2023 Solheim Cup Explained

The 2023 Solheim Cup was the 18th edition of the Solheim Cup matches, held 22–24 September in southern Spain at the Finca Cortesin in Casares, Andalusia. The Solheim Cup is a biennial team competition between the top women professional golfers from Europe and the United States. Stacy Lewis captained the U.S. team for the first time and Suzann Pettersen captained the European team for the first time. The par-72 course was set at 6903yd.^[1]

The previous competition in 2021 was won by Europe, 15 points to 13.^[2] The 2023 competition resulted in a draw, with each team scoring 14 points. As the Cup can only change hands on a victory by either side, Europe retained it.

The Solheim Cup will return to even-numbered years in 2024, the first time since 2002; the Ryder Cup returned to an odd-year schedule after the 2020 competition was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Format

The competition was a three-day match play event between teams of 12 players with a similar format to the Ryder Cup, with each match worth one point. The format is as follows:^[3]

• Day 1 (Friday): Four foursomes (alternate shot) matches in a morning session and four fourball (better ball) matches in an afternoon session. A total of eight players from each team participate in each session.
• Day 2 (Saturday): Four foursomes matches in a morning session and four fourball matches in an afternoon session. A total of eight players from each team participate in each session.
• Day 3 (Sunday): 12 singles matches. All 12 players from each team participate.

With a total of 28 points, 14 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.^[4]

Team qualification and selection

Team Europe

In order to be eligible to be a member of the European team, players were required to:

• be current members of the Ladies European Tour in any category or membership;
• have played in eight Ranking Events (excluding the Excluded Championships) during the Qualifying Period as a member of the LET, unless the relevant player has been selected by the appointed captain for the 2023 European Team;
• be a "European national". To be a "European national", the player must satisfy the criteria set out in the "Nationality Policy" issued by the International Golf Federation.^[5]

Team Europe was made up of eight automatic qualifiers – the top two players from the LET Solheim Cup standings, followed by the top six LET members on the Women's World Golf Rankings who were not already qualified via the Solheim Cup standings – and four captain's selections.

Team USA

In order to be eligible to be a member of the United States team, players were required to be current members of the LPGA Tour and meet one of these three citizenship criteria:

• U.S. citizens by birth, regardless of their birthplace.
• Those who were naturalized as U.S. citizens before age 18.
• Those who became U.S. citizens by adoption before age 13.^[6]

Team USA was made up of nine automatic qualifiers – the leading seven players from the LPGA Solheim Cup points rankings and the top two players in the Women's World Golf Rankings not already qualified via the points rankings – and three chosen by the team captain. LPGA Solheim Cup points were earned for top-20 finishes on the LPGA Tour over a two-year period.^[7]

Teams

Coaching staff: captain – Suzann Pettersen, vice-captains – Laura Davies, Caroline Martens, Anna Nordqvist (playing vice-captain).^[8]

Team Europe
Player	Country	Age	data-sort-type="number"	Points rank[9]	data-sort-type="number"	Rolex ranking	data-sort-type="number"	Previous appearances	data-sort-type="number"	Matches	data-sort-type="number"	W–L–H	data-sort-type="number"	Winning percentage
		29	1	3	2	7	5–1–1	78.57%
		23	2	40	0	Rookie
		24	3	19	0	Rookie
		27	4	9	5	19	11–5–3	65.79%
		33	5	33	5	19	7–8–4	47.37%
		27	8	16	3	13	7–5–1	57.69%
		36	10	37	7	27	14–10–3	57.41%
		28	13	14	1	5	4–0–1	90.00%
(P)		34	17	120	4	15	8–6–1	56.67%
(P)		30	28	42	2	6	2–4–0	33.33%
(P)		30	42	48	0	Rookie
(P)		27	48	114	2	7	3–4–0	42.86%

Source:^{[10] [11]}

Coaching staff: captain – Stacy Lewis, assistant captains – Morgan Pressel, Natalie Gulbis, Angela Stanford^{[12] [13] [14]}

