(Cheshire, England – February 25 2005) The third staging of the PING Junior Solheim Cup will take place at The Bridgewater Club, Carmel, Indiana, USA on September 7-8, 2005, just prior to The Solheim Cup which starts the day after at Crooked Stick GC from September 9-11, 2005.
Europe, the defending PING Junior Solheim Cup champions, will hope to win away from home and pave the way for their elder compatriots, who have yet to savour victory on away turf.
The PING Junior Solheim Cup is the only girl’s team event of its kind at the junior level and like the main event, features teams of 12 players from Europe and the USA, only the youngsters play a two-day matchplay competition of six fourballs, six foursomes and 12 singles.
The European team will be selected on August 15th and the five qualifying events which will decide the top 7 automatic places are the Spanish Ladies Amateur from 2-6 March, the French Ladies Juniors from 24-28 March, the Swedbank Junior Open in Sweden from May 20-22, the European Girls Team Championship from 5-9 July and the Girls British Open Amateur Championships from August 8-12.
The captain, who will be announced in due course, will have a further five picks to choose from which will include all other junior events sanctioned by the European Golf Association and any outstanding accomplishments in junior amateur events.
Last year the PING Junior Solheim Cup included top prospects from both Europe and USA, some of whom are now making their way into the professional ranks such as Americans Paula Creamer and Finland’s Minea Blomqvist, who is making it her goal to play in ‘the big girl’s’ Solheim Cup this year at the tender age of 20.
The PING Junior Solheim Cup was founded by Karsten Manufacturing Corporation, makers of PING equipment, to give junior golfers experience and to prepare them for their future golf career.
The United States won the inaugural event in 2002 in Minnesota, while the European side evened the series in Sweden in 2003.
The PING Junior Solheim Cup 2005 is organised by the American Junior Golf Association and the 2005 European Team is organised by the Ladies European Tour and PING with assistance from the European Golf Association and the Swedish Golf Federation.
The qualification process and the points system together with tournament information can be found on www.ega-golf.ch
The PING Junior Solheim Cup 2005
European Team Selection
Qualifying Players: Participants must be 13-18 years old (as of the EGA definition of girls, born 1987 and later) and must not have reached their 18th birthday prior to January 1, 2005. Participants must not be attending a college or university, and must be European citizens.
Points Table Top 7 girls in the points table from member federations of the EGA at Aug 15th 2005 following the last qualifying competition.
Captain’s Picks Five girls from member federations of the EGA to be determined by the captain and the committee. Selection will be on Aug 15th 2005 following the last qualifying competition. All girl events and outstanding performance in lady amateur events will be taken into consideration when deciding the “Captain’s Picks”.
Qualifying Tournaments Five EGA-calendar events in 2005 will be used and points earned according to the breakdown below.
2-6 Mar Spanish Ladies Amateur, Spain, Costa Ballena
24-28 Mar French Lady Juniors, France, Saint Cloud
20-22 May Swedbank Junior Open, Sweden
5-9 Jul European Girls Team Championship, Switzerland (36 hole strokeplay), Lucerne
8-12 Aug Girls British Open Amateur Championships, England, West Hill
Points Structure Points are awarded to qualifying players who finish in the top 8 of a Matchplay competition, and top 10 of a Strokeplay competition. Points are awarded as follows:
Finish Points
1 – 90
2 – 60
3 – 40
4 – 35
5 – 30
6 – 25
7 – 20
8 – 15
9 – 10
10 – 5
