With the Handa Cup’s kickoff tomorrow at Old Waverly G.C., we will likely learn of the Saturday morning team pairings this evening. If the respective captains, Nancy Lopez and Sally Little, have a bold strategy for the day’s play, it may be evident in the pairings.
It would be difficult to resist the temptation to pair Laura Davies and Alison Nicholas for the sake of both sheer intimidation and tradition, a tradition that began at the first Solheim Cup at Lake Nona in 1990. The pairing of Nicholas and Davies defeated Lopez and Pat Bradley in the very first match. However, Sally Little may wish to spread the talent around and use Davies in a different pairing with a less experienced partner. Davies has been maintaining her hectic golf schedule and it can probably be assumed that Davies and Juli Inkster are the two top players this year. Both have been keeping their games sharp in regular tour play. I’ll predict Davies and Neumann. Liselotte’s short game would complement Laura’s distance.
A playing partner to keep the great Jan Stephenson from getting too hard on herself might be another Little goal. I would go with Alfredsson and Stephenson and then Nicholas and Trish Johnson, who just won on the LET thus becoming the oldest winner ever on either the LPGA Tour or LET. Crafter’s putting might pair well with Wendy Doolan.
On the American side, Lopez might be enticed by the idea of Inkster-Daniel and Jones-Steinhauer pairings out of the gate as power-pairings to score a quick couple of points Saturday morning.
Perhaps Captain Lopez will also put Pat Bradley and Sherri Turner out together. Their experience and wisdom would be complementary and, personality-wise, it would appear to be a comfortable combination. Sherri’s distance would also complement Pat’s iron play and short game.
Why keep speculating though? We shall soon know.
8:54 PM Update: Well, as it turned out, Inkster-Mallon will be the U.S. Team’s power-pairing for Saturday’s morning and afternoon matches. The World’s power-pairing will be Laura Davies and Trish Johnson in both Saturday matches. It appears that Captain Lopez is playing the same U.S. pairings in the afternoon while Sally Little “mixed it up” a bit more by reshuffling some of her pairings.
Nicholas is paired with Coe-Jones in the morning and Helen Alfredsson in the afternoon. Assistant World Captain Coe-Jones is apparently substituting for Jan Stephenson who is not scheduled to play Saturday. (There is no mention of this on the Legends Tour site.)
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