Stacy Lewis names 2024 U.S. Solheim Cup assistant captains

With such little turnaround time between the 2023 Solheim Cup’s end and the 2024 occasion kicking off later this yr, few modifications will happen. However we discovered about just a few of them on Tuesday.

In a press convention at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership in Gainesville, Va., which is able to host the 2024 showdown on Sept. 13-15, U.S. captain Stacy Lewis introduced her 4 assistant captains: Morgan Pressel, Angela Stanford, Paula Creamer and Brittany Lincicome.

Lewis, the captain of the U.S. team last year, additionally had Pressel and Stanford on as assistants 5 months in the past, when the U.S. and Europe tied 14-14 in Spain. Creamer and Lincicome are new additions, bumping the quantity of assistants to 4. Natalie Gulbis, nevertheless, who was additionally one of many crew’s assistant captains final yr, won’t be again.

“It was really a tough choice to determine the place I needed to go along with placing this group collectively,” Lewis stated. “, all through that course of, type of got here up with the concept of including a fourth. Needed to undergo the channels to make that occur, however I’m excited. I believe this group goes to work rather well collectively.”

Creamer, a seven-time Solheim Cupper, is a 10-time LPGA Tour winner and received the 2010 U.S. Girls’s Open. Lincicome has received eight occasions on the LPGA Tour, together with twice on the Chevron Championship, an LPGA main. She performed on six Solheim Cup groups.

As for the odd-captain out, Lewis stated her dialog with Gulbis was “in all probability the toughest factor I’ve needed to do on this entire captaincy.”

“It actually boiled down us being ready for the longer term,” Lewis stated. “Natalie was nice. She did every little thing we requested. She was so optimistic. I do know the women cherished having her there. I simply felt such as you look again — particularly when Juli [Inkster] was captain for these three years — she had the identical assistants each time. I really feel like that set us again slightly bit in not having our captains put together for the longer term. So I personally assume all people needs to be an assistant at the very least as soon as if not twice previous to being captain.

“There are such a lot of shifting elements and a lot to be taught,” she continued. “It was actually extra in regards to the future, and sadly that type of took Natalie out of the combination.”

When requested if it was a gaggle that selects Solheim Cup management that didn’t see Gulbis as a future captain, or Gulbis herself who wasn’t , Lewis introduced up the casual standards that’s used, which requires previous Solheim Cup expertise and somebody who ideally has received main titles.

“I believe you look in our previous, aside from [Rosie Jones], that’s what we now have caught to,” Lewis stated. “So I simply see us going that approach sooner or later as a result of we now have so many gamers which have received majors which can be principally in line to turn into captains that I believe we’ll proceed that approach.”

Gulbis had one victory throughout her LPGA profession, successful the Evian Masters in 2007. She by no means received a serious, as a substitute recording seven prime 10s in 55 begins. Her greatest end in a serious was a T3 on the 2006 ANA Inspiration.

The Solheim Cup is a biennial crew occasion, however officers elected to carry it once more in 2024 to maneuver it to an even-year schedule, so it runs reverse the Ryder Cup, which, as a result of a Covid-19 delay in 2020, is now performed throughout odd-numbered years.

The U.S. and Europe tied 14-14 in the Solheim Cup last year, though Europe retained the Cup. The Individuals maintain the all-time collection edge, 10 to eight.

Josh Berhow

Golf.com Editor

Josh Berhow is the managing editor at GOLF.com. The Minnesota native graduated with a journalism diploma from Minnesota State College in Mankato. You’ll be able to attain him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.