U.S. Solheim Cup team’s nine automatic qualifiers locked in

Rose Zhang, Megan Khang, Andrea Lee and Lauren Coughlin are among the players joining world No. 1 Nelly Korda on the U.S. Solheim Cup team this year.

The team’s nine automatic qualifiers were solidified Sunday following the AIG Women’s Open. That leaves three captain’s picks for Stacy Lewis to name Tuesday.

“I’m just excited to have the team finalized. Much of this crew is repeating from 2023, so a lot of them have experience,” Lewis said in a news release. “We had five that were qualified coming into the week, and I’m happy to have Megan and Andrea back again. They were big parts of last year’s success.”

The top seven players in the U.S. Solheim Cup team standings as of Sunday were Korda, Lilia Vu, Coughlin, Ally Ewing, Allisen Corpuz, Khang and Lee. Khang and Lee only locked in their spots following Sunday’s results, despite Khang missing the cut at the Women’s Open and Lee tying for 22nd.

Then, the U.S. team took the two Americans ranked highest in the Rolex Rankings (world rankings) not already on the team. Those were Zhang, currently No. 9 in the world, and Alison Lee, No. 25.

This will be the 21-year-old Zhang’s second Solheim Cup in two years as the biannual event shifts to even-numbered years. The rising star who won her first event as a professional on the LPGA Tour in June 2023 joined the Americans in Spain last fall, but Europe retained the Solheim Cup after the score ended in a 14-14 tie.

Alison Lee will make her second Solheim Cup appearance after playing the event in 2015. The nine-year gap between appearances is the longest for a player in U.S. team history.

The only Solheim Cup rookie among the nine qualifiers is Coughlin, the definition of a late bloomer. The 31-year-old has played on the LPGA Tour since 2018, but in July she picked up her first career win in Canada at the CPKC Women’s Open. It only took another three weeks before she earned her second title, as she won last week’s ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open.

American players Lewis might consider for a captain’s pick include Angel Yin, Cheyenne Knight, Jennifer Kupcho and Lexi Thompson, who is retiring from full-time golf at the end of the season. Lewis said in July that Thompson is “right where she needs to be” in terms of making the team.

The Solheim Cup will be played from Sept. 13-15 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia.