“Fortunately, we only have to wait another year to go get this thing back,” Lewis said.

The LPGA moving the Solheim Cup to an even-year schedule starting next September means the 19th edition of the event is less than a year away, with Lewis and Suzann Pettersen back as captains of their respective teams. American players have been accumulating points since the start of this season at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and continue to earn them through to the end of the qualifying period, which has not yet been announced.

The 2024 system will use the same automatic qualifying categories as 2023, with seven players off a points list, the two highest ranked players on the Rolex Women’s World Rankings not already on the team and then three captain’s picks. Unsurprisingly, the two American major champions from this year, Lilia Vu (992) and Allisen Corpuz (866), are atop the points list. Nelly Korda (725), Megan Khang (667), Ally Ewing (591), Angel Yin (564) and Andrea Lee (394) round out the current top seven. That group, led by Khang’s 3.5-point performance at Finca Cortesin, combined to go 12-12-3 last week in Spain.

The closest chasers for the Nos. 8-10 spots are all fellow ’23 Solheim Cup players: Cheyenne Knight (386), Jennifer Kupcho (381) and Rose Zhang (322), respectively. Danielle Kang (295) remains in striking distance of a points position in 12th place, while Lexi Thompson (39) has work to make the 2024 on points even after having the second-most record of any American in Spain by going 3-1.

There is minimal movement in the two Rolex Women’s World Ranking spots, which makes sense given there have only been two tournaments between the end of the 2023 US team qualification period and the Solheim Cup. Thompson (No. 26) holds the first World Ranking spot, with Kupcho (29) taking the second one. Zhang (32) and Kang (34) are nearby.

Then Lewis will have her three captain’s picks, where she’ll no doubt apply the same analytics approach she took this year to choose Ewing, Yin and Knight to round out the team (the three picks went a combined 5-4-1). With Lewis’ system no longer just theoretical in determining who should partner with whom, the captain would likely be happy to have a similar group again.

“We now have some pairings actually going forward,” Lewis said. “There’s no trial-and-error again going into ’24.”

Main image: David Cannon

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On Wednesday, Lewis expressed disappointment when asked if the organisers of the Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup, team match-play competitions being held in back-to-back weeks in Europe for the first and likely only time, could have done more to jointly promote the events.

“I thought this could have been marketed together as two weeks in Europe, two cups for play. I think it was a missed opportunity for the sport of golf,” Lewis said from Finca Cortesin, site of this week’s Solheim Cup. “I wish people could get the sponsorship things out of their head and figure out how we can work together. This may not ever happen again, the two Cups being played in the same year. So I thought it was a massive missed opportunity.”

Lewis went on to say she “tried to do a little bit with the guys and just weren’t really able to move things along the way I would have liked. … I just would like to see it for the good of the game. It’s not to further women’s golf. Let’s further the game of golf in general.”

The LPGA and Ladies European Tour oversee the Solheim Cup while the PGA of America and DP World Tour are responsible for the Ryder Cup. Ordinarily, the biennial events are played in opposite years, but when the Ryder Cup was delayed from 2020 to 2021 due to COVID, it created a one-time overlap for 2023. (The LPGA is moving the Solheim Cup to even years in 2024).

On Thursday, the PGA of America released a statement in response to Lewis’ quotes.

“We are enthusiastic supporters of the US Solheim Cup Team and are promoting the Solheim Cup in a number of ways. For starters, we are creating digital assets and collaborating with our friends at the LPGA on our social media channels. For the first time, we produced a US Ryder Cup Team video in which the players and our Captain expressed their support for the Solheim Cup Team.”

On Thursday morning, Ryder Cup USA posted this video via the social-media platform X.

From one ?? squad to another: LET'S GOOOOOOO!

Can't wait to watch @SolheimCupUSA: you got this?#GoUSA pic.twitter.com/XlfN6CAW97

— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) September 21, 2023

Additionally, the PGA of America’s statement noted: “We are also supporting the Solheim Cup with editorial content on PGA.com and by engaging with Solheim Cup content across PGA of America channels. Finally, our CEO Seth Waugh will be onsite in Spain to cheer on the US Solheim Cup Team for all of us.

“While scheduling and logistics challenges precluded some other joint activations, the PGA of America will help to raise awareness in a meaningful way through our digital and social media efforts.”

