A two-time Solheim Cup team captain herself, Patty Sheehan signed dozens of autographs Saturday at the Denver Golf Expo and then talked about the LPGA making a “perfect” choice in naming Meg Mallon the U.S. captain for the 2013 matches.
The biennial competition between the U.S. and Europe returns to American soil Aug. 13-18, 2013, at the Colorado Golf Club in Parker. Europe holds the cup, having won in 2011 in Dunsany, Ireland.
“Meg is such a great competitor, and she pretty much eats and breathes USA,” Sheehan said. “She’s a lot of fun to be around. The players are going to love her. She’s so sincere and so kind, and yet she has that competitive fire inside. Players are going to feed off of that.”
Sheehan, 55, won 35 times on the LPGA Tour, claiming six major championships. She was elected to the World Golf and LPGA halls of fame.
A resident of Reno, Nev., Sheehan captained the 2002 and 2003 U.S. Solheim Cup teams — with the Americans winning in 2002 at Edina, Minn., and losing in 2003 in Malmo, Sweden, when the competition was moved up a year to get realigned in an opposite cycle from the men’s Ryder Cup after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“The biggest challenge as a coach is to get the right personalities and the right types of games playing together, at the right time and for the right format,” Sheehan said. “It’s sort of like a puzzle, putting together the pieces for the right fit.”
The competition, like with the Ryder Cup, is unlike anything else in the sport, she said.
“Fans can expect to see a completely different atmosphere,” Sheehan said of the Solheim Cup matches. “You’ll hear singing, chanting, cheers, booing … all the great stuff you get at football and baseball games.”
Mallon, 48, was named U.S. team captain Jan. 26 during a PGA event in Orlando, Fla. Her longtime swing coach, Mike McGetrick, is a founder of Colorado GC. A Floridian, Mallon flew in often to get tuneup lessons from McGetrick.
“I knew the place before there was a hole put in the ground,” Mallon told Golfweek magazine. “Mike and I would stand on the range and he’d be like, ‘You see that property over there? That’s what I want to build a golf course on.’ “
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
