​​The LPGA Tour marches into 2022 with a new commissioner at the helm, a record purse and 34 tournaments on the schedule, the most since 2017.

Only nine weeks removed from Jin Young Ko’s thrilling finish to win LPGA Player of the Year over Nelly Korda, the best women’s golfers in the world tee off at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando this weekend. As the calendar year begins, here’s what we’re looking forward to in the tour’s 72nd season.

Korda versus Ko, Part Two? Not so fast

Ko’s victory at the CME Group Tour Championship in mid-November put the finishing touches on a budding rivalry between the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the Rolex World Rankings. Ko and Korda closed out the season as if they were competing in a heavy-weight boxing match, combining to win the final four events. Ko came away with the Player of the Year award, her second in the last three years, as well as the money title for the third consecutive year.

As the golfers enter the 2022 season, however, past returns don’t guarantee future results.

The last time the top two players with the most victories repeated the following season was in 2015, when Lydia Ko and Inbee Park (and Stacy Lewis) won three times each in 2014 and then five times each in 2015. Other than that, you have to go back to 2002-03, when future Hall of Famers Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak led the tour in victories in back-to-back years. Sorenstam had 11 wins in 2002 and five in 2003, while Pak recorded five in 2002 and three in 2003 alongside Candie Kung.

Achieving that level of success in consecutive seasons isn’t easy against the LPGA’s deep field of challengers. Korda begins her season at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions on Thursday, while Ko works with her coach, Si Woo Lee, in Palm Springs, Calif.

The lingering Vare Trophy question

The LPGA Tour has two end-of-season awards that factor into a player’s selection to the Hall of Fame: the Player of the Year award and the Vare Trophy. The player with the lowest scoring average on tour wins the Vare. So, after Ko and Korda dominated the LPGA in 2021, it would be reasonable to assume those awards ended up in their hands.

Korda did finish the season with the lowest scoring average on tour, 68.774, edging out Ko’s 68.866. Lydia Ko, however, won the Vare because she met the minimum-round requirement for the award. To be eligible for the Vare, a player must record 70 rounds or 70 percent of the official tournament rounds. Even though five canceled events during the 2021 season removed 20 possible rounds, 70 remained the lesser number. As a result, Ko (67 rounds) and Korda (62) each narrowly missed eligibility for the Vare.

What’s even harder to swallow about their disqualification is it causes them to miss out on an LPGA Hall of Fame point. The LPGA requires that a player win a season-ending award or a major to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. Players earn one point for a regular tour win and one for securing either of the two season-ending awards, the Vare Trophy or the Player of the Year. Players gain two points for major championship victories.

In total, a golfer must accumulate 27 points and ten years of tour service to enter the Hall of Fame.

With seven LPGA victories and a major title, Korda has eight points. Ko, meanwhile, has seventeen points thanks to 12 LPGA victories, two majors and three end-of-season awards (2019 Vare; 2019 and 2021 Player of the Year).

Only four players have played their way into the LPGA’s Hall of Fame since the turn of the century: Annika Sorenstam (2003), Karrie Webb (2005), Se Ri Pak (2007) and Inbee Park (2016). Lorena Ochoa meets the points requirement, but not the years of service.

LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan acknowledged the controversy surrounding Vare Trophy eligibility during a media roundtable at the CME Group Tour Championship in November.

“It’s not the first time that’s happened,” she said. “I think over the years, there have been top players who have not been eligible for the trophy … Now that the purses are bigger, the players can play fewer events and still make a really good living.

“So, we have to step back and evaluate. Are those the right numbers? Are we allowing our best players to win this really prestigious award? We’re really open to evaluating that in the offseason.”

As the first tournament of the season gets underway this week, there have been no updates to the award’s requirements.

How far will the purse go?

On Jan. 7, former LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan made one of his first landmark decisions as United States Golf Association CEO, adding Promedica as a presenting sponsor of the U.S. Women’s Open and nearly doubling the tournament’s purse from $5.5 million to $10 million this year. Over the next five years, it will rise to as much as $12 million.

The U.S. Women’s Open represents the crown jewel of recent LPGA purse surges, with the full-schedule purse up to $90.2 million from $69.2 million last season. The AIG Women’s Open leapt from $4.5 million in 2020 to $6.8 million in 2022. Likewise, the CME Group Tour Championship increased its purse from $5 million in 2021 to $7 million this year.

Chevron took over as presenting sponsor of the first major of the year in March, and increased the purse of the tournament from $3.1 million to $5 million.

Marcoux Samaan, who’s seeking to bridge the pay gap between the LPGA and PGA Tours at all levels, said recently that she expects more purse increase announcements.

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Patty Tavatanakit is poised for a breakout 2022 season. (Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)

Thailand’s rise to LPGA prominence

At the 2021 ANA Inspiration, Patty Tavatanakit blitzed the field with a 323-yard driving average to claim her first LPGA Tour victory and deliver Thailand its second-ever LPGA major championship. She also became the first rookie to win the ANA Inspiration since Juli Inkster in 1984.

Tavatanakit, Ariya Jutanugarn, Moriya Jutanugarn and Pajaree Annanarukarn form the group of Thai players who won on the LPGA last year, the second-most champions from any country behind the five from the United States (Nelly Korda [4], Austin Ernst, Ally Ewing, Jessica Korda and Ryann O’Toole.) South Korea had three winners last year (Ko [5], Inbee Park, Hyo Joo Kim), and Japan had two (Nasa Hataoka [2], Yuka Saso).

Atthaya Thitikul first made a statement five years ago, when she became the youngest player ever to win a professional golf tournament at 14 years and four months old at the Ladies European Thailand Championship. She nearly left her mark on the LPGA last season, but Ariya Jutanugarn ripped the victory out of her hands when she shot a 63 on Sunday at the Honda LPGA Thailand. Instead, Thitikul dominated on the Ladies European Tour, winning twice and finishing in the top 10 in 13 of her 17 starts. After earning her LPGA status through Q-Series, the tour’s qualifying school, Thitikul is 20th in the Rolex World Rankings, the second-highest ranking for a Thai player behind Tavatanakit (12th).

Thitikul is also the second-highest ranked 2022 LPGA rookie, with Ayaka Furue of Japan behind her at 14th. Hinako Shibuno, who declined LPGA status after winning the 2019 AIG Women’s Open, also earned her card through Q-Series and is 37th in the world.

The race for No. 1

Since the creation of the Rolex Rankings in 2006, only Jin Young Ko (2020), Lydia Ko (2016), Yani Tseng (2012) and Lorena Ochoa (2008, 2009) have held onto the No. 1 spot for an entire calendar year. In the 16 years of its existence, fifteen players have earned the label as the best player in the world. The rankings formula uses an average weight of points earned from each tournament, with more points available at majors than at regular events. And the stronger the field, which is based on the rankings of the players in the tournament, the more points a player can earn.