Main image: Angel Martinez

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You’ve got to love Stacy Lewis. Bucking the normal tediousness that typically tends to mark pre-match press conferences at team contests, the US Solheim Cup captain managed to be both thought-provoking and interesting during a 20-minute session two days before her side takes on what many are calling the best European team ever.

First there was disappointment. Lewis’ regret centred on the fact that, with the Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup uniquely being played in consecutive weeks not too far apart in Spain and Italy, a chance has been missed. Missed by the game that is.

“I thought this could have been marketed together as two weeks in Europe, two cups for play,” Lewis said. “I think it was a missed opportunity for the sport of golf. I wish people could get the sponsorship things out of their head and figure out how we can work together. This may not ever happen again, the two Cups being played in the same year. So I thought it was a massive missed opportunity.

“We tried to do a little bit with the guys and just weren’t really able to move things along the way I would have liked,” she continued. “I tried. I tried really hard, actually. I probably spent more time on it than I should have. But whether it was timing or it was too late in the process, I don’t know. To really market it correctly this probably had to happen two years ago. So it’s something that, going forward, golf needs to get on the same page and do better with. I just would like to see it for the good of the game. It’s not to further women’s golf. Let’s further the game of golf in general.

“For the good of the game, for the game of golf, I think two weeks like this could be really cool,” she concluded. “If we could continue it for the future. I actually really like having both cups in the same year, if we can get some common ground and do it together.”

Food for thought. Interesting food, too.

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US Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis summarised what could surely be transformed into a stirring speech to her players, one designed to get the blood flowing and the brains buzzing.

Asked if there was a special message or theme she would like to convey to her team, the former Women’s British Open champion was off and running. Most touchingly, she revealed the tributes the team will implicitly pay to the late Kathy Whitworth, the LPGA’s most successful player, and one of the LPGA’s 13 original founders Shirley Spork while out on the course.

“The theme is I want these girls to know what they’re playing for and what they’re becoming a part of,” said Lewis, herself a four-time Solheim Cup player. “So there’s a lot of things going on. On my hat there are 10 stars for the 10 times the US has won the Solheim Cup. The golf bag has a pocket with 13 stars for our 13 past captains. It has another pocket with 62 stars for the, prior to this year, 62 Americans who have represented the US at the Solheim Cup.”

And there was more.

“Our yardage book cover has the locations where we’ve won the 10 Solheim Cup,” Lewis continued. “I wanted these girls to know how special of a group they’re coming into. So they know what you’re playing for. If you don’t know what you’re playing for, you don’t know about the history. We lost Kathy and Shirley since we were together in Toledo [at the last Solheim Cup], so I wanted them to be a part of this week in some way. I put the rubber duck on the bottom of the bag for Shirley and the ‘88’ on the hats for Kathy’s most wins of any golfer, not just female, of all time. So that they are with us this week.”

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The Solheim Cup presents a unique challenge for the United States team as they settle in Spain attempting to prevent the prolonging of an unprecedented losing streak. Should the Americans fall to their European rivals at Finca Cortesin — after losses in 2019 at Gleneagles in Scotland and in 2021 at Inverness Club in Ohio — it would be the first time since the inception of the competition in 1990 that the US had been beaten in three straight Solheim Cups. It also would mark a fifth defeat in the last seven matches dating back to 2013, another frustrating first.

Faced with stopping the Americans’ slide on foreign soil and crucially flipping the momentum of the matches, US captain Stacy Lewis has spent plenty of time processing the gravity of what this year’s Solheim Cup means for her team and their future.

“I’ve thought a lot about do we have to win?” Lewis told Golf Digest. “Like, is this a must-win? What is this? And I don’t know that it is. I mean, we lost in Gleneagles by one shot. We lost [at Inverness] by probably two or three shots. So it really hasn’t been far off. And I think every Solheim Cup going forward is going to be tight like this.”

Lewis’ memory of 2019 was spot on as, coincidentally, her rival captain this year, Suzann Pettersen, famously holed the final of her competitive putt on the 18th green in the deciding match at Gleneagles to keep the Americans from closing out a three-peat of their own. But in 2021 at Inverness, Europe clinched the Cup with five singles games still on the course, inconsequential comeback resulting in a 15-13 European victory that looked closer than it really was.

How exactly to turn things around, of course, is Lewis’ riddle to solve. A four-time Solheim Cup participant, the 38-year-old Texas native has spent much of the 19 months since being named captain working with analytics specialists to identify the players and pairings that would give the US the best chance at success. Lewis won’t get into specifics on her gameplan — keeping it hush-hush before putting it in place with the start of play on Friday — but believes inside the numbers lies the key to squeezing out every last bit of performance from her team.

