Juli Inkster said being the US Solheim Cup captain was one of the biggest thrills of her career, and now she gets to do it again.
Inkster was introduced as captain on Friday during a surprise announcement at Des Moines Country Club, the Iowa course that is to host the 2017 matches. She is the fourth American to be captain a second time, and she is to try to join Judy Rankin as the only captain of two winning teams.
It was not a difficult decision.
Photo: AP
“The committee ... got together right after the Solheim Cup and decided which way to go,” Inkster said in a conference call. “They asked me to do it again, and I jumped at the opportunity.”
The US staged an improbable rally in Germany to beat Europe this year after a heated debate over Alison Lee picking up her short putt after assuming Suzann Pettersen had conceded it. Pettersen was on the far end of the green. The US, furious at what they considered a breach of sportsmanship, won 8-1/2 out of 12 points in singles to reclaim the cup.
Inkster said winning was sweet, though that did not define her experience.
“Even if we had lost, I would have done it again,” she said. “It was so much fun. It was an amazing experience for me. I grew as a person doing it, and some of the leadership skills I did not think I had, I found out that I could.”
“We won, and things turned out well,” she added.
Inkster, who captured a career Grand Slam during her Hall of Fame career, played nine times in the Solheim Cup, once as a playing assistant captain.
“I have had a lot of exciting and memorable highlights during my time on tour, but leading that team of 12 women was one of the biggest thrills of my entire career.” Inkster said. “So the answer was easy.”
The hard part was keeping quiet.
Inkster said she had been sitting on the news for more than a month, and she said it was uncomfortable “telling people: ‘I do not know’ when I already knew.”
That is why the LPGA Tour decided to announce the next captain so far in advance of the August 2017 matches, and on Friday afternoon, a week before Christmas. It was billed as a “holiday surprise” at Des Moines Country Club, with Inkster appearing alongside two of her players, Brittany Lang and Gerina Piller.
It was Piller who made a 10-foot putt that secured the US win in Germany.
Inkster said she was happy to get a chance to be captain on home soil, and the crowds are expects to be enormous. The US Golf Association set attendance records when the US Senior Open was played at Des Moines in 1999.
That also might be her biggest challenge.
“It is going to be harder. There is going to be more pressure on the girls to play, and they are going to have to realize that,” she said. “From today, with what was happening, a year-and-a-half away, I think the first fairway is going to be lined, packed in red, white and blue.”
“I have always wanted to be captain in the US,” she added.
She does not expect to change much from her captaincy in Germany. Inkster most notably got away from an overdose of patriotism — face paint and fingernail polish — and back to golf. The US had lost the last three times and were criticized for being more about style than substance.
“If they wear face paint when they play regularly on tour, have at it, but I do not see any of them wearing face paint. Sometimes you put so much energy into that stuff and you forget why you are there. We were there to play golf and that is what the team did,” she said.
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