Korda enters the 2022 season having spent 27 weeks atop the world and counting, the most ever for an American. She and Ko are in a tier of their own, averaging 9.73 and 9.64 points, respectively, ahead of Lydia Ko’s third-place 5.78 average.

While the top two players have a notable lead, it’s not an insurmountable difference, as Korda showed last year. Korda entered 2021 with a 6.34 point average and sat third in the rankings before her win at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship vaulted her to No. 1.

The most room for ranking volatility comes in June, when two majors are played over the course of the month. The U.S. Women’s Open will be held at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club from June 2-5, followed by the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club from June 23-26.

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LPGA icon Annika Sorenstam might not be done just yet. (Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

The return of Annika Sorenstam?

Golf is one of the few sports where an all-time great can return years later and still hold their own. Last January, Sorenstam made the cut at the 2021 Gainbridge LPGA — held at her home course of Lake Nona Golf Club — in her first LPGA start in 13 years. It was the Swede’s 297th made cut in 308 career LPGA starts, and 50th consecutive made cut.

Now Sorenstam, a 72-time LPGA champion, can prove her return is official in 2022. Sorenstam earned her status for the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open by winning the U.S. Senior Women’s Open last year. While she has yet to commit to play, the script is set for her to enter. Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club, the home of this year’s U.S. Women’s Open, is where Sorenstam won her second major title in 1996.

The 51-year-old is playing in the celebrity division of the Tournament of Champions this week.

Kent Paisley is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering golf and the LPGA. He also contributes to Golf Digest. Follow him on Twitter @KentPaisley.

NAPLES, Fla. — The CME Group Tour Championship’s much-anticipated duel between Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda for the LPGA Tour’s Rolex Player of the Year delivered over the weekend. After the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world won each of the last two tournaments heading into the final event of the LPGA season, the stage was set for one last battle.

Ko emerged victorious at Tiburón Golf Club, shooting a 63 on Sunday to finish at a tournament-record 23-under par and defeat Nasa Hataoka by one stroke. The win was the South Korean’s 12th career LPGA title and earned her Player of the Year honors for the second time in three years.

Here are my five takeaways from the tour finale.

1. Jin Young Ko puts exclamation point on three-year LPGA reign

Ko has ten victories over the last three years, the most of any golfer on the LPGA Tour over that span. The next closest is Nelly Korda with six. With the victory Sunday, Ko became one of 14 golfers to win two Player of the Year awards in the LPGA’s history, and she accomplished it in 81 starts. Ko backed up her win at the 2020 CME Group Tour Championship, becoming the first player to defend her title and the first to win five times in a single year since Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016, doing so over her final nine starts of the season.

Ko accomplished all of this despite playing on an injured left wrist; she spent a half hour with a physio, and instead of warming up on the range as she usually would, the 26-year-old only took swings with a 52-degree wedge to get loose. The lack of preparation did not stop her from displaying the full prowess of her game, hitting a mind-numbing 63 consecutive greens in regulation to close out the tournament.

“Honestly, it was definitely the ‘Jin Young Ko Show’ today,” Korda said. “It was really cool to witness. Obviously, I wish I could have kind of given it a better run.”

When Ko won $1.2 million last year, she bought a house in Dallas with the money. This year, she said the $1.5 million winner’s check is going into her savings account.

2. Nasa Hataoka shines, eyes 2022 majors

The five-time Tour winner birdied 17 of the last 28 holes to nearly catch Ko on Sunday, finishing just one stroke behind her. But instead of getting caught up in the duel between Ko and Korda, the world No. 8 stuck to her plan at Tiburón Golf Club.

“I have one thing in my mind — routine,” Hataoka explained. “There were a few times where there was a lot of pressure, but I was able to think simple, which helped me a lot today.”

The 22-year-old finished as runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Open in June, losing in a playoff to Yuka Saso at Olympic Club. It was the second time Hataoka had lost in a playoff at a major after the 2018 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. The Japanese star continues to use a U.S. Women’s Open ball marker to remind her how close she was to her goal of winning a major in her first five years on tour.

“This year was the fifth year, so I really wanted to win [a major] this year,” Hataoka said. “Obviously it won’t change, my goal won’t change. I still have strong feelings for winning majors.”

3. Nelly Korda’s historic season overshadowed

The world No. 1 maintained perspective on her season as she walked off the course in Naples on Sunday. The four-time Tour winner and Olympic gold medalist in 2021 became the first American to surge to the top of the Rolex World Rankings since Stacy Lewis in 2014. While losing out on Player of the Year was a disappointment, Korda learned this year just how much she can accomplish on the LPGA Tour.

“If I set my mind to it, I can do anything,” Korda said. “I had a good year, and I’m just going to go back and kind of think about my year and kind of let it kind of soak in, which I’m super excited about, and get ready for next year.”

Korda would’ve gone home with even more hardware if not for the LPGA’s Vare Trophy minimum requirement of 70 rounds played during the year. With her 17-under finish at the Tour Championship, the 23-year-old averaged 68.774 in 2021, besting Ko’s 68.866 for the lowest score on tour. Korda finished 62 rounds this year, while Ko played 67. But it was Lydia Ko who won the Vare Trophy after finishing with the third-best scoring average of 63.329 in 73 rounds of play.

Adding to the historic nature of Korda and Ko’s battle this weekend, 2021 marked the first time in the 72-year history of the LPGA that two players averaged scores in the 68s in a single season. Only Annika Sorenstam in 2002 (68.7) and 2004 (68.7) and Sei Young Kim in 2020 (68.69) have accomplished that feat previously.

4. A streak continues at the Tour Championship

Players ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the world have won eight of the last nine Tour Championships. The best and brightest on tour continue to shine at Tiburón Golf Club since the tournament moved there in 2013.

The four players tied for the lead going into Sunday’s final round — Celine Boutier, Hataoka, Korda and Ko — all won on tour this season. Boutier, Korda and Ko combined for the last six LPGA Tour victories, while Hataoka won twice. The final grouping of Hataoka, Ko and Korda featured three of the four players who won multiple times in 2021, combining for ten wins.

5. CME’s new purse shows increased commitment to women’s golf

On Friday, the LPGA announced its new schedule for 2022, headlined by CME increasing the tournament purse to $7 million in 2022, up from $5 million this year. In addition, the winner will receive a new first-place prize of $2 million, more than Ko’s and Sei Young Kim’s $1.5 million prize in 2019.

The investment in the Tour Championship has surged in recent years, with the first-place check growing 300 percent from $500,000 in 2018 to $2 million in 2022.

Kent Paisley is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering golf and the LPGA. He also contributes to Golf Digest. Follow him on Twitter @KentPaisley.

The No. 1 position in the Rolex Rankings has been the forbidden fruit of the LPGA Tour. Once players get a taste of the lead, they often have a hard time holding onto it. Jin Young Ko is well aware of the challenge.