The American team gets in some putting practice on Monday at Finca Cortesin. Alvarado.Foto

Given Europe’s recent victories, combined with an influx of young Americans emerging on the LPGA, Lewis’ team has just three players who have played on a winning US Solheim Cup squad: Lexi Thompson (2015, 2017), Danielle Kang (2017) and Angel Yin (2017). Three others — Megan Khang, Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing — have all been on the last two losing rosters. Meanwhile, five players will be making their Solheim debuts: Allisen Corpuz, Cheyenne Knight, Andrea Lee, Lilia Vu and Rose Zhang.

The good news? Frustration might become a source of motivation for the holdovers. “At some point, you just get tired of it,” US assistant captain Angela Stanford said. “And I think some of these ladies are hitting that point. Where it’s like, OK, you know, you lose one. And then you lose another one, and you’re like, well, that could have gone our way. But then you’re kind of tired of it. Kind of tired of losing. So, I think we’re there.”

Indeed, for those who are returning, there is a sense that enough is enough. “This is where we want to take it back, especially on European soil,” Yin said. “I think it would mean a lot when we take that Cup back, especially what happened at Gleneagles with Suzann making that last putt to essentially win the Cup when it was just a putt difference.”

“Everything [is on the line],” Khang said. “I think the USA is more hungry than ever.”

Mind you, data will only get you so far. Execution is what will be needed for the US to overcome their rivals. All the number-crunching doesn’t do any good if Korda or Kang struggle holing putts.

Stacy Lewis. Stuart Franklin

Arguably, the best strategy to deliver on the execution is to figure out a way to turn down the heat and allow the players to feel at ease, particularly those competing for the first time. Eight of the 12 on this year’s team are 26 and younger, including all five rookies.

“It’s a super young team, and it’s kind of the changing of the guards,” three-time US Solheim Cup captain Juli Inkster said. “I think Stacy is the perfect person to lead that charge.”

Should things not go the Americans way, the resulting scenario for the next Solheim Cup becomes even more foreboding than the one facing Lewis and crew this week. The next match will be played 354 days after the finish in Spain, the matches returning in 2024 to allow the event to be held in even years so as not to conflicting with the Ryder Cup after it was delayed a year due to Covid. The condescend run-up means that both Lewis and Pettersen will return as captains. And Europe would arrive at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Manassas, Virginia, holding all the momentum as they continue to close the gap against the US overall lead (10-8) with a chance to be the first team to four-peat.

“If we’re in that boat, I think there probably is a little bit more pressure,” Lewis said. “The question becomes, too, is what does the European team look like at that point? Whether they have a lot of changes, a changing of the guard.”

However, contemplating all of the implications of this Solheim Cup’s outcome and how the rosters might shake out are issues to grapple with come September 2024. The American focus remains on the pressing problem of grabbing hold of the Cup for the first time in six years.

“That’s a lot of thinking,” Yin laughed while explaining. “I don’t think we can think that far, because when we think that far, then it’s too many thoughts. So I think when the ball and the tee goes into the ground and the ball goes in the air, that’s all we have focused to beat whoever we’re playing against.”

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Amid all the hype and camaraderie, team-building and feuds, rookies learning and veterans passing on wisdom, this year’s Solheim Cup will also witness a quirky little first taking place on the sidelines.

I say quirky because, despite the team captains having 13 Solheim Cup appearances between them, they have never faced each other on the course in the biennial event that pits the best of Europe’s female players against their American counterparts.

As we brace for the clash at Finca Cortesin in Spain next week, European captain Suzann Pettersen and American skipper Stacy Lewis will lead out their troops and the duo will go head-to-head in the competition for the first time — albeit as non-playing captains.

Norwegian Pettersen has nine previous Cups under her belt, while Lewis, four years younger at 38, has made five appearances.

As you might imagine, Pettersen (36) has played a considerably greater number of matches than Lewis (16), but it is still surprising that they never crossed paths and crossed swords on the Solheim Cup fairways, especially given the pair’s numerous appearances in the foursomes and fourballs formats of the matchplay event.

However, both captains are solely focused on the job in hand and will be up for the fight in Andalusia.

