Golf:Alison Nicholas is pleased with the way her European Solheim Cup team is "quietly taking shape" ahead of the biennial team event at Killeen Castle in Co Meath next September.
At the top of the pile is veteran Laura Davies, who leads the Ladies European Tour (LET) Solheim Cup points list and is set to make a remarkable 12th appearance in the event come September.
The evergreen Davies (47), who has won 79 times around the world including five titles in the 2010 season, is the only player to have competed in all 11 Solheim Cups since the inaugural event at Lake Nona, Florida in 1990.
Put another way the English golfer has played in 43 of the 48 matches available to her and with 23.5 points she is just one half point away from equaling the all-time points record held by Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam, who is one of Nicholas’s vice captains at Killeen.
Nicholas yesterday confirmed she will name her 12-player European side on Monday, August 29th following the publication of the weekly women’s world rankings. The US team will be announced a week earlier in Oregon on Sunday, August 21st.
Nicholas’s team will comprise the top four players on the LET’s Solheim Cup points ranking, the next best four players from the world rankings, with a further four captain's picks selected from players who are members of the LET.
England’s Melissa Reid, last season’s Turkish Airlines Ladies Open winner, is second behind Davies and looking to make her Solheim Cup debut.
Rebecca Coakley is currently the best-placed Irish player at tied 18th in the standings with Hazel Kavanagh 48th.
Norwegian Suzann Pettersen is the leading European in the world rankings at number five and is followed by Anna Nordqvist, Maria Hjorth, Catriona Matthew and Sophie Gustafson, who won the AIB Ladies Irish Open last year at Killeen Castle.
“With fewer than seven months to go until tee off at Killeen Castle, I am pleased with the way the European Solheim Cup team is quietly taking shape,” said Nicholas.
“The early part of this season will offer the opportunity for all of the European players to demonstrate their skills as they seek to qualify for the team and it will be exciting to watch who will carry their form forward and what new talents emerge.”
The US won the 2009 event 16-12 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois and lead the overall competition 8-3, though Europe are 3-2 ahead when the event has been played in Europe.
The Killeen Castle showpiece will take place between Friday, September 23rd and Sunday, September 25th.
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