Shanshan Feng relinquished her spot at the top in April of 2018 and now plans to retire at the end of the year. Ariya Jutanugarn, Inbee Park and Sung Hyun Park traded the No. 1 ranking for the rest of 2018 and into early 2019. Ko moved into the lead briefly in the summer of 2019, swapping spots with Park, until she grabbed hold of it for good at the 2019 Evian Championship. Ko’s 100-week reign finally came to an end in June, when Nelly Korda won the 2021 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and secured No. 1.

Ko responded with a victory at the Volunteers of America Classic over the Fourth of July, but after posting three finishes outside of the top 40, the gap between Korda and Ko at No. 2 had widened. Ko last finished outside the top 40 three times in a season in 2018.

So, after the Tokyo Olympics in August, Ko was looking to make some changes. To help her find her consistently dominant form, her team called Si Woo Lee, Ko’s swing coach from 2017 to April 2020. Ko flew from Tokyo to her home in South Korea to meet with Lee and begin the process that’s lifted her to a late-season surge of three wins in her last six starts.

The first step in Ko and Lee’s reunion was to get back to the roots of Ko’s swing.

“[We] reviewed all the swing videos since 2017,” Lee said via text. “Checked all the details that we missed over the last months we were not together.”

Lee laughed as he tried to recall the number of videos she’s sent him over the years. They discussed the differences they noticed in her swing evolution and trained together three to four days a week over six to seven weeks to help Ko, then an eight-time LPGA winner, get back on track.

“I had a lot of problems with my swing, so I can’t pick just one thing,” Ko said at the Cognizant Founder’s Cup. “Well, just basic one. Just keep my spine or just don’t move from right to left.”

Ko’s return to basics was a key tenet of Lee’s instruction.

“It is simple,” Lee said. “I always focus on the basic. I just add some tips that Jin Young could have more balance by using large muscles. It would help her to have simple and stiff golf swings. The tips for a world No. 1 player’s swing are using large muscles from basic skills.”

The AIG Women’s Open, the final major of 2021, began less than two weeks after the Olympics. Instead of having Ko rush back to competition, they decided to continue drilling her form, especially given the month-long gap between the AIG Women’s Open and the rest of the year’s tournaments.

“When we decided to not to attend the AIG Women’s Open,” Lee said, “Jin Young was not perfectly ready for the tournament.”

The British event has a foothold in Ko’s memory. In 2015, a 20-year-old Ko held a three-shot lead at the Ricoh British Women’s Open (as it was named then) before Hall of Famer Inbee Park chased her down. Ko finished as runner-up, but her career only ascended from there.

“It was a really difficult decision not to play the British Open, because I really love to play in the British,” Ko said at the Cambia Portland Classic in September.

Instead, Ko and Lee continued to work on her swing mechanics and toward Lee’s goal for the 26-year-old.

“My new target for her is raising her performance toward winning competitive ranks,” Lee said. “Final goal was No. 1 again — sooner than my expectations though.”

It took Ko five starts to return to the No. 1 spot, reaching the top with a playoff victory at the BMW Ladies Championship last month and holding onto it for two weeks. The victory marked the 200th by a South Korean in LPGA history and the 11th in Ko’s career.

The 2019 Player of the Year’s game has soared since her return to the course in September. In addition to her three wins on tour, she posted 14 consecutive rounds in the 60s, matching the tour record set by Annika Sorenstam in 2005 and So Yeon Ryu in 2016 and 2017. Ko credits a subtle adjustment for the meteoric rise.

“I can say my backswings are better than before changing my coach,” Ko said ahead of the Pelican Women’s Championship last weekend. “Ball contact or, like, everything … [is] better than before the Olympics.”

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Ko's stats on tour before and after her training sessions with Lee.

This isn’t the first time Ko has made LPGA history after partnering with Lee. After a disappointing five-over opening round at the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Ko called Lee so they could work together during her 24th birthday celebration in Chicago. Their adjustment was a small weight shift. The result was 114 holes of bogey-free golf from the AIG Women’s Open through the first round of the Cambia Portland Classic, an all-time mark on the LPGA and PGA Tour.

“He really knows my swing or putting,” Ko said. “So if I say anything, he knows my feeling or my mindset. So, yeah, that’s really comfy. He knows everything from me.”

Since Ko returned to the tour, she and Korda have played in the same field only at the Cognizant Founder’s Cup and the Pelican Women’s Championship. Korda, however, has been able to appreciate Ko’s play from afar.

“It’s honestly been really super exciting to watch,” the American golfer said. “You’re never going to be world No. 1 forever. You’re going to jump people, they’re going to jump you. It’s been super cool to see how dominant and well she’s been playing. Because if you’re out here and you’re playing week in and week out, you appreciate how good she is playing. So she’s been on a run, and it’s going to take some really, really good golf to catch her.”

Korda gained some separation with her victory at the Pelican Women’s Championship, but Ko remains in striking distance. Ko’s T-6 finish in Belleair, Fla. was her sixth consecutive top-10 result since September.

She credits much of that success to her swing coach. The camaraderie Lee and Ko have built over the years has motivated Lee to push her to even greater heights.

Ahead of the final two events of the season, Ko spent additional time with Lee. Even then, Ko noticed a back-to-basics adjustment she needed to make before she goes head-to-head with Korda in pursuit of defending her title at the CME Group Tour Championship this weekend.

“She is always Jin Young,” Lee said. “I first met her in 2017, early summer. She has never settled down or been satisfied with her present. She has a passion for winning. It makes me always dream of winning and teach her with passion as a coach.”

Kent Paisley is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering golf and the LPGA. He also contributes to Golf Digest. Follow him on Twitter @KentPaisley.

Nelly Korda’s playoff victory at the Pelican Women’s Championship last week put her back in front of the race for the Rolex Player of the Year honor. As the LPGA heads into the CME Group Tour Championship, the final tournament of the 2021 season running from Thursday to Sunday, Korda will have to fend off No. 2 Jin Young Ko to add another trophy to an already historic season.

Korda versus Ko is the most obvious storyline of the season finale, but there’s even more on the line in Naples, Fla. this weekend. Here are five things to watch at the last tour event until 2022.

1. A fight to the finish

The 2021 season will be remembered for the back-and-forth battle between Ko and Korda for supremacy of the LPGA world rankings. Two weeks after Ko won the BMW Ladies Championship to resume her position at the top of the rankings and the Player of the Year race, Korda countered with her fourth victory on tour. The difference in their rankings average was in the thousandths before Korda won the Pelican Women’s Championship on Sunday. Now, the American has a little bit of breathing room, with a 0.95 edge over Ko in average world rankings points.

Korda has a more comfortable lead in the Player of the Year race, currently holding a 10-point advantage over Ko after her victory Sunday earned her 30 points and a total of 191 on the year. A win this weekend guarantees Korda the award, worth a coveted LPGA Hall of Fame point.