“This is the biggest honour of my career. My best-golfing memories are from the Solheim Cup,” said Pettersen, who won the Cup four times as a player. “You are out there with your teammates, your friends, and you all work for one goal. You fight for your friends, and you share incredibly precious moments.”

Lewis, the youngest American captain in Solheim Cup history, added: “For me it’s about the environment. I want to create a really positive, fun environment where the girls can be successful.”

So, while they will not be fighting for their flags on the fairways this time around, rather they will be pulling the strings behind the scenes, it goes to show there is a first time for everything — and we all welcome a little more spice to the Solheim Cup…

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“Easy,” Lewis said of making her picks. “And a lot of it I think is probably more the stats and more the preparation that we had done prior to this week. Because they don’t know this — I have really been set on them for quite a few weeks now.”

The decision tree was trimmed in part due to Jessica Korda’s injury — and pregnancy — that removed the three-time veteran from consideration, leaving the only potential choice being taken care of when Andrea Lee supplanted Lexi Thompson for the final points spot at last week’s Canadian Open.

Lewis has five rookies on the roster, with Knight joining Lee, Rose Zhang, Allisen Corpuz and Lilia Vu as the US try to stop Europe from three-peating for the first time amid a run of the Americans losing four of the last six Solheim Cups.

“These five, they are rookies, but they are so experienced, just as far as the amount of golf they have been able to play,” Lewis said. “Rose [Zhang] is the only true rookie, but she’s probably got [more] experience than a lot of us combined, in big events, that is. So not worried about the rookies at all to be honest, and I love having Lexi, Danielle [Kang], those that have been around and played a lot. We are going to rely on them quite a bit just for behind the scenes and leading the way there.”

With an inexperienced roster including only two players in Kang and Thompson that have won previous Cups, here’s everything you need to know about Lewis’ picks with three weeks remaining until the matches are held at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain.

Ally Ewing

Ally Ewing. Chloe Knott/R&A

This will be the third Solheim Cup for the 30-year-old, her debut coming in 2019 as an injury replacement for Lewis. The three-time LPGA winner, most recently at the 2022 Kroger Queen City Championship last September, has consistently been at the top of leaderboards this summer, with four top-11 finishes in her previous seven starts. Earlier this month she had a five-stroke 36-hole lead at the AIG Women’s Open before settling for a T-6 finish. Ewing’s Solheim record is 2-5-1.

Cheyenne Knight

The fifth rookie for Lewis’ squad, Knight got her second LPGA victory in the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in July, a two-person team event. The 26-year-old has multiple ties to Lewis, both growing up in The Woodlands, Texas, as well as Knight winning the 2012 KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior Girls Open as an amateur. Knight finished 11th on U.S. points list. She is 12th this season in driving accuracy (80.5 percent)—one of four U.S. team members hitting over 80 percent of fairways, alongside Corpuz (82.5 percent), Lee (81.6 percent) and Khang (80.6 percent.)

Angel Yin

Angel Yin. Stacy Revere

Yin, like Ewing, also has played in two previous Solheim Cups (2017 and 2019). She surged onto the Solheim radar with a playoff loss at the Chevron Championship in April. She is the only golfer on the U.S. team without an LPGA victory, but has been a consistent player in the 2023 campaign, posting nine top-30s over 13 starts this year. Yin’s career Solheim record is 3-2-1.

US Solheim Cup Full Roster
Lilia Vu
Nelly Korda
Allisen Corpuz
Megan Khang
Jennifer Kupcho
Danielle Kang
Andrea Lee
Lexi Thompson
Rose Zhang
Ally Ewing
Cheyenne Knight
Angel Yin

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The US Solheim qualification has unsettled spots remaining, with five of its nine automatic qualifying places still on the line. This week’s CPKC Women’s Open marks the final chance for players to earn their way on to the team instead of relying on Captain Stacy Lewis to use one of her three picks on them to make it to the Solheim in just under a month. Lewis explained that her pool of potential players has fallen from 20-to-25 at the start of the qualification period down to 13-or-14 going into this week.

“I don’t think anything crazy is going to happen this week,” Lewis said. “I like where we are. We have some scenarios in our head of what’s going to happen. Could be some movement within the points and Rolex. In my head I don’t think there will be a lot of movement.”

