Norway’s Suzann Pettersen was named last week as the European captain for the 2023 Solheim Cup, during an official venue handover and news conference at Finca Cortesín, in Costa del Sol, Andalucía, Spain, where the next match will take place Sept. 22-24, 2023.
The two-time major champion has represented Europe at the Solheim Cup nine times as a player and twice as a vice captain. She has been part of five triumphs, including Europe’s past two victories at Gleneagles in Scotland and at Inverness Club in Ohio.
“I am simply thrilled to be named Solheim Cup captain,” said Pettersen, 40. “This is the biggest honour of my career.
“Every captain is different and brings their unique skills to the table. I am very much looking forward to bringing my experience to the role and working hard over the next 22 months to defend the cup on Spanish soil.”
Tommy Frist of Nashville, Tennessee, and Andie Smith of Hobe Sound, Florida, were named the 2021 recipients of the USGA-AJGA Presidents’ Leadership Award, the associations announced last week.
The award honors one male and one female junior golfer annually who demonstrate leadership, character and community service through their involvement with the Leadership Links program: a joint initiative founded in 2005 to develop junior golfers through volunteerism.
“Tommy’s and Andie’s extraordinary desire to serve others provides a source of aspiration that the entire game of golf can strive toward,” USGA president Stu Francis said.
The USGA and the R&A announced Wednesday a Model Local Rule to further limit the use of green-reading materials. MLR G-11 enables a committee to limit players to using only the yardage book that it has approved for use in the competition.
This local rule is intended only for the highest levels of competitive golf and only for competitions where it is realistic for the committee to undertake an approval process for yardage books. It will be available starting Jan. 1.
The local rule gives a committee the ability to establish an officially approved yardage book for a competition so that the diagrams of putting greens show only minimal detail (such as significant slopes, tiers or false edges that indicate sections of greens). In addition, the local rule limits the handwritten notes that players and caddies are allowed to add to the approved yardage book.
The purpose behind the local rule is to ensure that players and caddies use only their eyes and feel to help them read the line of play on the putting green.
TAP-INS
The European Tour’s “Every Birdie Counts” campaign raised £125,000 to support the effort to deliver vaccines globally (READ MORE). … The second edition of the European Golf Participation Report, published using research conducted by Sports Marketing Surveys, shows that more than 10.6 million golfers play in Europe, an increase from 7.9 million when last monitored in 2016 (READ MORE).
Staff and Wire Reports