If Ko finishes in second place, worth 12 points, she needs Korda to finish 10th or lower to win outright. In that same scenario, a ninth-place finish by Korda would mean they share the Player of the Year award. The last time two golfers split the award was in 2017, when So Yeon Ryu and Sung Hyun Park finished the year tied at 162 points. If Ko wins the award, it would be her second such honor in the last three years.

If Ko finishes third or worse, Korda will be named Player of the Year and cap a stellar 2021 campaign. Each player has four wins on the LPGA Tour this season. Korda’s Olympic gold medal did not factor into the race since it was not a tour event.

Korda and Ko are the heavy favorites entering the Tour Championship, which begins Thursday with Round 1. Since the tournament moved to Tiburón Golf Club in 2013, Charley Hull is the only golfer who’s won the event without ever having been ranked top two in the world. The other champions, and their best-career rankings, have been: Shanshan Feng (No. 1) Lydia Ko (No. 1), Cristie Kerr (No. 1), Ariya Jutanugarn (No. 1), Lexi Thompson (No. 2), Sei Young Kim (No. 2) and Jin Young Ko (No. 1).

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Jin Young Ko will be Nelly Korda's primary challenger this weekend. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

2. Vare Trophy controversy strikes the LPGA — again

The Vare Trophy honors the golfer with the lowest scoring average on tour in a given season. The golfer must compete in a minimum of 70 rounds or 70 percent of all rounds that season to be considered for the award.

Five LPGA events were canceled this year due to COVID-19, leaving the tour with 110 available rounds. As a result, the top three in scoring average missed out on qualifying for the Vare Trophy.

Nelly Korda (68.845) will finish the year with 62 rounds and Jin Young Ko (69.032) with 67. Yuka Saso (69.103), who joined the tour after her victory in the U.S. Women’s Open in June, has played just 29 rounds this season. Lydia Ko (69.391), in fourth, planned to skip the Pelican Women’s Championship last week but changed her mind when her team realized she could qualify if she played both of the final two events on the LPGA calendar. Ko will finish with 73 rounds at the conclusion of the CME Group Tour Championship.

Last week, the Korda sisters did not hide their displeasure with the fact that neither Korda nor Ko can qualify for the trophy this year due to the minimum rounds requirement.

“I was like, ‘Oh, OK, cool. That sucks.’ That’s pretty much what I said in our group chat,” Nelly Korda said ahead of the Pelican Women’s Championship when asked how she reacted to the news.

“Jin Young has had an amazing past couple events,” Korda added. “If she was to win it, she deserves to win it. I would say the same for me. It kind of sucks that that’s just how it is.”

Jessica Korda, currently ranked 20th on tour, shared a similar opinion.

“It’s just that the person who’s now in the running, is it considered an asterisk or — I don’t know. It’s just such a weird rule when your No. 1 and 2 player in the world … and three players — is it one, two and three aren’t eligible? So it’s just weird.”

Further compounding this is Korda’s chance to make history. If she were eligible for the honor, she’d be threatening the all-time Vare Trophy scoring record. Only Annika Sorenstam has scored below 69 to win the trophy, when she averaged 68.7 in 2002. Korda needs to shoot 22-under at the CME Group Tour Championship to match Sorenstam’s average and record the second-best average in history, behind Jin Young Ko’s 69.062 in 2019.

In 2020, Sei Young Kim (68.686) led the tour in scoring average, but Danielle Kang (70.082 and fourth place on the average scoring list) won the award after completing 49 rounds during the shortened season.

3. The magic number

The winning score of the last three CME Group Tour championships has been 18-under par, achieved by Lexi Thompson in 2018, Sei Young Kim in 2019 and Jin Young Ko last year.

Since the tournament moved to Tiburón Golf Club in 2013, the average winning score has been 16 1/4-under par. Discarding Lydia Ko’s outlier of a 10-under victory in 2014, the average winning score is 17-under par.

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Kang has gone winless on tour this season after two victories in 2020. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

4. Last rodeo for the stars

World No. 4 Sei Young Kim and No. 13 Lexi Thompson missed out on their first tour victories of 2021 when they lost in a playoff at the Pelican Women’s Championship last week. They’re not the only top-ranked golfers and recent major champions who will be looking to hoist their first trophies of the season this weekend.

Kang has recorded eight top-10 finishes since losing to Jessica Korda in a playoff at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January. Jeongeun Lee6, the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open champion, had a five-shot lead going into the final round of the Evian Championship in July before losing to Minjee Lee. Aon Risk Reward Challenge winner Hannah Green is searching for her first victory on tour since the 2019 Cambia Portland Classic.

If Kim doesn’t find the winner’s circle this weekend, her six-year streak of winning every year on tour — the longest active streak in the LPGA — will come to an end. As a result, Jin Young Ko would surpass her as the longest active annual champion, having won every year since 2017.

5. The last chance to be world No. 1

Whoever sits at the top of the world rankings after the CME Group Tour Championship will get at least six uncontested weeks as the No. 1 player in the world. The LPGA has not yet announced its 2022 schedule, but in the last three years, the tour has started with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in late January.

Korda has spent 19 weeks as the world No. 1, which ties her for 12th on the all-time rankings. If she wins this weekend, she can leap to T-7 by the beginning of 2022 for having held onto the top spot for 25 weeks alongside Stacy Lewis and Jiyai Shin. One week later, she’d move into sixth place behind Annika Sorenstam, the first world No. 1 in the history of the rankings who’s held it for 61 weeks.

Ko is alone in second place with 114 weeks atop the world rankings. If she surpasses Korda this weekend, she would surge to 120 weeks by 2022 and be 38 weeks behind Lorena Ochoa for the most spent at No. 1 since the rankings were created in 2006.

Kent Paisley is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering golf and the LPGA. He also contributes to Golf Digest. Follow him on Twitter @KentPaisley.

Matilda Castren brought foresight to her role in Team Europe’s 15-13 victory at the 2021 Solheim Cup at Inverness Club on Monday.

At the start of the week, the rookie and the first player from Finland to wear the blue and yellow, talked about Suzann Pettersen’s impact on the team this year. Pettersen, Team Europe’s vice captain and a nine-time Solheim Cup veteran, retired after making the winning putt at the 2019 Solheim.

“There’s a big photo of [Pettersen making the winning putt] in our locker room and, walking past it every day, I just look at it,” Castren said. “And I’m like, wow, that’s so cool and I hope that I can be there one day making that winning putt.”

She didn’t have to wait long. Castren’s 12-foot, right-to-left breaking putt on the 18th hole Monday helped the Europeans edge the Americans, notching the team’s 14th point and securing their second victory on American soil and fourth win in the last six Cups.

“It’s hard to put it into words right now. I think I’m still shaking,” Castren said. “I just knew I was looking at the board, and I knew it was going to be an important putt, and I wanted to make it.”

