New U.S. Solheim Cup captain Meg Mallon arrived Monday for an outing at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, site of the 2013 matches against Europe. And suffice it to say she didn’t have to ask directions to the course.
Mallon’s swing coach for almost her entire illustrious career was Mike McGetrick, one of the founders of Colorado Golf Club, which will host next year’s Solheim Cup competition Aug. 16-18. So Mallon was one of the first to see the course in its infancy.
“I love the connection,” she said Monday while sitting in the new CGC clubhouse. “It’s a great story. We (Mallon and McGetrick) were on the driving range near Centennial Airport hitting balls and Mike said, ‘I’ve got a piece of property I want to develop and build a course on.’ So for all those years, watching that come to fruition was really fun.
“I knew this place before there was a hole in the ground. I saw it as they were mapping out the course. When there were literally stakes in the ground he walked me through the course. … The whole experience of watching this thing come together has been something.”
Though she lives in Florida, Mallon has visited the Colorado Golf Club site about 15 times over the years, including roughly three times annually from when the club opened in 2007 until she retired from LPGA Tour competition in 2010. And, theoretically anyway, that should work to the American team’s advantage when it faces the Europeans next year in the biennial matches.
“Let’s just put that (thought) in everybody’s mind right now,” Mallon said with a laugh. “I think it’s a great advantage. Just having that whole history and being a part of this place from the beginning I think will be great. And hopefully I can pass that along to the team.”
Mallon, who competed on eight U.S. Solheim Cup teams as a player, hopes the fact that the 2013 matches will be played on U.S. soil — where the Americans have never lost in the Solheim Cup — will give her team the upper hand as it tries to regain the Cup after a 2011 loss in Ireland.
If nothing else, once the 12-player team starts to take shape, the American competitors can visit Colorado Golf Club in the months leading up to the 2013 matches much easier than can most European-based competitors.
“I want to get my team as prepared as possible to play this golf course,” Mallon said. “I know quite a few players came up from the (U.S. Women’s Open at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs) last year, which was good. The more I can get them to see the golf course, the more I can get them used to the (mile-high) altitude, and the better off we’ll be for sure.
“Altitude is a big factor. Both teams have players that hit it a long way, then you add in the adrenaline of a Solheim Cup and throw in the altitude, and that’s going to be very big. Hopefully my team will be prepared for that. But Solheim Cups, as much as you tell players they’re going to hit it 10-15 yards farther just on adrenaline alone, they kind of have to see it first, then they’ll believe it.”
All that said, Mallon doesn’t want to overstate any advantage she might have at Colorado Golf Club. She notes that recently named European captain Liselotte Neumann, though a Swede, lives in San Diego.
“So arguably she’s closer to here than I am in Florida, so she might sneak over a few times too and get to know it as well (as I do),” Mallon said.
Mallon, winner of 18 LPGA events in her career, including four major championships, certainly knew how to compete in Colorado. She finished runner-up to Annika Sorenstam at the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open at the Broadmoor, and was 13th at the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open at Cherry Hills.
In addition, she was no slouch as a Solheim Cup player, compiling a 13-9-7 record. Then she was an assistant captain when Beth Daniel’s 2009 American team captured the Cup. Mallon and Neumann captained Junior Solheim Cup teams in 2011, when the competition ended in a 12-12 tie which allowed the Americans to retain that Cup.
Of course, such a tie wouldn’t work out so well for the Americans next year considering the Europeans would get to keep the Cup after winning it by a 15-13 margin last year.
“Lotta (Neumann) was joking, saying can we do a 12-12 tie again, and I said absolutely not, not this time around,” Mallon said with a smile.
Actually, Mallon said she and Neumann are good friends despite playing on opposite teams five times in the Solheim Cup from 1992 through 2000.
“Lotta and I basically have spent our whole careers together,” Mallon said. “Both of our personalities are pretty low-key. Lotta is very quiet but obviously very competitive. Despite all the Solheim Cups we played against each other, at the end of the day we were still friends, which says a lot about our friendship because those are pretty competitive weeks.”
But friendship or no friendship, Mallon has no intention of becoming the first American captain to lose a Solheim Cup competition in the U.S. The Americans are 8-4 overall in the Solheim Cup, including 6-0 in the States. The matches were last held in the U.S. in 2009.
Keeping that “home” record perfect “is a great challenge, let’s put it that way,” Mallon said. “There’s a reason why the record has been that way — you get fired up at home. We’ve had a lot of close calls, and I expect a close match again. But the extra adrenaline that comes from U.S. fans really helps us a lot.”
Even though the Solheim Cup is still 16 months away, Mallon is already busy trying to lay the groundwork for American success. In fact, that’s part of the reason for this week’s trip to Colorado Golf Club — in addition to participating in a sponsor outing and visiting with some members of the media.
“My job is to make everything easy for the players when they get here, so it’s all about preparation,” he said. “I’m here today to walk through where we’re staying (next year), what we’re eating, what the schedule is like. I’m making sure that it’s the easiest and most comfortable week for our players because it’s such a hectic week. They have every minute taken for these guys all week and my job is to make sure they’re rested and ready to play by Friday (Aug. 16). It’s a balance of running an event and making sure my team is ready to go on Friday. I don’t want them to have to worry about anything but playing golf that week.”
