Twelve top junior girls selected to U.S Junior Solheim Cup for next month’s matches

The 12-woman U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team has been revealed. The team of the best junior girls in the country will compete against their counterparts from Europe at Sylvania Country Club in Toledo, Ohio, on Sept. 1-2. The Solheim Cup will take place at nearby Inverness Club on September 4-6.

The Solheim – and Junior Solheim – Cups were originally to be played in 2020 but were pushed back to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Junior Solheim Cup would have been played within a month of the Junior Ryder Cup but that event was canceled because of the ongoing pandemic. The European Junior Ryder Cup team will not travel to the U.S., resulting in the shortening of the Junior Ryder Cup to an early-week exhibition match for U.S. players selected to the team.

That, perhaps, make selection to the Junior Solheim Cup all the sweeter.

Ten of the 12 players on the team were selected through rankings.

The following players earned their spot through the Rolex AJGA Rankings:

Anna Davis of Spring Valley, California
Yana Wilson of Henderson, Nevada
Avery Zweig of McKinney, Texas
Kaitlyn Schroeder of Jacksonville, Florida
Catherine Rao of Camarillo, California

These players earned their spot the through Golfweek Junior Girls Rankings:

Megha Ganne of Holmdel, New Jersey
Alexa Pano of Lake Worth, Florida
Bailey Shoemaker of West Edmeston, New York
Amari Avery of Riverside, California
Kelly Xu of Claremont, California

The final two captain’s picks were Katie Li of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and Sara Im of Duluth, Georgia.

The resumes are stout. Ganne is the highest-ranked player in Golfweek’s rankings, currently checking in at No. 2 after an early-summer stretch during which she was No. 1. That overlapped her head-turning performance at the U.S. Women’s Open, where she finished 14th and was the low amateur.

Davis recently won the Girls Junior PGA Championship. Four players (Schroeder, Wilson, Shoemaker and Li) were quarterfinalists at the U.S. Girls’ Junior.

Of the 12 players selected, only Pano has experience from the 2019 PING Junior Solheim Cup, won by the United States team in Scotland.

LPGA legend Renee Powell will captain the 2021 United States team.

“I am thrilled that we have 12 outstanding players now named to our 2021 USA PING Junior Solheim Cup Team. It is hard to believe that it was September of 2020 when I accepted the invitation from John Solheim to be the Captain of the USA Team. Like myself, I am sure every single player on our team is proud to be a part of representing our country and putting out 150%,” Powell said. “Looking forward to our many supporters being in Toledo, Ohio on September 1 and 2 to cheer our USA Team to victory.”