The win delivers Team Europe captain Catriona Matthew her second and final Solheim Cup win. The 52-year-old acknowledged in her victory press conference that someone else would take the reins for the 2023 Cup in Spain.

Here are five takeaways from Team Europe’s victory.

1. The Iron Irishwoman makes Solheim history

Leona Maguire finished 4-0-1 in her rookie debut for Team Europe. The 4 1/2 points she earned for her side were the most ever by a rookie in the Solheim Cup. Maguire joins Carin Koch in 2002 (4-0-1) and Caroline Hedwall in 2013 (5-0-0) as the only three players to go undefeated in five matches in Solheim history.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better start to my Solheim career,” Maguire said. “I’m very fortunate to have had two great partners the last two days as well, and Mel [Reid] made me feel so comfortable out there and let me go do my thing. It just worked really well.”

Maguire set the tone in her first match, defeating the Korda sisters 1-up in foursomes, their best event as a duo. Then she teamed up with Georgia Hall to beat Yealimi Noh and Brittany Altomare 1-up in four-ball for a clean sweep on Saturday.

The largest margin of victory at Inverness this week was 5-and-4, achieved three times. Maguire played a part in two of those wins. Alongside Mel Reid, she dispatched world No. 1 Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing in Sunday foursomes, and then she handed Jennifer Kupcho her only loss of the weekend in an easy Labor Day singles victory. In Sunday four-ball, Maguire’s lone tie came against Lizette Salas and Kupcho, the two Americans with the best record at this year’s Cup.

Maguire, the longest-reigning world No. 1 amateur, will undoubtedly be on the Americans’ radar for the foreseeable future.

“She’s good,” U.S. captain Pat Hurst said Monday. “She’s going to be around for a long time. She’s the one we’re going to have to fear, like I said, for a long time. She played at Duke and she was good there, and I think this is only going to elevate her game even that much more.”

The 26-year-olds Maguire and Castren (3-1-0) carried the banner for Team Europe, forming a powerful tandem for many Solheim Cups to come.

2. Europe’s fast starts keep Solheim crowd quiet

A record number of fans poured through the gates at Inverness over the weekend, with 130,000 total attending the Solheim Cup. They lined up well before 6 a.m. and were ready to roar once they took their seats in the pavilion surrounding the first and 10th tees, encouraging Team USA to get off to a hot start with their enthusiasm.

Instead, the Americans stumbled out of the gate. Of the 28 matches played at the Solheim Cup, Team Europe led through five holes in 17 of them. The United States led in just five, trailing in eight consecutive matches through the five-hole mark from Saturday four-ball through Sunday foursomes.

“I think obviously, with the home crowd advantage this year, it’s been tough,” Matthew said Sunday. “I thought the crowd was great today, but as you can imagine, there were a lot of USA chants. We were just trying to quiet that.”

There’s never a clear victor in a match through five holes, but 16 of the 28 Cup matches played out to the 18th hole. The early mark is a barometer for how involved the fans will get: As more European flags were raised, the more subdued the fans became. That affected the significant edge the United States should have had, given that European fans couldn’t travel to Inverness due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Matthew’s goal of keeping the fans anxious with Europe’s strong play early may have been the difference.

“I wish we could have given them a little bit more to cheer about today and kind of help get the momentum in our favor,” assistant Team USA captain Stacy Lewis said. “But the fans killed it this week.”

The United States put itself in a difficult situation, having to climb out of early holes time and time again. The pressure Europe was able to maintain through the weekend contributed to their historic second win on American soil.

3) The top Americans struggle

Team Europe’s top-ranked player in the Rolex Rankings was Anna Nordqvist, currently 16th in the world after her victory at the AIG Women’s Open in late August. Nelly Korda (No. 1), Danielle Kang (No. 8), Lexi Thompson (No. 12), and Lizette Salas (No. 14) all ranked ahead of the Swede, with Jessica Korda (No. 18) sitting only two spots behind Nordqvist.

With nearly half of the roster in the top 20 of the world rankings, the Americans were the favorites on paper and their stars were expected to lead the way. Instead, only Salas (2-1-1) won more than half of the points available to her. Nelly Korda (2-2-0), Kang (1-3-0), Thompson (1-2-1), and Jessica Korda (1-2-0) combined to leave 8 1/2 points on the board.

If 1 1/2 of those points flipped, Team USA would have taken the Cup back. Instead, the top three Europeans in our power rankings combined to go 9-1-2, with Nordqvist, Castren and Maguire leading the charge.

4. American rookies provide a glimpse into the future

Twenty-year-old Yealimi Noh (2-1-0) and 24-year-old Jennifer Kupcho (2-1-1) shined in their rookie debuts for Team USA as two of three players to secure over half of the points available to them.

“I feel like the MVP of our team is this one right here,” Salas said, pointing to Kupcho after they split four-ball with Reid and Maguire on Sunday afternoon.

Kupcho and Salas found success as a duo, going 2-0-1 together and securing 2 1/2 of a possible three points. The 2019 Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion, Kupcho thrived on the pulsating energy from the fans in Toledo.

“It’s super fun just to be able to hear the crowd roar,” Kupcho said. “I think it’s super exciting for me. I mean, I love the sound of it.”

Noh lost her first match to Maguire and Hall alongside Brittany Altomare. Teamed up with 31-year-old Mina Harigae in four-ball, Noh then defeated Team Europe’s Celine Boutier and Sophia Popov 4-and-3. The Bay Area native took down Solheim veteran Reid by one in singles Sunday, surging to a 4-up lead through four holes en route to notching her second point for Team USA.

“I’m so happy to be a part of this team last minute,” Noh said Monday. “It’s just been so amazing that I keep wanting to play. I hope I play in a couple more Solheim Cups in my career.”

5) Bubba Watson raises the bar for supporting the women’s game

Two-time Masters champion and current PGA Tour player Bubba Watson initially intended to travel to Inverness to participate in the celebrity matchup on Thursday. Once signed up for that, he reached out to captain Hurst to see if he could expand his role beyond the celebrity cameo.

“Bubba called a couple weeks ago … wanting to help women’s golf out,” Hurst said last week. “He’s got a wife, he’s got a daughter, and he loves golf and, like I said, he just wants to support women’s golf.”

Watson’s first bridge to the American team was Nelly Korda. The 23-year-old credited the perspective Watson shared with her at the U.S. Open with the career-low 62 she carded at the Meijer LPGA Classic. The performance vaulted Korda to her second victory of the season a week before she won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and became the No. 1 player in the world.

Watson put in the work as a helper for Team USA, filling in divots, doling out advice from his four Ryder Cup appearances and listening in on his official “Helper” Team USA radio.

Watson punctuated his support in an interview on the first tee Saturday with Amanda Balonis.

“The world needs to see that the ladies have just as much talent, if not more than we do,” he said.

The Solheim Cup, one of the few LPGA Tour events to remain on schedule amid the COVID-19 pandemic, is upon us. This year marks the 17th edition of the Cup, with the first one played in 1990 at Lake Nona Golf Club in Orlando, Fla.

