This weekend will see another milestone in the race to make the European and United States Solheim Cup teams as the final qualification tournament, the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, takes place at Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.
EUROPEAN TEAM
Eight of the 12 players for the European Solheim Cup team will be set at the conclusion of play on Sunday, with the addition of four places set from the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
For the European players not earning automatic bids, this is their last chance to make an impression on European Captain Carin Koch before she announces her final four captains’ picks live on Sky Sports News in a special SportsWomen programme airing from 11.30-12.00 BST on Tuesday, August 25th.
The first four players who qualified from the Ladies European Tour points list are Suzann Pettersen, Gwladys Nocera, Charley Hull and Melissa Reid.
If the race ended today, the next four players who would earn spots via the World Rankings are Anna Nordqvist, Azahara Muñoz, Sandra Gal and Carlota Ciganda.
As a result, this is the last week for Catriona Matthew, Karine Icher, Caroline Masson and Pernilla Lindberg to make a move into one of the automatic spots or impress Koch enough to ensure their spot on her team. There are a huge number of scenarios but Lindberg needs a win to pass into the fourth spot from the World Rankings and more will be known after the cut on Friday night.
UNITED STATES TEAM
Ten of the 12 players for the United States Solheim Cup team will be set at the conclusion of play Sunday. For the American players not earning automatic bids, this is their last chance to make an impression on American Captain Juli Inkster before she announces her final two captains’ picks live on Golf Channel during a Golf Central special, airing from 7-8 PM EST Monday, August 24th.
If the race ended today, the eight Americans players who would earn spots via Solheim Cup points are Stacy Lewis, Lexi Thompson, Cristie Kerr, Michelle Wie, Brittany Lincicome, Morgan Pressel, Angela Stanford and Gerina Piller. The next two spots based off of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings would be Lizette Salas and Alison Lee. As a result, this is the last week for Paula Creamer, Brittany Lang, Jessica Korda, Mo Martin, and Austin Ernst to make a move to either one of the automatic spots or impress Inkster enough to ensure their spot on her team.
Lee actually passed Creamer and Korda in the Rolex Rankings following her tie for 8th last week in Portland to position herself in the last automatic spot heading into the final week. But with one of the strongest fields of the year in attendance and 60 Solheim Cup points up for grabs, only Lewis, Thompson, Kerr, Wie, Lincicome, Pressel and Stanford’s spots are locked in at this point. The last five spots will be decided this week, and Creamer, Korda, Lang, and Martin are all within 10 spots in the Rolex World Rankings of Lee and Salas.
The 2015 Solheim Cup will take place Sept 18-20 at St. Leon-Rot Golf Club near Heidelberg, Germany.
