There will be no debutants in Europe’s Solheim Cup team for next month’s defence of the trophy in Germany after the captain, Carin Koch, confirmed her four wildcard picks. Perhaps more pertinently, there will be nine survivors from the team who routed the United States 18‑10 two years ago.
Koch confirmed on Tuesday that Catriona Matthew, Caroline Hedwall, Caroline Masson and Karine Icher will complete Europe’s team. Home advantage, added to events in Denver in 2013, would ordinarily render the Europeans as the strong favourites but bookmakers, and Koch, disagree.
“If you look at the world rankings, the Americans would appear quite a bit stronger,” she said. “They are going to give us a tough task. If we play as well as we can, this will be a great match. You have to remember they won’t want to lose four Solheim Cups in a row so they will come out fighting. This will be tough.”
Koch’s tactic is obviously deliberate. It must also be noted the rankings to which she refers are in relation to strokeplay, rather than matchplay, events. From the USA team, only three players have won LPGA tournaments in 2015; on that side of the Atlantic, hopes are not particularly high.
The USA captain, Juli Inkster, has added Brittany Lang and Paula Creamer to her team. “The team all wanted her. It was an easy decision,” said Inkster of Creamer.
More troublesome is the case of Michelle Wie, who has qualified automatically for the match at St Leon-Rot near Heidelberg on 18-20 September but has been beset by form and injury problems. Wie has not recorded a top-10 finish this year. “She says she is ready to go and I believe her,” Inkster said.
“Michelle has done well in the Solheim Cup before,” Koch said. “Anyone who makes the team has done so for a reason. The issue, I guess, will be whether she can handle 36 holes in a day, which maybe isn’t perfect but she is a long hitter, a good match-player and a good character. If she is on that team, she must be feeling well enough.”
At 46, Matthew will compete in her eighth Solheim Cup and seventh in succession. “Catriona is great to have in the locker room and is easy to pair with anybody,” Koch said. “She is great with the younger ones. But she is also an excellent player and a fierce competitor.”
Matthew has witnessed the growth of the event and the increased variation of nationalities; seven countries form the European contingent. “It becomes more special the older you get,” Matthew said. “You realise you are coming towards the end of your career so the later ones tend to mean even more than the first, which for me was back in 1998.
“It is a far more competitive event now, there is far more media interest and I think women’s sport in general is on the up and up.”