Twenty-four players make up the field of the 12-on-12 team match between Europe and the United States, taking place in Toledo, Ohio this weekend.

Unlike most events, the Solheim Cup has three different formats. Four-ball, also known as best-ball, takes the best score of two teammates against the best score of the other team in the group. Foursomes, also known as alternate shot, has players hitting every other stroke, as in the player hitting a tee shot won’t hit again until their playing partner hits their second shot. The first two days are the same — a morning session of foursomes, followed by afternoon four-ball.

On Labor Day, the golfers will compete in singles, with 12 groups teeing off for one-on-one play. The first team to 14.5 points wins, and each match is worth one point. The tiebreaker goes to the reigning Cup champion. Europe won last year’s competition on a dramatic putt by Suzann Pettersen on the final hole at Gleneagles. The U.S. is 8-1 at home in Solheim history.

The power rankings rely on recent form, past Solheim experience and results on the LPGA Tour. It is not a measurement of who the best player is overall, but rather who the best golfers are entering the first round Saturday at Inverness Club.

1. Nelly Korda

Age: 23
Solheim Cup appearances: 2019
Record: 3-0-1; Four-Ball:0-0-1; Foursomes: 2-0-0; Singles: 1-0-0
Career LPGA wins: 6
World Ranking: 1
Made the team: First on U.S. Solheim Cup Points List
Notable recent finishes: Wins at KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Meijer LPGA Classic, Gainbridge LPGA, Gold Medal at Olympics, T-2 Lotte Championship, T-3 ANA Inspiration

Nelly Korda is a no-doubter at the top of the rankings. Her scoring average of 69.02 in 2021 is the best on the LPGA Tour by .576, ahead of Hall of Famer and 2016 Rio gold medalist Inbee Park. The Solheim Cup gives Korda another opportunity to add to her golden season. The American team has a fierce weapon in Korda’s foursome dominance alongside sister Jessica (more on that below). Following a missed cut at the U.S. Women’s Open in June, Nelly has averaged an eighth-place finish over her last six starts (including three majors and the Olympics) and claimed three victories. Her resume speaks for itself.

2. Danielle Kang

Age: 28
Solheim Cup appearances: 2017, 2019
Record: 4-4-0; Four-Ball: 2-1-0; Foursomes: 1-2-0; Singles: 1-1-0
Career LPGA wins: 5
World Ranking: 8
Made the team: Second on U.S. Solheim Cup Points List
Notable recent finishes: Wins at 2020 Drive On Championship at Inverness Club, 2020 Marathon Classic, Second at Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, T-5 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Round of Eight at Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play

Kang finished with 14 top-10 finishes over the 33 starts she made during the 2021 Solheim qualification period, good enough for 42.4 percent. For her 10-year LPGA career, that average is 19 percent. Her steady hand will be crucial to the United States’ campaign. Juli Inkster, Solheim Cup captain in 2019, trusted Kang to be the first off in Sunday singles that year, and she lost to Carlota Ciganda only on the last hole. As winner of the 2020 Vare Trophy (awarded to the player with the lowest scoring average that season) at Inverness, the host course, Kang earns second-place honors even though she recently missed the cut at the AIG Women’s Open.

3. Anna Nordqvist

Age: 34
Solheim Cup appearances: 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
Record: 12-9-2; Four-Ball: 4-2-0; Foursomes: 6-5-0; Singles: 2-2-2
Career LPGA wins: 9
World Ranking: 16
Made the team: First Rolex World Ranking Spot
Notable recent finishes: Win at 2021 AIG Women’s Open, fifth Meijer LPGA Classic

Winning a major in the final tournament before the Solheim Cup is one way to revitalize your stock. Overall, Nordqvist has had a subdued season, but she displayed her match play acumen at the Bank of Hope LPGA Matchplay by advancing out of pool play to the Round of 16. She also has the most experience of any golfer playing for the Cup. Six members of Team Europe finished in the top 20 at the AIG Women’s Open, with Nordqvist leading the charge. The Swede will continue to lead Europe as they look for an upset on American soil this week.

4. Jessica Korda

Age: 28
Solheim Cup appearances: 2013, 2019
Record: 4-2-2; Four-Ball:0-1-1; Foursomes: 3-1-0; Singles: 1-0-1
Career LPGA wins: 6
World Ranking: 18
Made the team: Sixth on U.S. Solheim Cup Points List
Notable recent finishes: Win at Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, second at Hugel-Air Premia LA Open, third at Pure Silk Championship

Korda gets a boost from the dynamo duo she forms with her sister Nelly in foursomes. In 2019, they beat Caroline Masson and Jodi Ewart Shadoff 6-and-4 on Friday, then took down Carlota Ciganda and Bronte Law 6-and-5 on Saturday. At the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, the LPGA’s team event, the Korda sisters played four rounds of foursomes. They shot 68 and 68 in 2019, then 65 and 66 in 2021. Korda’s victory to open the 2021 season was her first since the 2018 Honda LPGA Thailand. She defeated Kang in a playoff after a third-round 60, the fifth 60 in LPGA history. Korda has the third-best scoring average of the 24 Solheim players (70.02), and it’s the best of her 11-year LPGA career.

5. Ally Ewing

Age: 28
Solheim Cup appearances: 2019
Record: 1-3-0; Four-Ball:1-1-0; Foursomes: 0-1-0; Singles: 0-1-0
Career LPGA wins: 2
World Ranking: 22
Made the team: Third on U.S. Solheim Cup Points List
Notable recent finishes: Win at Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play, T-6 Meijer LPGA Classic, Sixth at Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open

Ewing left the 2019 Solheim Cup with the last name McDonald. Since getting married in May of last year, she has emerged as a new player. Ewing won the 2020 Drive On Championship at Reynolds Lake Oconee by outdueling Kang on Sunday for her maiden victory. She followed that up this year by taking down Solheim Team Europe major champion Sophia Popov in the only match-play tournament on the LPGA schedule. Ewing’s record at Gleneagles does not reflect what we’ve come to expect of her in 2021.

6. Leona Maguire

Age: 26
World ranking: 45
Solheim Cup appearances: Rookie
Career LPGA Wins: 0
Made the team: Captain’s Pick
Notable recent finishes: Second at Meijer LPGA Classic, T-2 Lotte Championship, T-6 Amundi Evian Championship, T-13 AIG Women’s Open

The first Irishwoman to ever play in a Solheim Cup is quiet by nature but is roaring into the competition. She has the fourth-best scoring average on the LPGA Tour this season (69.94) and the second-best in the Solheim, trailing only Nelly Korda. Maguire hasn’t finished outside the top 15 over her last seven starts. She lost to Korda in at the Meijer LPGA Classic but not because of her own play — Maguire shot a 66 on Sunday. The world’s longest reigning No. 1 amateur found her form in time to be a force for Team Europe captain Catriona Matthew this week.

