Twelve years after Karsten and Louise Solheim created the Solheim Cup, John Solheim, current president and CEO of PING, wanted to complete his parents’ legacy by creating a similar event exclusively for junior players.
A transatlantic competition that would also pit the U.S. and Europe against each other, and that, in the image and likeness of the Solheim Cup, would become the best scenario for the future stars of women’s golf to compete at the highest level and begin to live and feel the passion of the most important tournament in women’s golf.
And the best way to achieve that goal, that of turning that junior tournament into the seedbed of future golfers who would one day play the Solheim Cup, was to play it a few days earlier at a nearby course, making it the best possible preamble.
Thus, 2002 marked the birth of the PING Junior Solheim Cup, which soon became one of the most important international events in the women’s amateur calendar.
Just look at the magnificent list of players who have made the leap from the PING Junior Solheim Cup to the Solheim Cup over the eleven editions, with names like Paula Creamer, Azahara Muñoz, Britanny Lincicome, Melissa Reid, Anna Nordqvist, Carlota Ciganda, Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda or Georgia Hall.
In this 2023 edition, whose setting will be the magnificent Old Course of the La Zagaleta urbanization, located in the town of Benahavís in the province of Malaga, Europe will have the opportunity to defend the title won in 2021 at home, as did the “seniors”.
If successful, it will be the first time that Europe has won the PING Junior Solheim Cup for the second consecutive time and will reach four victories, to eight for the U.S. team, in the competition’s history.
The European team that will try to make history will be captained by France’s Gwladys Nocera, assisted by Switzerland’s Nora Angehrn as vice-captain, and will be formed by Spain’s Cloe Amión, Anna Cañadó, Andrea Revuelta and Rocío Tejedo; Sweden’s Nora Sundberg, Josefin Widal and Meja Örtengren; Switzerland’s Yana Beeli; Germany’s Helen Briem; Belgium’s Savannah de Bock; Italy’s Francesca Fiorellini and Czech Republic’s Denisa Vodickova.
Facing them will be the U.S. team, which will do everything possible to regain the trophy. They will be led by Amy Alcott and Libby Burroughs, captain and vice-captain respectively, and completed by Leigh Chien, Gianna Clemente, Anna Davis, Kathryn Ha, Irene Kim, Ryleigh Knaub, Jasmine Koo, Megan Meng, Elizabeth Rudisill, Anna Song, Asterisk Talley and Yana Wilson.
Stay with the names of these players because many of them will become the protagonists of the next editions of the Solheim Cup in the not too distant future.
Leave a Reply