The Americans have two automatic qualification categories to make the team, with seven spots earned from the points list and two off the Rolex Women’s World Rankings. Lilia Vu, Nelly Korda, Allisen Corpuz and Megan Khang are the first four to lock their spots on the team. Only five players could mathematically earn the last three points positions, currently held by Jennifer Kupcho (283), Danielle Kang (281) and Lexi Thompson (258). Andrea Lee (245.5) and Ally Ewing (232.5) could play their way in, earning up to 60 points this week for a victory. Alison Lee (197), in 10th, would fall just a point shy of Thompson’s current points with a win.

Jennifer Kupcho. Michael Reaves

Kupcho and Kang’s notable points lead in fifth and sixth place requires multi-layered scenarios to get them knocked out from a spot. For the 2022 Chevron Championship winner to lose her spot, Kupcho would need to score no points, Lee or Ewing has to win, Thompson requires a T-5 or better and Kang needs to finish T-20 or better. Regardless of everyone else’s performance, Kupcho can lock in a points position with at least a T-7. Kang will get knocked out of the top seven if she does not earn a point, a Lee or Ewing victory, and a Thompson T-6 or better. The three-time Solheim veteran can secure her spot independent of how everyone else does with a T-5 or better.

Thompson’s position is much less secure. Should she not earn any points this week, Lee can pass Thompson with a T-13 or better, and Ewing would pass Thompson with at least a T-4 finish. Ewing would tie Thompson in points with a fifth-place finish, but the tiebreaker goes to the Rolex rankings. Thompson’s currently 21st, and Ewing is 34th, likely resulting in Thompson winning the tiebreaker. Regardless of how Lee and Ewing play, Thompson can only lock her spot with a victory.

Lexi Thompson. Stacy Revere

However, Thompson holds quite the safety net for a roster spot because of her Rolex Rankings position. Those two spots get filled after the seven qualifiers from the points list are locked in.

The Rolex rankings positions are an incredibly close race, currently filled by Angel Yin (31) and Rose Zhang (32), who are in a virtual tie with a points average of 2.94. Ewing (34) looms only two spots away, with the next closest chasers in striking distance of Andrea Lee (44) and Cheyenne Knight (45). The improbable scenarios of Kupcho (28) and Kang (30) getting knocked off the points list would further add to the jostling of how the world rankings spots might play out. Given the tight race and Lewis not quite settled on a top 12, a strong finish is crucial this week at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club to secure an automatic spot.

“We wanted this event to be a part of our picks because I feel like it’s a championship event,” Lewis said.

On Wednesday, Lewis shed light on some of her team-building philosophy from what the analytics system — which the Ryder Cup team used the last three cups — reveals for roster construction possibilities. Lewis pointed out the system’s emphasis on players with solid performances on Bermuda grass and an ability to birdie from varying distances. Lewis highlighted Yin as a strong Bermuda player and Ewing as a great teammate to anyone based on her ability to hit fairways and score from numerous yardages consistently.

Lewis will make her three captain’s selections for the September 22-24 matches early next week.

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This week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is being held at one of the most historic venues in golf: Baltusrol Golf Club. Well, men’s golf, that is.

To be clear, Baltusrol has hosted big-time women’s events before. Four to be exact. A pair of US Women’s Opens and a pair of US Women’s Amateurs. But when you think of Baltusrol’s Lower Course and its iconic clubhouse, you think of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Janzen, Phil Mickelson and, yes, even Jimmy Walker. More recently, you think of rising star Michael Thorbjornsen, who won the U.S. Junior Amateur here in 2018 over fellow phenom Akshay Bhatia.

Stacy Lewis, who is competing in her 15th Women’s PGA in the Garden State this week, couldn’t help but notice the same thing during her initial clubhouse stroll.

“The biggest thing for me is you walk through that clubhouse, and you see the winners of all these past champions that have won big events here, and it’s guys, it’s guys, it’s guys,” Lewis said on Wednesday. “And then there’s maybe one here of a US [Women’s Am] or something like that.”

Stacy Lewis. USWO

In fairness, one of the members of the LPGA Tour’s Mount Rushmore (if such a thing were to exist), Mickey Wright, won the US Women’s Open on the Lower Course in 1961. But, up until this week, there’s been just one women’s event at Baltusrol since, and it took place on the just-as-good-but-not-as-storied Upper Course, also originally designed by the legendary AW Tillinghast. This week the ladies will take on the Gil Hanse-renovated Lower for the first time in over six decades. It is a huge and much-needed opportunity on the big stage for the women’s game.

