Mallon guides U.S., wild-card Wie into Solheim Cup

The Sports Xchange August 15, 2013The SportsXchange

Meg Mallon, captain of the United States Solheim Cup team, has learned to trust her instincts on the golf course. She's still learning what it takes to be captain of her country's 12-player roster.

 The Cup event begins with match play Friday in Parker, Colo., with two foursome matches in the morning and four four-ball matches in the afternoon. The first matches are scheduled for a 7:30 a.m. tee time at Colorado Golf Club. 

 "I made the picks. I had all these stats in front of me, but it really came down to my instincts," said Mallon, who solicited direct advice from five-time Ryder Cup captain Curtis Strange. 

 Mallon's team includes the two captain's picks, rookie Gerina Piller and enigmatic 23-year-old Michelle Wie, and 10 others who earned their spots based on points to date on the LPGA Tour schedule. 

 Wie might have been viewed as a preculiar call considering the world-ranked No. 82 female golfer hasn't won since 2010 and missed the cut in 16 of her past 40 events. To Mallon, Wie's distance off the tee was too enticing to keep at home. She said she didn't want "five to six birdies a day at home sitting on the couch. 

 "It's tough being a captain's pick. There's a lot of pressure that that player puts on themselves being a pick," Mallon said. "So Michelle Wie for me was a no-brainer in that position. She has Solheim Cup experience. She lives on this stage almost every day that she plays. So walking into this environment is not going to affect her." 

 Cristie Kerr was one of the U.S. 10-player team to speak out in support of the selection. 

She makes a lot of birdies," Cristie Kerr said. "And match play is a different animal. She can have a bad hole and then bounce back and make three birdies. Her length is going to be an advantage. It's about the golf course, and what game suits the course, and what player completes the team and has the personality that helps mesh the team together. That's Michelle."

Strange advised Mallon in July to remember why she was in this position. He said, "'You always trusted your gut and your instincts when you played golf, you should do the same thing as a captain,'" Mallon said.

 Europe won the Cup in 2011 at Killeen Castle in County Meath, Ireland, but has never won on American turf since the event began in 1990. With six returning players from the victorious 2011 team and a group of talented rookies, Captain Liselotte Neumann has no fear that her team will be the first to earn a successful title defense. 

"We've been waiting for two years to get our Cup back," said Paula Creamer, who is competing on her fifth U.S. Solheim Cup team this year. "We've never lost on home soil and we're all very aware of that. It's little bit of added pressure but I still think we can use our crowds to be great motivators for us and I think we'll all feed off of that."

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Solheim Cup Rosters

The Associated Press August 15, 2013AP - Sports

PARKER, Colo. (AP) -- At Colorado Golf Club

Friday-Sunday

c-Captain's pick

Europe

Captain: Liselotte Neumann

Carlota Ciganda, Spain

c-Caroline Hedwall, Sweden

c-Charley Hull, England

Karine Icher, France

Caroline Masson, Germany

Catriona Matthew, Scotland

Azahara Munoz, Spain

Anna Nordqvist, Sweden

Suzann Pettersen, Norway

Beatriz Recari, Spain

c-Giulia Sergas, Italy

c-Jodi Ewart Shadoff, England

United States

Captain: Meg Mallon

Paula Creamer

Cristie Kerr

Jessica Korda

Brittany Lang

Stacy Lewis

Brittany Lincicome

c-Gerina Piller

Morgan Pressel

Lizette Salas

Angela Stanford

Lexi Thompson

c-Michelle Wie

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PGA Championship eyes likely July date in 2016

 

Mark Lamport-Stokes August 15, 2013

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - With last week's PGA Championship at Oak Hill now consigned to the record books, organizers are preparing for the prospect of a July date when the 2016 edition of the year's final major is staged.

The PGA Championship usually takes place in early August but, with golf reappearing as an Olympic sport at the 2016 Games after an absence of more than a century, the schedule for the four majors that year is almost certain to be revamped.

 Although the competition schedule has yet to announced for the August 5-21 Games in Rio de Janeiro, the golfing component is expected to make up two weeks, leaving the PGA Championship with very little room to manouevre during a hectic late summer.

 "I don't see how we can do anything other than move it (the PGA Championship) up earlier," PGA of America president Ted Bishop told Reuters.

 "2016 is also a Ryder Cup year and I know the PGA of America wants the PGA Championship to figure in on who makes the United States Ryder Cup team.

 "So for us to go after the Olympics with the scheduling of the (PGA Tour's) FedExCup (playoffs), I don't see how that could happen."

 The British Open, the third major championship of the season, is generally held in mid-July but Bishop was not at all concerned that the PGA Championship might lose some of its luster if it was held so soon afterwards in 2016.

"I have no doubt about the tradition of all four majors, they are going to keep their place in golf in 2016," the silver-haired Bishop said.

"The bigger question is going to be, when 2016 is over with, is the impact of the Olympics really worth the strain that it puts on the scheduling for the four majors in golf?"

'HOLY GRAIL'

With the four major titles long established as the 'Holy Grail' for professional golfers, many have questioned whether the return of the sport to the Olympics should perhaps have featured amateur players only.

"I have been kind of a traditionalist with the Olympics from day one," said Bishop. "I always enjoyed basketball in the Olympics, from a United States standpoint, when it was our best college players who were amateurs not professionals.

 "The interesting question would be to ask one of the top PGA Tour players or European Tour players, 'Would you rather win a major championship or would you rather win a gold medal in the Olympics?'

 "But until the format is a lot clearer to people on exactly what it is going to be in the 2016 Olympics, it's very hard to say what the impact of the Games is going to be on professional golf."

A playing format of 72 holes of individual strokeplay has been proposed by golf to maximize the number of countries capable of competing and winning a medal at the Games, with one week designated for the men and another for the women.

 However, the International Olympic Committee does not plan on finalizing the competition schedule for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro until next year.

 First held in 1916, the PGA Championship adopted a matchplay format until it switched to strokeplay for the 1958 edition won by American Don Finsterwald.

Though there have been a few suggestions in recent years for the PGA Championship to revert back to matchplay to give it more of a unique identity, Bishop does see any need for change.

"Year-in and year-out, the PGA Championship is the strongest field in major championship golf," he said. "It's the only all-professional field among the four major championships.

 "We have produced a lot of drama in the last decade. Our championship totally stands on its merits. I think everybody enjoys seeing players have some risk-reward opportunities with the way we set the golf coursesup."

 (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Steve Keating)

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