The surprise is that it came as no surprise. When Stacy Lewis was announced as the captain of the 2024 Solheim Cup – which will be played at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Reston, Virginia, 19 months from now – you could almost see the collective shrug among those who follow the women’s game.
Of course Lewis was going to be captain for a second time, even though her 2023 captaincy is still more than half a year away. It would also not surprise a soul if Suzann Pettersen headed the European squad for a second time. That’s the way things are done these days.
Only part of that decision is because the matches are in back-to-back years due to COVID-19. When it comes to taking a page from someone else’s book, decision makers for the Solheim Cup have chosen to mimic the Presidents Cup model of retaining captains instead of the Ryder Cup, in which captains often cycle through like contestants at a beauty pageant.
Look at recent history. Juli Inkster captained the U.S. Solheim Cup team three times, going 2-1 and losing the third time only because of a late Sunday rally and a putt by Pettersen that will go down as one of the most memorable moments in women’s professional sports.
"At the end of the day, the (2023 and 2024) teams are going to be very similar. Not a whole lot is going to change from one year to the next. I definitely think it’s to our advantage to do it (this way), that we just try to make things as easy as possible.”
Stacy Lewis
The European captain to whom Inkster lost in 2019 at Gleneagles was Catriona Matthew, who repeated the feat in 2021 at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. But before that, going back to the launch of the Solheim Cup in 1990, Kathy Whitworth captained the U.S. team twice (1990 and ’92); Judy Rankin also served as captain in back-to-back matches (1996, ’98); likewise Patty Sheehan (2002, ’03). On the European side, Mickey Walker captained the first four teams before Dale Reid (2000, ’02), Catrin Nilsmark (2003, ’05) and Alison Nicholas (2009, ’11) all took two turns apiece at the helm.
That harkens to the early days of the Presidents Cup when Jack Nicklaus captained four out of the first seven U.S. teams, including three in a row. Fred Couples fell in behind Nicklaus and captained the next three U.S. squads. It’s only since 2015 that U.S. Presidents Cup teams have rotated captains every contest.
On the International side, the late, great Peter Thomson captained three in a row beginning in 1996, followed by Gary Player, who took the reins three times. A pre-LIV Greg Norman held the captaincy for two stints – 2009 and 2011 – and Nick Price went out three times, in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
That’s not the Ryder Cup model. The last U.S. Ryder Cup captain to repeat was Ben Hogan in 1947 and 1949, back when captains also played. Hogan took the helm again in 1967 as a non-playing captain. The only other three-peat captain was Walter Hagen, who captained the first six U.S. Ryder Cup teams.
Others have wanted to captain again, especially in recent times. Paul Azinger, arguably the only U.S. captain to enter the Ryder Cup as a massive underdog and pull out a win, wanted to test his pod system on European soil in 2010. But the PGA of America went with Corey Pavin in Wales and lost. Davis Love III wanted another shot after Europe came back on Sunday to win at Medinah, but Tom Watson got hauled out from retirement, and we all know how that ended. Love got another chance in 2016 as a massively talented U.S. team won. But modern-era repeat appearances by U.S. Ryder Cup captains are a rarity.
Europe has repeated captains more often in the Ryder Cup, going way back to Charles Whitcomb, who took the helm in four of the first eight matches. Henry Cotton (twice), Dai Rees (five times), Eric Brown (twice), Bernard Hunt (twice), John Jacobs (twice), Tony Jacklin (four times) and Bernard Gallacher (three times) all got multiple shots at heading European teams. But each of the past 13 European Ryder Cup teams since 1997 has been helmed by a different captain.
The amazing thing about both sides is that the one-and-done model has become more popular as the captaincy has become more complicated. In Hogan’s day, a captain made the pairings and told you what color sweater to wear. Today, captains have to worry about everything from uniform fabrics to the food in the team rooms. You would think that experience would be more of an asset now than in bygone times.
Lewis certainly believes that.
“A lot of things are going to end up overlapping, so the players, we’re not going to need to require as much of their time,” Lewis said. “If you ask the Solheim Cup committee, they’re going to say, ‘We did this for the players.’ … At the end of the day, the (2023 and 2024) teams are going to be very similar. Not a whole lot is going to change from one year to the next. I definitely think it’s to our advantage to do it (this way), that we just try to make things as easy as possible.”
Lewis also thinks Pettersen is the likely pick for Europe. “When you really think about the logistics of it, you would basically have your teams trying to work with two captains at the same time, trying to plan different things,” she said. “And then both captains asking things from the players, trying to overlap events, the ’24 captain stepping on the shoes of the ’23 captain. It would create a very awkward scenario. So, I wouldn’t be surprised (if Europe were to retain Pettersen). I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”
Neither would anyone else.
E-MAIL STEVE
Top: Juli Inkster (left) captained the U.S. Solheim Cup team three times; Stacy Lewis is set to lead the U.S. team back-to-back in 2023 and 2024.
Stuart Franklin, Getty Images