GAINESVILLE, Va. — In the immediate aftermath in Spain last year, U.S. captain Stacy Lewis concentrated on her players. She didn’t want the 14-14 tie to feel like a colossal failure. The cup stayed with Europe, the defending champs. But Lewis felt her team had a done a lot right those three days at Finca Cortesin.
On the plane ride home, however, with daughter Chesnee sleeping by her side, Lewis allowed herself a moment to cry.
“We worked so hard, and we put so much into this,” said Lewis, fighting back tears nearly a year later, “and it was a tie, you know … but that was the only moment I gave myself.”
From then on, it was back to the mission of “unfinished business.” For three years, there’s been no break for Lewis, who like European captain Suzann Pettersen took on the monumental task of heading two Solheim Cups in two years.
With Team USA winless since 2017 and with five rookies on her squad last year, Lewis couldn’t simply maintain status quo. She needed to shake things up.
Inspired by the resources utilized by Ryder Cup teams, Lewis worked with longtime LPGA partner KPMG to create a new analytics platform for the biennial event. No U.S. captain has ever had so much data at her disposal, and Lewis took advantage in Spain, shaking up her pairings right down to the last minute based on information that was coming in during practice rounds.
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There were a couple pairings she tried to push in Spain, and one that was particularly good statistically, but when the players didn’t want to play together, Lewis allowed the human element to prevail.
When it came time to make her three picks for the 2024 team, Lewis found herself pacing the floor of her St. Andrews apartment as the final round of the AIG Women’s British Open unfolded. She had a short list coming into the week, but as the different scenarios for automatic qualifiers began to shift, Lewis’ job got tougher.
Ultimately, the team ended looking exactly like she thought it would several weeks ago, with Lexi Thompson, Jennifer Kupcho and Sarah Schmelzel as the three captain’s picks. Schmelzel and Lauren Coughlin, two thirtysomething late bloomers, are the only rookies on the team. There are nine players returning from Spain, with Alison Lee qualifying for the first time since she was an LPGA rookie in 2015.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 2 Lilia Vu, fresh off contending at the Old Course, headline the team of 12. The 2024 Solheim Cup will be held Sept. 13-15 in Gainesville, Virginia, at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, host of three previous Presidents Cups.
Throughout this process, Lewis has often said that she can pinpoint a player’s success on the LPGA long before it shows up on leaderboards, based on the trends she’s seeing in the data. Even Thompson, right now, is playing better than the results are showing.
“She is night and day better to what were at this point last year,” said Lewis, noting that Thompson ranks in the top 10 on tour in putts made inside 20 feet.
“Over the years, she has shifted from this amazing ball-striker and an average putter,” said Lewis, “to you could almost put her in a category of great putter and starting to see ball-striking catch up. She’s in a much better position this year that we were going into Spain.”
After playing Robert Trent Jones Golf Club for the first time several months ago, Lewis immediately knew it was a perfect fit for Kupcho, a strong ball-striker who hits it high and straight. In Schmelzel, Lewis saw a consistent, gritty player who is top 10 on tour in bogey avoidance.
“Somebody that’s avoiding bogeys is gritty and a fighter and not going to give up,” said Lewis. “Maybe at times in the past I think that’s what we’ve lacked a little bit, that grittiness and that toughness.”
On Sunday night in St. Andrews, Lewis gathered the nine players who were still in Scotland in a back room at the famed Dunvegan pub and marveled at how much things had changed.
“Just the becoming a team part and cheering for each other and wanting to be around each other and the amount of fun that they’re having is night and day from this time last year,” she said. “So I’m excited about that.”
When it comes to pairings Lewis, a two-time major champion and former No. 1, said her process starts with covering her kitchen counter with sheets of paper. She’ll write something down and scratch it out and start over. She kept all her notes from last year in Spain so that she could look back on where she started the process and where she finished. Lewis figures the puzzle will be easier to put together this time around.
“She knows more stats about my golf game than I do,” said Thompson, who went 3-1-0 in Spain in the midst of her worst year on tour.
“It’s great to learn from her, and we have nothing but full trust in her and belief.”
