Captain's picks round out U.S. Solheim Cup team with eye toward swinging momentum the Americans' way

Admitting that her decisions on captain’s picks were all but a foregone conclusion, Stacy Lewis filled out the remainder of the 12-player U.S. Solheim Cup team roster with three choices on Monday morning. In putting together an American squad that is trying win in Europe for the first time since 2015, Lewis leaned on two veterans in Angel Yin and Ally Ewing, both having played twice previously, alongside the fifth rookie on the squad in Cheyenne Knight.

"Easy," Lewis said of making her picks. "And a lot of it I think is probably more the stats and more the preparation that we had done prior to this week. Because they don't know this—I have really been set on them for quite a few weeks now."

The decision tree was trimmed in part due to Jessica Korda's injury that removed the three-time veteran from consideration, leaving the only potential choice being taken care of when Andrea Lee supplanted Lexi Thompson for the final points spot at last week's CPKC Canadian Open.

Lewis has five rookies on the roster, with Knight joining Lee, Rose Zhang, Allisen Corpuz and Lilia Vu as the U.S. tries to stop Europe from three-peating for the first time amidst a run of the Americans losing four of the last six Solheim Cups.

"These five, they are rookies, but they are so experienced, just as far as the amount of golf they have been able to play," Lewis said. "Rose [Zhang] is the only true rookie, but she's probably got [more] experience than a lot of us combined, in big events, that is. So not worried about the rookies at all to be honest, and I love having Lexi, Danielle [Kang], those that have been around and played a lot. We are going to rely on them quite a bit just for behind the scenes and leading the way there."

With an inexperienced roster including only two players in Kang and Thompson that have won previous Cups, here's everything you need to know about Lewis' picks with three weeks remaining until the matches are held at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain.

Ally Ewing

This will be the third Solheim Cup for the 30-year-old, her debut coming in 2019 as an injury replacement for Lewis. The three-time LPGA winner, most recently at the 2022 Kroger Queen City Championship last September, has consistently been at the top of leaderboards this summer, with four top-11 finishes in her previous seven starts. Earlier this month she had a five-stroke 36-hole lead at the AIG Women’s Open before settling for a T-6 finish. Ewing's Solheim record is 2-5-1.

Cheyenne Knight

The fifth rookie for Lewis’ squad, Knight got her second LPGA victory in the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in July, a two-person team event. The 26-year-old has multiple ties to Lewis, both growing up in The Woodlands, Texas, as well as Knight winning the 2012 KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior Girls Open as an amateur. Knight finished 11th on U.S. points list. She is 12th this season in driving accuracy (80.5 percent)—one of four U.S. team members hitting over 80 percent of fairways, alongside Corpuz (82.5 percent), Lee (81.6 percent) and Khang (80.6 percent.)

Angel Yin

Yin, like Ewing, also has played in two previous Solheim Cups (2017 and 2019). She surged onto the Solheim radar with a playoff loss at the Chevron Championship in April. She is the only golfer on the U.S. team without an LPGA victory, but has been a consistent player in the 2023 campaign, posting nine top-30s over 13 starts this year. Yin's career Solheim record is 3-2-1.

U.S. Solheim Cup Full Roster

Lilia Vu

Nelly Korda

Allisen Corpuz

Megan Khang

Jennifer Kupcho

Danielle Kang

Andrea Lee

Lexi Thompson

Rose Zhang

Ally Ewing

Cheyenne Knight

Angel Yin