said.
With the 2024 Solheim Cup less than a year away, Americans have already been accumulating points since the start of this season at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, which will continue through the end of the qualifying period, which has not yet been announced.
The 2024 system will use the same automatic qualifying categories as 2023, with seven players off a points list, two off the Rolex Women’s World Rankings, and three captain’s picks. Unsurprisingly, the two American major champions from this year, Lilia Vu (992) and Allisen Corpuz (866), are atop the points list. Nelly Korda (725), Megan Khang (667), Ally Ewing (591), Angel Yin (564) and Andrea Lee (394) round out the current top seven. That group, led by Khang’s 3½-point performance at Finca Cortesin, combined to go 12-12-3.
The closest chasers are all fellow ’23 Solheim Cup players, as Nos. 8-10 are held by Cheyenne Knight (386), Jennifer Kupcho (381) and Rose Zhang (322), respectively. Danielle Kang (295) remains in striking distance of a points position in 12th place, while Lexi Thompson’s 39 points hide how crucial she was to the Americans in Spain, scoring the second-most points for the U.S. with a 3-1-0 week.
There is minimal movement in the two Rolex Women’s World Ranking spots, which makes sense given there have only been two tournaments between the end of the 2023 U.S. team qualification period and the Solheim Cup. Thompson (26) holds the first-world ranking spot, with Kupcho (29) taking the second one. Zhang (32) and Kang (34) are nearby.
Then Lewis will have her three captain’s picks, with her analytics already showing a deft hand in who to select, as her three picks in Spain—Ewing, Yin, and Knight—combined to go 5-4-1. With Lewis’ system no longer just theoretical in determining who should partner with whom, the captain would likely be happy to have a similar group again.
“We now have some pairings actually going forward,” Lewis said. “There’s no trial-and-error again going into ’24.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