“To just start a history here of women being on those pictures and being around that clubhouse, that’s the biggest thing for me of what’s changing in women’s golf,” Lewis said. “Because we’re doing this every year. We’re doing this every golf course we go play. It’s going to happen at Pebble, too. We’re changing the history of these golf courses. I’m just glad that the powers that be picked up the phone and said that they were ready for it.”

There is not a more historical figure at Baltusrol than the GOAT himself, Nicklaus, who won back-to-back US Opens on the Lower Course, 13 years apart. The first win in 1967 featured one of the most iconic shots in golf history, the Golden Bear hitting a 238-yard 1-iron into the 72nd green to set up a birdie for a final-round 65. There’s a plaque dedicated to the moment in the middle of the par-5 18th fairway, which is how Lewis learned about the shot’s existence during a practice round Tuesday.

“Oh, man. I learned about Jack Nicklaus’s 1-iron yesterday on the 18th hole,” Lewis said. “I honestly haven’t learned a lot about [the course] because I’ve been running from one thing to the next the last two days.”

Believe it or not, there’s even video of the shot despite it occurring in 1967. And it’s in colour.

In 1967, @jacknicklaus hit his famous 1-iron on the 72nd hole en route to his 4-stroke victory over Arnold Palmer in @usopengolf on Baltusrol Golf Club's Lower Course, where half the #USJuniorAm field is teeing it up today! pic.twitter.com/8OklLhK2J4

— USGA (@USGA) July 17, 2018

You’ll have to forgive Lewis for not being a massive golf nerd like the rest of us. The best way to learn about history is to see it and get a feel for it up close, which the women have not had a chance to do here at Baltusrol since 1985. This week, it’s their turn to make some history of their own.

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Kerry Haigh is ever the optimist. In Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course, the PGA of America’s chief championships officer has got a layout that’s close to everything he could ask for when setting up a major championship test: bouncy fairways, thick rough and firm greens that make the 6,621-yard par-71 track hosting this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship feel almost links like. The one thing he doesn’t have is a forecast working in his favour, with at least a 50-per-cent chance of rain predicted for all four days of competition.

“It is 50-per-cent of sunshine is what we hear,” Haigh joked when asked about the weather.

The thing is, Haigh has experience with rain at Baltusrol, having to navigate wet weather when the Lower Course hosted the 2016 PGA Championship. Conditions got so bad, the PGA of America implemented lift, clean and place during the final two rounds that were stacked back-to-back on Sunday.

Should Mother Nature interrupt the festivities again this week, it would be a shame as the top female players come to one of the game’s most historic courses. Baltusrol has hosted nine men’s majors, but just two women’s, the 1961 and 1985 US Women’s Open. In two weeks’ time, the top female players in the game will experience another legendary major championship venue for the first time, Pebble Beach making its debut as a US Women’s Open.

For the women to compete on these stellar courses provides a unique opportunity to showcase the women’s game. Casual golf fans may be more apt to tune into the coverage to see how the women will fare on courses they’ve seen the men play previously. The curiosity factor is bound to attract more viewers.

Thankfully, they’ll have lots of opportunity to watch. Twenty-six hours of live coverage from Baltusrol will be shown. At Pebble Beach, Saturday and Sunday rounds will be broadcast during prime-time hours, a first for a women’s championship

The opportunity to compete at these venues is something Stacy Lewis, a two-time major winner and the US Solheim Cup team captain, has been longing for since joining the LPGA Tour in 2009. Since KPMG and the PGA of America came on board to help run the former LPGA Championship nine years ago, the venues have become more high profile: Hazeltine National, Aronimink, Atlanta Athletic Club, Congressional and now Baltusrol.

When asked about what the next two events will mean for the women’s game, the LPGA veteran offered an intriguing answer. Rather than lament about it taking so long for the women to visit these premier venues, she noted how exciting a time this has become as she spoke about what the players are in store for in the coming weeks. And what players are most looking forward to in the experience.

“The biggest thing for me is you walk through that clubhouse, and you see the winners of all these past champions that have won big events here, and it’s guys, it’s guys, it’s guys, and then there’s maybe one here of a US Am or something like that,” Lewis said. “But to just start a history here of women being on those pictures and being around that clubhouse, that’s the biggest thing for me of what’s changing in women’s golf, because we’re doing this every year.

“We’re doing this every golf course we go play. It’s going to happen at Pebble, too. We’re changing the history of these golf courses. I’m just glad that the powers that be picked up the phone and said that they were ready for it.”

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