Two and a half years after Meg Mallon and Juli Inkster held a joint news conference at Colorado Golf Club promoting the 2013 Solheim Cup, Mallon has been named captain of the U.S. team that will face Europe Aug. 16-18 next year at the club in Parker.
The LPGA announced the news Thursday morning at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla.
Mallon will try to help the Americans regain the Solheim Cup after Europe claimed the glass trophy last year in Ireland by a 15-13 margin, the closest in the history of the event. The Americans had won the previous three Cups in the biennial competition, and are 6-0 against the Europeans on U.S. soil. The Solheim Cup is held in America once every four years, and in Europe in other odd-numbered years.
The 48-year-old Mallon served as an assistant captain under Beth Daniel in the 2009 Solheim Cup, and has a 13-9-7 record in eight Solheim Cup appearances as a player, including five on a winning team. In her LPGA Tour career, Mallon had 18 LPGA Tour victories, including four major championships, when she retired in mid-2010.
“It’s an absolute honor to be selected as the 2013 U.S. Solheim Cup team captain,” said Mallon, whose 16 1/2 points as a Solheim player are second only to Inkster among U.S. competitors. “I’ve participated in the Solheim Cup on nine occasions and each has been a proud moment for me, but to represent the United States as team captain definitely caps off my career. I look forward to working hard on getting the Cup back in U.S. hands.”
Mallon and Inkster were the two primary candidates for the 2013 job. Both players are very familiar with Colorado Golf Club, having done a lot of swing work there with their coach, Mike McGetrick, a founder of CGC who is no longer affiliated with the club. Inkster, a World Golf Hall of Famer who has played on the U.S. Solheim team a record nine times, is now expected to get the U.S. captaincy for the 2015 Solheim Cup.
“My connection with Colorado Golf Club runs very deep because of Mike McGetrick, and I saw the property before there was even a hole put in the ground,” Mallon said. “To see it now host the best event in women’s golf is pretty exciting. Mike and I would be on the driving range, and he’d be talking to me about this piece of property he wanted to build a golf course on. So it’s really cool how it’s come full circle.”
As Mallon noted during her August 2009 visit to Colorado Golf Club, the workload of a U.S. Solheim Cup captain is formidable, especially when the competition is held in America.
“I know the job is harder for the American captain when the matches are played in the U.S. (with media and sponsor commitments, and other issues),” Mallon said in Colorado 2 1/2 years ago. “It’s a lot more time-consuming. I saw what Beth (Daniel) went through (in 2009).”
The U.S. Solheim Cup captain is picked by a committee that includes LPGA commissioner Mike Whan, former American captains and members of the Solheim family.
“From world-class golfer, to world-class Solheim Cup player, to world-class Solheim Cup assistant captain and Ping Junior Solheim Cup captain (in 2011), Meg has always been a well-respected role model that all players can look up to,” Whan said. “I know she loves the Solheim Cup and the players who compete for it. On behalf of everyone at the LPGA, we are both proud and honored to see her as the U.S. captain.”
The American team has won eight of the 12 Solheim Cup competitions played to date.
The European Solheim Cup captain for 2013 has not yet been named, but there’s been speculation that World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam will be the choice. Sorenstam has a history in Colorado, having won the first of her 72 LPGA Tour events at the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open at the Broadmoor. Mallon finished second in that tournament.
The Solheim Cup will be the second major golf event held at Colorado Golf Club, which hosted the 2010 Senior PGA Championship won by Tom Lehman.
