Since the last time the Solheim Cup was played in 2021 at Inverness Club, Europeans and Americans have dominated the LPGA Tour. Of the 24 competing this week as the biennial event comes to Finca Cortesin, 16 have won on the LPGA in that time, with nine of them combining for 13 wins on the LPGA Tour this season. They include major winners Lilia Vu (Cheveron and AIG Women’s Open), Celine Boutier (Amundi Evian) and Allisen Corpuz (U.S. Women’s Open).
“I can’t remember another time, another year, where so many Americans and Europeans were winning leading up to the Solheim Cup,” U.S. assistant captain Angela Stanford said. “I can’t remember a time where it just felt like all year long it was back and forth.”
The American side that arrive in Spain holds the world ranking advantage, with an average Rolex Ranking of 24.42 compared to Europe’s 42.58. The home side, however, offsets the on-paper talent difference with an overwhelming advantage in Solheim Cup experience and momentum, winning four of the last six cups and looking for their first ever Solheim three-peat. In the Cup’s history, the Americans have won three in a row twice, from 1994-1998 and 2005-2009.
With plenty on the line for both teams, we ranked all 24 golfers in the order we would draft every player on both teams.
24: Lexi Thompson 
Gregory Shamus
U.S. Age: 28 World Ranking: 25 Solheim Cup appearances: 5 Record (singles): 6-6-7 (1-1-3) Let’s start with the positives—despite Thompson being struggling through the worst season of her career, making only three cuts in 11 starts, at International Crown in April, Thompson won her first singles match in a team event since her Solheim Cup debut in 2013, taking down Maja Stark 3 and 2 in the consolation match at TPC Harding Park. And in her last LPGA start, Thompson finished T-19 at the Kroger Queen City Championship, her best result of 2023. However, U.S. captain Stacy Lewis already signaled that Thompson will play a different role this year, likely playing less than the four sessions Thompson teed it up in every Solheim since 2015.
23: Caroline Hedwall 
EUROPE Age: 34 World Ranking: 122 Solheim Cup appearances: 4 Record (singles): 8-6-1 (1-2-1) Call Hedwall a partner pick for Europe’s Anna Nordqvist. The two compatriots have paired up for all nine Crown team matches Sweden has ever had, along with five Solheim team matches. The tandem is 3-2-0 in Cup history, and the duo beat Danielle Kang and Thompson, 1 up, in four-ball at this year’s Crown during pool play. Still, Hedwall can hold her own, as she finished T-6 at the co-sanctioned with the LET Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open in early August.
22: Gemma Dryburgh 
Yoshimasa Nakano
EUROPE Age: 30 World Ranking: 55 Solheim Cup appearances: Rookie Dryburgh broke through for her first career LPGA victory at last November’s TOTO Japan Classic, a high mark helping her the trip to Spain. Dryburgh leads the European team in driving accuracy, hitting 82.1 percent of fairways in 2023, her career best by more than 3 percent. Dryburgh impressed with an eighth-place finish at the Amundi Evian in late July but makes her Solheim debut having cooled off, missing back-to-back cuts in her last two LPGA starts. It’s the first time in 2023 that the Scot has missed two consecutive weekends.
21: Danielle Kang 
Jamie Squire
U.S. Age: 30 World Ranking: 32 Solheim Cup appearances: 3 Record (singles): 5-7-0 (1-2-0) Kang quietly has gone through struggles of her own in the later half of the 2023 season, missing more cuts than opportunities in contention. If not for Kang’s T-14 at the Cambia Portland Classic, her best finish over her previous four tournaments was a T-59 in Canada. Furthermore, Kang’s recent record in her last two Solheim Cups has been pedestrian at 1-3-0. The six-time LPGA Tour winner’s saving grace may be her putter, as she is second on tour in putts per GIR and putts per round.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