7. Matilda Castren

Age: 26
World ranking: 47
Solheim Cup appearances: Rookie
Career LPGA wins: 1
Made the team: Captain’s Pick
Notable recent finishes: Win at LPGA Mediheal Championship, LET’s Gant Ladies Open, second at Volunteers of America Classic

Despite being one of two Team Europe players to win on the LPGA Tour in 2021, Castren made this team by the skin of her teeth. In order to qualify for Team Europe, players have to be a member of the Ladies European Tour. Castren, who qualified for the LPGA via the Q-Series in 2019, came out of nowhere to win the LPGA Mediheal Championship in her 15th career LPGA start. She had one top-10 finish before that victory and didn’t have LET membership. Her only avenue to securing it before Solheim was to win a tournament on the tour. In her first of four possible opportunities, Castren won the Gant Ladies Open. Outside of a missed cut at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, she hasn’t finished outside the top 20 on the LPGA since winning in the Bay Area.

8. Lizette Salas

Age: 32
World Ranking: 14
Solheim Cup appearances: 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
Record: 6-6-2; Four-Ball: 2-3-0; Foursomes: 1-3-1; Singles: 3-0-1
Career LPGA wins: 0
Made the team: First from Rolex World Rankings
Notable recent finishes: Second at KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, T-2 AIG Women’s Open, T-6 Meijer LPGA Classic

Salas went blow-for-blow with Nelly Korda at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, her second of three runner-ups at a major over the last three seasons. The oldest player on the American roster said she nearly retired during the offseason but is feeling like herself again after the duel at Atlanta Athletic Club. The second-place finish also put her back on track for the Solheim, as she was 45th in the Rolex World Rankings before the tournament.

9. Georgia Hall

Age: 25
World Ranking: 29
Solheim Cup appearances: 2017, 2019
Record: 6-3-0; Four-Ball: 1-2-0; Foursomes: 4-0-0; Singles: 1-1-0
Career LPGA wins: 2
Made the team: Second on LET Points List
Notable recent finishes: Win 2020 Cambia Portland Classic, T-2 AIG Women’s Open, T-6 Amundi Evian Championship, T-6 Meijer LPGA Classic

A Sunday 67 vaulted the 2018 Ricoh Women’s British Open champion into T-2 in her homeland’s major, rounding out a pair of top-10 finishes in the last two majors ahead of the Solheim Cup. In addition to her perfect run alongside Celine Boutier at Gleneagles in 2019, Hall leads the LPGA in birdies this season. She’s finished inside the top 6 in three of her last six LPGA starts.

10. Lexi Thompson

Age: 26
World Ranking: 12
Solheim Cup appearances: 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
Record: 5-4-6; Four-Ball:2-2-3; Foursomes: 2-2-3; Singles: 1-1-2
Career LPGA wins: 11
Made the team: Fourth on U.S. Solheim Cup Points List
Notable recent finishes: T-2 Kia Classic, T-2 Gainbridge LPGA, Third at U.S. Women’s Open

Thompson is making her fifth Solheim appearance at just 26, tying her with Salas for the most experience on the American roster. The ever consistent Thompson leads the LPGA in greens in regulation this season (78.1 percent) and holds the third-highest career percentage in the recorded history of the stat on the LPGA Tour (75.5 percent). It was a crucial part of her seven-year win streak that broke in the shortened 2020 season. Thompson hasn’t been in contention since a heartbreaking finish at the U.S. Women’s Open, losing a five-shot lead on the back nine. Her T-20 at the AIG Women’s Open was her best finish since early June. She’s also the longest hitter on Team USA (279.4 yards).

11. Charley Hull

Age: 25
Solheim Cup appearances: 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
Record: 9-3-3; Four-Ball: 3-2-1; Foursomes: 4-0-0; Singles: 2-1-1
Career LPGA wins: 1
World Ranking: 38
Made the team: Third Rolex World Ranking Spot
Notable recent finishes: Fifth at Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open, T-8 LPGA Drive On Championship at Golden Ocala

Hull has finished in the top 25 in five of her last six starts, with the only outlier being the AIG Women’s Open, where she missed the cut. Though she missed out on the Bank of Hope match- play event, she holds a decisive 9-3-3 record in the format. She’s also tied with the Korda sisters for the most eagles on the LPGA Tour this season (10).

12. Austin Ernst

Age: 29
Solheim Cup appearances: 2017
Record: 2-2-0; Four-Ball: 1-0-0; Foursomes: 1-1-0; Singles: 0-1
Career LPGA wins: 3
World Ranking: 27
Made the team: Fifth on U.S. Solheim Cup Points List
Notable recent finishes: Wins at Drive On Championship at Golden Ocala and 2020 Walmart N.W. Arkansas Championship, T-7 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, T-5 Marathon LPGA Classic

It’s been an up-and-down season for the three-time LPGA winner. Outside of her three top-10 finishes, Ernst has four other top-25 finishes in 17 starts. She earned her way to Inverness Club as one of four Americans to win multiple tournaments since the 2019 Solheim Cup, alongside Nelly, Kang and Ewing. Ernst’s victory at the 2020 Walmart N.W. Arkansas Championship snapped a six-year winless streak.

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Madelene Sagstrom is the second-longest hitter on Team Europe. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

13. Madelene Sagstrom

Age: 28
Solheim Cup appearances: 2017
Record: 1-2-0; Four-Ball: 0-2-0; Foursomes: 0-0-0; Singles: 1-0-0
Career LPGA wins: 1
World Ranking: 48
Made the team: Captain’s Pick
Notable recent finishes: Win 2020 Gainbridge LPGA, T-2 AIG Women’s Open, T-15 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

Sagstrom heads into the Solheim Cup on a streak of consistent play, culminating with her best finish of the year at the AIG Women’s Open. She’s made seven cuts in a row dating back to the U.S. Women’s Open in early June, with her worst result being a T-38. The Swede held the lead after the opening round of the Olympics before finishing T-20 in Tokyo. She’s the second-longest hitter on Team Europe, averaging 272.9 yards off the tee.

14. Celine Boutier

Age: 27
Solheim Cup appearances: 2019
Record: 4-0-0; Four-Ball:1-0-0; Foursomes: 2-0-0; Singles: 1-0-0
Career LPGA wins: 0
World Ranking: 66
Made the team: Captain’s Pick
Notable recent finishes: T-5 LPGA Mediheal Championship, T-7 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, T-7 Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open

Boutier and Hall went a perfect 4-0-0 in the 2019 Solheim, partnering for all three team matches they played. The Frenchwoman shot the tournament record in San Francisco, closing with a 64 for her best finish of the year in June. Really, it was a missed three-foot putt on the 72nd hole at the Drive On Championship at Inverness Club that affected Boutier’s standing in these rankings.

