{"id":55739,"date":"2026-08-25T08:38:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/55739\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T08:38:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:38:37","slug":"solheim-cup-2026-us-captain-angela-stanford-rounds-out-team-with-2-veterans-and-a-rookie-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/55739\/","title":{"rendered":"Solheim Cup 2026: US captain Angela Stanford rounds out team with 2 veterans and a rookie \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angela Stanford finalised her US Solheim Cup team, and there were no surprises with her captain\u2019s picks.<\/p>\n

Stanford chose Solheim Cup stalwarts Megan Khang and Rose Zhang and added first-timer Lindy Duncan to round out the team that will play at Bernardus Golf Club in the Netherlands. Alison Lee and Andrea Lee made it via their world ranking. Those five join Nelly Korda, Jennifer Kupcho, Angel Yin, Yealimi Noh, Auston Kim, Lauren Coughlin and Allisen Corpuz, who all made the team through the standings.<\/p>\n

Stanford, who is captaining the US after playing in six Solheim Cups, feels strongly about her team as it will try to win in Europe for the first time since 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI genuinely love this team\u201d, Stanford told Golf Digest. \u201cI feel really fortunate that we got to this point. I love their grittiness. I love their heart. I love the way they are around each other. I just love their demeanour as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not too high, and they\u2019re not too low. And that\u2019s exactly what you have to be in Europe. I absolutely love this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are a couple of question marks. It will be interesting to see if Stanford needs to go to either of her two alternates, which have not been revealed. A lot will depend on the status of Yin, who hasn\u2019t played since withdrawing from the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship in June for what was described as an illness. Yin is scheduled to play in this week\u2019s FM Championship in Boston. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been taking it day by day with Angel, and she made the team on her own. She deserves to be on this team. We all want Angel on the team,\u201d Stanford said. \u201cWe\u2019re giving her the opportunity to play and see where she, and we agreed, let\u2019s play Boston, and then let\u2019s reassess. Then she has a week off. With Angel, it\u2019s just been day by day, because we do want her on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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[Photo: David Cannon] Angel Yin plays her second shot on the second hole in her match against Celine Boutier during the final day singles matches in the 2023 Solheim Cup in Spain.<\/p>\n

Zhang is dealing with a tweaked back that she played through at the Standard Portland Classic, and finished T-8. She has three top-10 finishes this year. She didn\u2019t play in last week\u2019s CPKC Women\u2019s Open in Canada, but she\u2019s scheduled to play in Boston. Zhang has played in two Solheim Cups and went 4-0-0 for the winning US team at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked actually the Saturday of Portland, and she kind told me then, \u2018look, I, I would feel more comfortable if I didn\u2019t play Canada, and I\u2019d like to just go take care of this before we go any further.\u2019 I said, \u2018great, do it,\u2019\u201d Stanford said. \u201cI knew by previous conversations with her that she was going to play a lot to try to make this team. I had that in the back of my mind. I was totally OK with her taking Canada off. She\u2019s going to play Boston. I have no concerns with Rose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khang will play in her fifth Solheim Cup and has an impressive record\u2014she\u2019s 7-3-3 in 13 Solheim Cup matches. She was 3-0-0 in Virginia and is 7-0-1 over her last eight Solheim Cup matches. That was obviously a big part of the reason she\u2019s on the team, but she has missed seven of the last eight cuts on the LPGA.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s trending, and I think we see some things coming,\u201d Stanford said. \u201cI think the next three weeks are going to be really good for her and she\u2019s on the upward swing of this. Her [impact] on the team room is obvious. She\u2019s kind of the battery that makes us run. There\u2019s no way I can leave her at home. You\u2019re not going to go to Europe without a Megan Khang. Her teammates respect her and love having her there. Her record is just phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan, who won the Heather Farr Perseverance Award last year, is the most senior member of the team and at 35 and she\u2019s the oldest member since Nancy Scranton played her first Solheim Cup at age 39 in 2000.<\/p>\n

Stanford told Duncan in person in Canada that she made the team but like her other conversations, she acted like it wasn\u2019t going to be a yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, apparently, I\u2019m not very nice, because I tried to scare them all,\u201d Stanford said. \u201cI tried to be real serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

That had to have been a tough moment for Duncan, because she had one top-10 finish this season and missed the cut in four of the five majors. She\u2019s played better in the last four events, making the cut in all.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, there were a lot of people we were thinking about, and with Lindy, my two big things going to Europe are putting and chemistry,\u201d Stanford said. \u201cLindy has proven to be one of our best putters, if you line her up against the other 11. Putting was important. She edged out the other ones we were looking at. Then just her awareness. I think when it comes to chemistry, people can miss this about team rooms but you think that everybody\u2019s is just going to be loud. You need those people that are aware enough to know their place in the room. Lindy is going to be really good at that. I think she\u2019s going to be a nice addition in the team room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alison Lee was vocal all season about how she wanted to qualify for the team on her own, and she was the last to do so through the world ranking. She has three top 10s and played well in four of the five majors. The 31-year-old is the only player on the 2026 team who was also on the winning Solheim Cup team in Germany in 2015.<\/p>\n

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[Photo: Scott Taetsch] Alison Lee reacts to winning her match on the 15th hole during the Saturday four-ball matches against Europe in the 2024 Solheim Cup.<\/p>\n

Stanford has continually said Alison Lee\u2019s play this season, following her maternity leave to have her son, Levi, has been a pleasant surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been so much fun to watch, and I\u2019m so happy for her,\u201d Stanford said. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing for a player to say, \u2018I want to make it on my own. I want to be on the team\u2019 and do it and play the way she\u2019s played.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Andrea Lee, who has played in two Solheim Cups and is 3-2-2 in matches, has one top-10 this season. She had a final-round 65 in the Standard Portland Classic recently, then missed the cut at the CPKC Women\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s another pillar of our team. She is the straightest driver of the golf ball on tour,\u201d Stanford said. \u201cShe\u2019s a tremendous putter. This course is going to be perfect for her. I\u2019m just so glad she is on this team. There is a calmness about her. There is just an ease in how she relates with people on this team, and I\u2019m happy she\u2019s on this team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angela Stanford finalised her US Solheim Cup team, and there were no surprises with her captain\u2019s picks. Stanford…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7048,7067,20107,459,44,5729,3982,20092,17011],"class_list":["post-55739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alison-lee","tag-angel-yin","tag-angela-stanford","tag-article","tag-golf","tag-megan-khang","tag-nelly-korda","tag-rose-zhang","tag-solheim-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}