Team USA
Player	Age	data-sort-type="number"	Points rank[15]	data-sort-type="number"	Rolex ranking	data-sort-type="number"	Previous appearances	data-sort-type="number"	Matches	data-sort-type="number"	W–L–H	data-sort-type="number"	Winning percentage
	25	1	1	0	Rookie
	25	2	2	2	8	5–2–1	68.75%
	25	3	8	0	Rookie
	25	4	13	2	6	1–3–2	33.33%
	26	5	28	1	4	2–1–1	62.50%
	30	6	31	3	12	5–7–0	41.67%
	25	7	43	0	Rookie
	28	8	26	5	19	6–6–7	50.00%
	20	17	30	0	Rookie
(P)	30	9	33	2	8	2–5–1	31.25%
(P)	26	11	46	0	Rookie
(P)	24	12	32	2	6	3–2–1	58.33%

Source:^{[16] [17] [18]}

Ages on first day of matches, 22 September; Rolex rankings at team selection. Captain's picks (P) shown in yellow.

Day one

Friday, 22 September 2023

Morning foursomes

	Results
Stark/Grant	2 & 1	Thompson/Khang
Boutier/Hall	1 up	Kang/Lee
Maguire/Nordqvist	1 up	Korda/Corpuz
Hull/Pedersen	5 & 4	Ewing/Knight
0	Session	4
0	Overall	4

For the first time in Solheim Cup history, Team USA swept a foursomes session.^[19]

Afternoon four-ball

	Results
Dryburgh/Sagström	halved	Zhang/Khang
Maguire/Hall	1 up	Thompson/Vu
Pedersen/Stark	halved	Kupcho/Corpuz
Ciganda/Grant	4 & 2	Yin/Ewing
3	Session	1
3	Overall	5

Emily Kristine Pedersen made the second hole-in-one in Solheim Cup history on the 12th hole in the afternoon four-ball.^[20]

Day two

Saturday, 23 September 2023

Morning foursomes

	Results
Pedersen/Ciganda	2 & 1	Vu/Kupcho
Maguire/Nordqvist	1 up	Thompson/Khang
Boutier/Hall	5 & 3	Korda/Corpuz
Stark/Grant	1 up	Kang/Lee
2	Session	2
5	Overall	7

Afternoon four-ball

	Results
Hull/Maguire	4 & 3	Korda/Ewing
Nordqvist/Hedwall	2 up	Knight/Yin
Sagström/Pedersen	2 & 1	Zhang/Lee
Ciganda/Grant	2 & 1	Kang/Vu
3	Session	1
8	Overall	8

Day three

Sunday, 24 September 2023

Singles

	Results
Linn Grant	1 up	Megan Khang
Leona Maguire	4 & 3	Rose Zhang
Charley Hull	4 & 2	Danielle Kang
Anna Nordqvist	2 & 1	Jennifer Kupcho
Georgia Hall	halved	Andrea Lee
Gemma Dryburgh	halved	Cheyenne Knight
Céline Boutier	2 & 1	Angel Yin
Caroline Hedwall	2 up	Ally Ewing
Madelene Sagström	4 & 3	Lilia Vu
Maja Stark	2 & 1	Allisen Corpuz
Carlota Ciganda	2 & 1	Nelly Korda
Emily Kristine Pedersen	2 & 1	Lexi Thompson
6	Session	6
14	Overall	14

Sources:^{[21] [22]}

Individual player records

Each entry refers to the win–loss–half record of the player.

