Stacy Lewis has U.S. captaincy for Solheim Cup extended through 2024
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Stacy Lewis remains deep in her preparation for the this year’s Solheim Cup in Spain, where the two-time major champion will serve as the youngest American captain since the event matching teams from the United States and Europe began in 1990.
That doesn’t mean Lewis, 37, hasn’t been peeking ahead, even if only briefly, to next year, when the Solheim Cup comes back to domestic soil at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va. That event will mark the first time the competition will take place in the national capital region.
Lewis’s forward thinking stems from the impending announcement that her captaincy, according to the U.S. Solheim Cup Committee, has been extended through next year, with official confirmation set for Monday morning when the former No. 1 player in the world arrives in the District for a promotional visit.
“It’s a huge honor to be asked once,” Lewis said in a telephone interview exclusively with The Washington Post. “And to be trusted to do it again before I’ve even done it is really an honor. To get to do one in Europe and do one in the U.S. is going to be really cool.”
Lewis has an special affinity for international team events, first going 5-0 as amateur in the Curtis Cup while playing at Arkansas. Since turning professional she has been part of every U.S. Solheim Cup team in some capacity since 2011, when she won her first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Lewis has been a player on the U.S. team four times and twice was an assistant. She was in line to play for then-U. S. captain Juli Inkster in 2019 until an injury forced her to withdraw, but she remained with the team as an assistant before Pat Hurst tabbed her to be vice captain in 2021.
The immediate mandate facing Lewis is to end a skid of consecutive losses to Europe, most recently two years ago at Inverness Club in Toledo. The Americans fell, 15-13, despite rallying from a deficit of 3½ to ½ on the first day. But the team managed only a split of the 12 singles matches on the final day.
This year’s Solheim Cup takes place from Sept. 22-24 at Finca Cortesin in Casares, Andalucia, and qualifying lasts through the summer. The top seven players on the U.S. points list qualify automatically, and next two highest ranked players who otherwise have not qualified also secure spots.
The final three players are captain’s picks that will be made after the CP Women’s Open in Vancouver in late August.
Next year’s Solheim Cup, meantime, marks a return to an even-year rotation, opposite the Ryder Cup. It’s the second time the biennial competition will be played in consecutive years (2002 and ’03).
“We kind of have a ’23 pile and a ’24 pile,” Lewis said. “Kind of just trying to check off what we can. I know this spring is going to be really busy, just getting final preparations done for ’23, but then we’ll have to do bags and clothes and kind of do all your softgoods again before we even go to Spain.
“There are certain things that will have to be done [for next year] prior to playing in Spain, but the majority of the focus is on ’23 and just trying to get all that squared away.”