15. Brittany Altomare

Age: 30
Solheim Cup appearances: 2019
Record: 2-1-1; Four-Ball:1-0-1; Foursomes: 0-1-0; Singles: 1-0
Career LPGA wins: 0
World Ranking: 54
Made the team: Captain’s Pick
Notable recent finishes: Advanced to round of 16 at Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play, T-3 at Meijer LPGA Classic, T-6 Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational

Altomare’s match-play skill is greater than what her stroke-play results have shown. The 30-year-old was dubbed “Jesus” in her Solheim debut at Gleneagles in 2019 because of her putting. In her Sunday singles match that year, she had the largest margin of victory of all of the 14 matches, beating three-time Solheim veteran Jodi Ewart Shadoff 5-and-4. She swept group play at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play, including over then-world No. 3 Sei Young Kim, displaying the match-play skill Hurst is leaning on with Altomare as a captain’s pick.

16. Yealimi Noh

Age: 20
Solheim Cup appearances: Rookie
Career LPGA wins: 0
World Ranking: 31
Made the team: Captain’s Pick
Notable recent finishes: Third at Amundi Evian Championship, T-3 Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, T-7 Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open, T-13 AIG Women’s Open

Noh made noise on the LPGA Tour in 2019. A fine for slow play affected her earlier this season, but her talent has reemerged recently thanks to work with her team. She finished in the top 15 in each of her last five starts, polishing her case for Team USA. Noh is the first golfer born in the 2000s to play in the Solheim Cup, highlighting the next generation on the LPGA Tour.

17. Carlota Ciganda

Age: 31
World Ranking: 41
Solheim Cup appearances: 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
Record: 6-6-4; Four-Ball: 2-4-2; Foursomes: 1-2-1; Singles: 3-0-1
Career LPGA wins: 2
Made the team: Fourth Rolex World Ranking Spot
Notable recent finishes: T-7 HSBC Women’s World Championship, T-12 Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational

One of the pillars of the European team in recent years, Ciganda has been out of form in 2021. She’s had one top-10 finish in 18 starts, which translates to 5.6 percent and is nearly 15 percent less than her impressive career average of 20.4 percent. Her Sunday singles dominance will be a key factor for Team Europe as they look for their second win on American soil.

18. Sophia Popov

Age: 28
World Ranking: 30
Solheim Cup appearances: Rookie
Career LPGA wins: 1
Made the team: Second Rolex World Ranking Spot
Notable recent finishes: Win at 2020 AIG Women’s Open, Second at Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play

It’s been a challenging year for the feel-good story of the 2020 season. At the 2020 Drive On Championship at Inverness, Popov caddied for close friend Anne van Dam. She qualified for the AIG Women’s Open after a T-9 at the Marathon Classic, putting herself on the Solheim track.

How can one of two major champions on Team Europe be this low on the power rankings? Popov has made only three cuts in her last eight starts since her runner-up to Ewing in Las Vegas. Her best finish over that stretch was 41st at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. Team Europe hopes she can reclaim the form she displayed in the LPGA’s lone match-play event of the season.

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Reid won the ShopRite LPGA Classic in New Jersey last year. (Michael Cohen/Getty Images)

20. Nanna Koerstz Madsen

Age: 26
Solheim Cup appearances: Rookie
Career LPGA wins: 0
World Ranking: 49
Made the team: Captain’s Pick
Notable recent finishes: T-3 ANA Inspiration, T-5 AIG Women’s Open

Koerstz Madsen made the team on the back of her top-5 finishes at two majors this season, getting the nod from Catriona Matthew to be a captain’s pick. The longest driver on Team Europe (275.8 yards), Madsen is seventh on the LPGA Tour in average distance off the tee in 2021. She nearly broke through as the first Dane to win on the LPGA Tour at the AIG Women’s Open, staying even with Nordqvist until a double-bogey on the final hole.

21. Jennifer Kupcho

Age: 24
Solheim Cup appearances: Rookie
Career LPGA wins: 0
World Ranking: 28
Made the team: Second from Rolex World Rankings
Notable recent finishes: Second at LPGA Drive On Championship at Golden Ocala, Third at ISPS Handa World Invitational, T-9 Marathon LPGA Classic

The heralded amateur, who won the first Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship in 2019, makes her Solheim debut. Kupcho nearly won the ISPS Handa World Invitational, succumbing to a bogey and falling out of playoff position on the last hole. She’s finished in the top 10 in three of her last seven starts but has struggled in the final three majors.

22. Mina Harigae

Age: 31
Solheim Cup appearances: Rookie
Career LPGA wins: 0
World Ranking: 62
Made the team: Captain’s Pick
Notable recent finishes: T-2 Marathon LPGA Classic, T-5 ISPS Handa World Invitational, T-13 AIG Women’s Open

The 11-year LPGA veteran is the second-oldest player on the American roster. Still searching for her first LPGA Tour victory, Harigae earned a captain’s nod due to her steady improvement over the two-year qualifying period. The California native set three career-best finishes over the last 11 months: T-4 at the 2020 Drive On Reynolds Lake Oconee last October, fourth at the CME Group Tour Championship and T-2 at the Marathon Classic. She finished T-6 at the Drive On Championship at Inverness in July 2020. With a revamped claw putting grip, Harigae is ninth in putts per green in regulation on the LPGA (1.76), up from 100th (1.82) in 2019.

23. Megan Khang

Age: 23
Solheim Cup appearances: 2019
Record: 0-2-1; Four-Ball:0-0-0; Foursomes: 0-2-0; Singles: 0-0-1
Career LPGA wins: 0
World Ranking: 37
Made the team: Seventh on U.S. Solheim Cup Points List
Notable recent finishes: T-4 U.S. Women’s Open, T-10 ANA Inspiration, T-8 Drive On Championship at Golden Ocala

Khang took the final spot on the U.S. Solheim Cup Points list with a steady diet of success at majors. A T-15 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and a fifth-place finish at the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open put her in the top 15 in four of the last six LPGA majors. Khang will look to improve upon the half a point she earned in 2019. She can do that with her consistency on the fairways, where she’s hitting 79.9 percent this season for ninth-best on the LPGA Tour.

24. Emily Kristine Pedersen

Age: 25
Solheim Cup appearances: 2017
Record: 0-3-0; Four-Ball: 0-1-0; Foursomes: 0-1-0; Singles: 0-1-0
World Ranking: 67
Made the team: First on LET Points
Notable recent finishes: Four LET wins in 2020 (Tipsport Czech Women’s Open, Saudi Ladies International, Saudi Ladies Team International, Andalucia Costa Del Sol Open De España), T-5 Tokyo Olympics

Kristine Pedersen admitted she felt pressure in 2017 from being a captain’s pick of Annika Sorenstam, one of the greatest golfers of all time. At the Cup that year, she struggled to a 0-3-0 record. She’s the only player in the field this year who doesn’t compete primarily on the LPGA Tour, dropping her to the bottom of the power rankings but also giving her a chance for redemption.