To Stacy Lewis, the motto was obvious: “Unfinished business.”
The captain of the U.S. Solheim Cup team was disappointed last September in Malaga, Spain, when Team Europe retained the cup thanks to a 14-14 tie. The U.S. hasn’t won the competition since 2017, and they have a prime opportunity to end that drought starting Friday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va.
Lewis described the hunger, if not the pressure, she feels to get the job done in front of the home crowd and on a favorable course.
“I don’t feel any pressure when I’m in that team room or when I’m around the girls,” Lewis said.
“I just felt like the way things ended in Spain, like it just — like that was it? Like that’s it? That’s the way this thing is going to end? It just kind of naturally came to me. I gave all the girls T-shirts (reading ‘Unfinished Business’) once the team was announced just to get it in their head: It’s business. We’ve got work to do.”
The Solheim Cup is returning to even-numbered years to avoid overlap with the Ryder Cup following pandemic-era calendar disruptions. Lewis and European captain Suzann Pettersen brought back most of their teams from 2023 with few changes.
The U.S. will lean on World No. 1 Nelly Korda, World No. 2 Lilia Vu and Solheim Cup veteran Megan Khang for points. Khang earned 3 1/2 points to lead the U.S. last year, but Korda went 2-2-0 in her four matches and Vu struggled to a 1-3-0 showing.
Returning players seem glad to leave behind the hills of the Andalucia region of Spain in favor of the par-72, 6,706-yard Virginia course, with its reachable par-5s and traditional American parkland style.
“It’s a completely different grass, too,” Korda said. “I don’t know, I feel like maybe there will be more birdies out here.”
The format resembles the Ryder Cup: Friday and Saturday will feature four foursome (alternate-shot) matches and four four-ball (best-ball) matches. Come Sunday, all 12 players on each team will play a singles match. The first team to 14 1/2 points wins the cup.
This will mark the seventh and perhaps final Solheim Cup for Lexi Thompson, the American star who plans to step away from full-time golf at year’s end. Part of two victorious U.S. teams, Thompson has scored 12 1/2 points in her Solheim Cup career.
“Coming into the year, even though I had my announcement on my mind, I wanted to be here on U.S. soil being able to represent my country,” Thompson said. “That was my No. 1 goal.”
Pettersen, a major champion from Norway, saw little reason to shake up last year’s victorious team. Ten of her 12 players are back.
“I think the nice thing, it literally feels like the ’23 Solheim was just yesterday,” she said. “So it’s kind of nice to kind of get that feel and kind of energy going again.”
Her star player is Ireland’s Leona Maguire, who has played all five sessions in each of her two Solheim Cup appearances and amassed a 7-2-1 record.
“I’ve never been the loudest in the room. I’m not going to be giving massive team talks,” Maguire said. “For the last two (events), my job is to get as many points as possible. That’s how I can contribute best to the team, and that’s what I try to do.”
One U.S. newcomer to watch is 31-year-old Lauren Coughlin, who broke through for her first two LPGA wins this year. Coughlin grew up in Chesapeake, Va., attended the University of Virginia and still lives in the state.
“You go to that light and turn left and go about 65 miles, and there’s my house. So that’s pretty awesome,” Coughlin said.
“Also being so close to our nation’s capital. This is my first time getting to represent my country, not in junior golf, amateur career, nothing. So the fact that my first one is kind of so close to home but also so close to D.C., our nation’s capital, is pretty special.”
