Hello everyone and welcome to the third edition of my blog! Since I talked to you last, I have visited Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio and I played in the Aramco Team Series – London where I was able to catch up with Team Europe hopefuls. The 2021 Solheim Cup is just seven weeks away and I am looking forward to a busy summer ahead!
I enjoyed my trip to Inverness Club. It was exciting to see the venue, course and hotel, where we will be defending our title. This trip allowed Laura Davies and I to get a feel for the week, and really start finalising our preparations.
The course looked immaculate. We played the tournament set-up to get insight and ideas around our pairings. It is a great venue! The first and tenth tee boxes are on the same tee, with one huge grandstand which will create a really loud and lively atmosphere. Spectators will love it.
It was important for Laura to be there. Now that she has played the course, she has a better idea of the layout and the type of course. It will mean we can pick players based on how their game will suit the golf course.
There was another good European showing at a Major. It was great to see the performances at KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Lots of European players were in the mix and finished in the top-25.
It is getting to crunch time. It is amazing to see many of our players peaking coming into the European Major season and fighting to get those points on the board. The Aramco Team Series – London had a strong European field and next week the LET heads to The Amundi Evian Championship, followed by Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open and the AIG Women’s Open – plus we have the Olympics in there too. It is crunch time for the picks with the busy summer ahead.
Sanna Nuutinen has been playing great. She secured a couple more top-10 finishes in recent weeks. The eagle-bogey-albatross finish in Czech Republic brought her into contention and she followed this with a second-place finish in the Netherlands. Her team did well at the Aramco Team Series – London and she has a few big weeks ahead of her.
I enjoyed being back out there at the Aramco Team Series – London. It was my first event since last year’s AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon. It was a great event and a nice, relaxed atmosphere to get back into the swing of competition. I really enjoyed it. Plus, it was great to see the players at Centurion Club – especially Georgia Hall, Charley Hull and Anna Nordqvist who were all back in Europe. They all played well and had strong finishes on the final day.
I have been very impressed with Matilda Castren. I had spoken to her a few weeks ago and told her how to become eligible for the European Solheim Cup Team. To come over to Finland, in front of a home crowd and win at the first attempt to gain LET membership was very impressive. After winning at the 2021 LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship, she has backed it up with good performances and now with the win in Finland – she is very much on my mind heading into the summer.
The players are certainly making it all very tricky! It is a great that we have so many players peaking and putting in those top performances. Georgia has started to come into some great form and produced good scores and finishes recently. Charley and Anna have been consistent all through the year, as well as Alice Hewson and Leona Maguire.
See you in August!
