The PING Junior Solheim Cup will celebrate its seventh year in event history, Aug. 12-14 at The Inverness Hotel & Golf Club in Englewood, Colo. The United States leads the all-time series, 3-2-1 in the biennial competition that pits the top 12 female junior golfers from the United States against their European counterparts.
The United States
and European
PING Junior Solheim Cup Teams are solidified and the players’ professional counterparts will soon be named to Solheim Cup teams.
The inaugural 2002 PING Junior Solheim Cup was contested at Oak Ridge Country Club in Hopkins, Minn. The tournament hosted the top 12 female junior golfers from the United States to face the top 12 female golfers from across the pond in Europe.
Team USA foreshadowed future household names, including Paula Creamer, Brittany Lang, Brittany Lincicome and Morgan Pressel. En route to Team USA’s 17-7 victory, these four golfers posted a collective 7-4-2 record.
Beyond their PING Junior Solheim Cup experience, each of these golfers boasted impressive junior golf careers. Creamer and Pressel tied for the fourth-most career individual wins, each claiming 11 titles in national junior competition from 2001-05. This pair of dominant junior golfers also captured Rolex Girls Junior Championship crowns the same year they were named Rolex Junior Players of Year, with Creamer in 2003 and Pressel in 2005.
Lang and Lincicome played alongside one another from 2000 to 2003 and each earned Rolex Junior All-America honors during their junior golf tenure. Lang tallied six career individual AJGA titles, including the 2002 Thunderbird International Junior, before she joined Duke’s women’s golf team. Lincicome was a four-time AJGA champion and competed on the Wyndham Cup East Team for four consecutive years, posting an 8-5-3 record.
After teaming up in 2002 for the PING Junior Solheim Cup, the players took different paths leading to the LPGA Tour. In 2009, they reunited on the professional level and once again represented the U.S. at the Solheim Cup. Lang and Lincicome teamed up for the Day One Four-Ball match and defeated their European opponents, 5 and 4. Each of the reunited players won her singles match en route to Team USA keeping its undefeated record on home soil, winning 16-12.
At the 2011 Solheim Cup, the four players joined forces again with Pressel leading Team USA as the only player on the squad to post an undefeated record of 4-0-0. Creamer and Lincicome teamed up in two Foursome matches and were unbeatable after winning their first match, 1-up and second match, 3 and 1. Despite the strong play, Team USA lost its first Solheim Cup since 2003 after Team Europe captured the Cup, 15-13.
Whether it is at the junior or professional level, Solheim Cup is a setting for memories of competition and camaraderie. Who will follow in the footsteps of Creamer, Lang, Lincicome and Pressel?