Europe

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
	0	0–3–0	0–1-0	0–2–0	0–0–0
	4	4–0–0	1–0–0	1–0–0	2–0–0
	1	0–0–2	0–0–1	0–0–0	0–0–1
	3	3–2–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	2–0–0
	1.5	1–2–1	0–0–1	0–2–0	1–0–0
	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	0–1–0
	1	1–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	1–0–0
	3	3–2–0	1–0–0	0–2–0	2–0–0
	1	1–3–0	1–0–0	0–2–0	0–1–0
	2.5	2–2–1	0–1–0	1–1–0	1–0–1
	1.5	1–1–1	0–1–0	0–0–0	1–0–1
	2.5	2–1–1	1–0–0	1–1–0	0–0–1

United States

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
	2.5	2–1–1	0–1–0	2–0–0	0–0–1
	1	1–3–0	0–1–0	1–0–0	0–2–0
	2	2–2–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	0–1–0
	3.5	3–0–1	1–0–0	2–0–0	0–0–1
	2.5	2–0–1	0–0–1	1–0–0	1–0–0
	2	2–2–0	0–1–0	2–0–0	0–1–0
	0.5	0–2–1	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–1
	1.5	1–2–1	0–0–1	1–1–0	0–1–0
	3	3–1–0	1–0–0	2–0–0	0–1–0
	1	1–3–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–2–0
	2	2–1–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	1–1–0
	0.5	0–2–1	0–1–0	0–0–0	0–1–1

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Course . 2022-04-07 . Solheim Cup 2023.
2. News: 6 September 2021 . Europe retain Solheim Cup after thrilling victory over USA . The Guardian . 8 September 2021.
3. Berhow . Josh . August 16, 2017 . What to know and how to watch the 2017 Solheim Cup . Golf Magazine . January 30, 2019.
4. News: September 9, 2003 . Solheim Cup format, terminology . January 30, 2019 . ESPN.
5. Web site: The 2023 Solheim Cup European Team Qualification . April 7, 2022 . Solheim Cup 2023 .
6. News: Solheim eligibility criteria changing for U.S. team . Golf Channel . August 16, 2013.
7. Web site: Solheim Cup . 2022-04-07 . LPGA.
8. Web site: 2022-08-16 . Anna Nordqvist, Laura Davies, and Caroline Martens named vice-captains for the 2023 European Solheim Cup Team . 2022-08-20 . Solheim Cup 2023.
9. Web site: 2023 Solheim Cup Team Europe Standings . Ladies European Tour . April 7, 2022.
10. Web site: Pettersen Confirms Line Up for 2023 European Solheim Cup Team . Ladies European Tour . August 22, 2023 . August 22, 2023.
11. Web site: World Rankings on 21 August 2023 . Rolex World Rankings . August 21, 2023 . August 29, 2023.
12. Web site: 2022-03-23 . Morgan Pressel Named Assistant Captain for 2023 USA Solheim Cup Team . 2022-08-01 . Solheim Cup 2023.
13. Web site: 2022-06-10 . Natalie Gulbis Named Assistant Captain for 2023 USA Solheim Cup Team . 2022-08-01 . Solheim Cup 2023.
14. Web site: 2022-09-27 . Angela Stanford Named Assistant Captain for 2023 U.S. Solheim Cup Team . 2022-09-27 . Solheim Cup 2023.
15. Web site: 2023 Solheim Cup Team USA Standings . U.S. Solheim Cup . April 7, 2022.
16. US Solheim Cup team begins to come into focus, with only one qualifying position remaining . Golf Digest Middle East . August 28, 2023 . August 28, 2023.
17. Web site: 2023 Solheim Cup: Meet the United States Team . LPGA . August 28, 2023 . August 28, 2023.
18. Web site: World Rankings on 28 August 2023 . Rolex World Rankings . August 28, 2023 . August 29, 2023.
19. 2023-09-22 . Stacy's sweep: Team USA shuts out Europe in foursomes for the first time in Solheim Cup history . 2023-09-22 . Golfweek . Beth Ann . Nichols.
20. LPGA . 1705250764296171865 . Solheim Cup Ace.
21. Web site: Solheim Cup 2023 Leaderboard . 2023-09-23 . 2023-09-23 . LPGA.
22. Web site: Solheim Cup: USA take narrow lead over Europe on final day - live . 2023-09-24 . The Guardian . Scott . Murray . 2023-09-24.