After helping the U.S. defeat Europe in a memorable matchup earlier this month, Juli Inkster indicated it would be her last Solheim Cup as a player.
But that doesn’t mean fans and TV viewers won’t see plenty of the World Golf Hall of Famer when Colorado Golf Club in Parker hosts the Solheim Cup in 2013, the next time the biennial Ryder Cup-style competition is held on American soil.
After a press conference held Monday at Colorado Golf Club, Inkster made it easy to draw the conclusion that she’s the odds-on favorite to captain the U.S. team in four years.
Most observers agree that the next few U.S. Solheim Cup captains are likely to be Inkster, Meg Mallon and perhaps Rosie Jones — not necessarily in that order. Inkster and Mallon rank 1-2 in career points for the U.S. team in Solheim Cup play. The captain for the 2011 competition in Ireland is expected to be named in late October or early November.
Inkster made it clear Monday she thinks it makes the most sense for Mallon to lead the Americans in 2011, noting that Mallon is Irish herself and was one of Beth Daniel’s assistant captains for the matches held earlier this month.
“I’m not ready for 2011,” the 49-year-old Inkster said. “2013 would be great.”
Mallon, who also attended Monday’s event at Colorado Golf Club, wouldn’t say whether she’d prefer to be captain in Ireland or Colorado.
“I just hope I get the opportunity,” said Mallon, runner-up in the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. “I know there’s Juli, Rosie and others in line. But it would be something I would take seriously. 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). It’s a lot more time-consuming. I saw what Beth (Daniel) went through.”
And that’s to say nothing about the extra pressure on the U.S. captain to keep the Americans’ record perfect in matches they play on home soil. The U.S. is 6-0 in Solheim Cups contested in America.
Both Inkster and Mallon are familiar with Colorado Golf Club as both are clients of swing instructor Mike McGetrick, a founder and managing partner at the Parker course.
“It’s a great venue.” Inkster said. “On the finishing holes you can be as aggressive as you want to be. It’s a great match play course. It’s a great medal play course too, but there are a lot of risk-reward holes.”
When asked about Colorado Golf Club, Mallon said with a laugh, “This is Mike’s seventh child. And it’s probably the one he spends the most time with.”
Inskster and Mallon both have stellar resumes to be U.S. Solheim Cup captains, having each played in the event eight times. Inkster owns a record of 15-10-6, including 6-1-1 in singles. Mallon is 13-9-7, going 5-2-1 in singles. Overall in their careers, Inkster has won 31 times on the LPGA Tour with seven major championships, and Mallon has 18 victories with four majors.
“That’s the next step, to become a captain,” Inkster said. “”¦ We both look to be a captain someday. “¦ It would be huge.”
Certainly the near future appears to be a good time to play an integral role in the Solheim Cup. After all, there was considerable interest in the 2009 event in Illinois, which drew 120,000 spectators for the week, a Solheim Cup record. The Sunday singles, when the U.S. clinched the victory, drew the highest LPGA audience of the year for the Golf Channel.
“The players play at a higher level than any event I can think of,” said John Solheim, whose family helped launch the Solheim Cup in 1990.
“You elevate your game when you don’t think you have anything left,” Inkster said. “The crowds have something to do with it, and so do teammates. “¦ There’s a lot of stress. You don’t want to let down your teammates.”
As far as the considerable attention the event drew this year, it didn’t hurt that fan favorite Michelle Wie was participating in the Solheim Cup for the first time, and that she went 3-0-1 for the week.
“She’s a phenomenal talent,” Inkster said of Wie. “She had her teammates behind her and backing her. She has a passion for the game of golf, and she was a great teammate.”
The LPGA and Colorado Golf Club would love interest in the Solheim Cup to catch fire like it did with the Ryder Cup in the 1980s.
“If you’ve never been to one, you’re in for one of the biggest thrills of your life,” said McGetrick, who will help host the Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club in May. “I can’t even explain it to you until you feel the energy.”
McGetrick said Colorado Golf Club will be ready to accommodate crowds of 30,000 per day — comparable to what the 2009 event drew — for the three-day competition that most likely will take place in mid-August. That the Solheim Cup can draw that number of spectators “speaks volumes about the way women’s golf has grown,” McGetrick said.
There have been some calls for the Solheim Cup to expand to include players from other geographical areas of the world. The rationale is that it would rectify the fact that nine of the top 14 players in the Rolex women’s golf rankings are currently ineligible for the Solheim Cup because they’re from Korea (four players), Australia (two), and Mexico, Taiwan and Japan (one each). While Inkster and Mallon wouldn’t mind seeing an additional competition for players from other areas of the world, they’re staunchly opposed to changing the Solheim Cup.
“The Solheim Cup is the Solheim Cup,” Mallon said. “It’s like the Ryder Cup. I don’t think it should be changed. Now you see the passion for country, and I think you would lose that feel (if the Solheim Cup were changed to include a U.S. team combined with that of other countries).”
