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A roster of some of the best players from the United States and Europe will square off beginning Friday in the 15th edition of the Solheim Cup, women's professional golf's answer to the Ryder Cup, with the American team looking to hold onto the title they forged with a final-day charge in 2015 in Germany.
The event will be held at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa, on a composite course pulled from the best holes on the club's two Pete Dye-designed tracks. The course will play at 6,894 yards and to a par of 73, but that latter number is insignificant since this is a match-play competition with holes awarded to the players with the few strokes per hole.
Friday and Saturday will feature four foursomes (alternate shot) matches in the morning session and four four-ball (better ball) matches in the afternoon with a total of eight players from each team participate in each session. Sunday's final session consists of 12 singles matches when all 12 players from each team participate.
With a total of 28 points, 14 1/2 points are required to win the Cup, and 14 points are required for the defending champion to retain the Cup. All matches are played to a maximum of 18 holes. If the score is even after 18 holes, each team earns one-half point.
Team USA enters with a chance to win consecutive Solheim Cups for the first time since 2007 and 2009.
The U.S. leads Europe 9-5 all-time in Solheim Cup competition following the historic comeback win in 2015 at St. Leon-Rot Golf Club in Germany. The Americans trailed 10-6 heading into Sunday's singles matches and overcame the largest deficit in the event's history, winning 8 1/2 points in the final session. Team USA won by a score of 14 1/2 to 13 1/2, the closest score in the history of the Cup.
The Team USA roster consists of Lexi Thompson, Stacy Lewis, Gerina Piller, Cristie Kerr, Danielle Kang, Michelle Wie, Brittany Lang, Brittany Lincicome, Lizette Salas, Austin Ernst, Angel Yin and Paula Creamer. Ernst and Lin were picked for the team by United States captain Juli Inkster while Creamer was elevated from alternate status by Inkster when Jessica Korda has to withdraw from the competition with a shoulder injury.
"This is all about being a team -- it's not about yourself," said Thompson, who, at No. 2, is the highest ranked player in the Solheim Cup. "It's about how you come together as a team with your partner, your captain. And you're not only playing for yourself, you're playing for your country and your team and that's what it's all about. I don't feel any extra pressure with being No. 2 in the world. That's not what it's about. I'm just out here playing the game that I love."
European Captain Annika Sorenstam had four captain's picks and used them to choose Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom of Sweden, Caroline Masson of Germany and Emily Kristine Pedersen of Denmark.
Sorenstam's selections join four players from England -- Georgia Hall, Florentyna Parker, Melissa Reid and Jodi Ewart Shadoff -- who qualified from the Ladies European Tour points list as well as four players who qualified through the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings: Carlota Ciganda of Spain, Suzann Pettersen of Sweden, England's Charley Hull and Karine Icher of Germany.
On Wednesday, Pettersen was forced to pull out of the Cup after she irritated a ruptured disk during a morning run on Saturday. The move forced Sorenstam to shift assistant captain and alternate Catriona Matthew of Scotland into the playing roster and swapping roles with Pettersen, who will now serve as an assistant for the remainder of the week.
"It's been a lot of juggling, to put it mildly," Sorenstam said. "I was just glad that Suzann called me on Saturday. I had a plan, I called it plan A. And then we started a plan B. Needless to say, we have had a lot of plans back and forth. Catriona has obviously played many times and she knows many of the players. And she's very easy to pair with. So it's not going to be any more difficult. We're already ready with plan B. And we're going to stick to it."
The United States is a heavy favorite in the event, but something about the Solheim Cup always brings out the best in the European team.
"Juli has been on us about playing our games and working hard," Lewis said. "She gave us hard hats to start the week. We're here to do our work, and that's kind of the model we took into Germany. And it doesn't matter who we're playing against. I don't care what rankings or anything say.
"That's the hardest part about match play -- rankings don't matter," Lewis added. "It doesn't matter how many Solheim Cups you've played. There's so many unknowns in this event that you just have to go out there and do your thing. And, as Juli says, 'just work hard and everything else takes care of itself.'"
