Thursday, July 25, 2013

Pretty Impressive Pairings at the Ladies European Masters

Check out the pairings sheet for the 1st 2 rounds of the ISPS Handa Ladies European Masters!

On Friday off the 10th tee:

7 am: Laura Davies, Karrie Webb, Charley Hull
7:10: Christina Kim, Lee-Anne Pace, Caroline Masson
7:20: Sophie Gustafson, Sandra Gal, Melissa Reid
7:30: Cheyenne Woods, Camilla Lennarth, Danielle Montgomery
7:40: Carin Koch, Veronica Zorzi, Kristie Smith
11:40: Gwladys Nocera, Diana Luna, Joanna Klatten

Also in the field:  Helen Alfredsson (#1, 11:50 am), Lorie Kane and Ashleigh Simon (#1, 7:30), Cindy LaCrosse (#10, 12 noon), Pernilla Lindberg (#1, 7), and Maria Hernandez (#1, 12:10 pm).

Nocera, Gal, and Masson are fighting to join Team Euro in the Solheim Cup.  Nocera is on Masson's heels in the LET's points system (not to mention trying to regain the top spot on their Order of Merit from Lee-Anne Pace, who won last week), while Gal hopes to finish well enough to shoot up the Rolex Rankings and, if not, play well enough to earn 1 of the 4 captain's picks.

I'd say Nocera and Masson are in no matter what--1 will qualify on points and the other will be the 1st captain's pick.  The 2nd and 3rd captain's picks are most likely to be Caroline Hedwall and Guilia Sergas, who are highly-ranked in both systems that produce automatic picks, just not in the top 4 in either (you can tell they're confident, because they're not playing this week on the LET).  The 4th pick is most likely to be between Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Gal, with Ewart Shadoff playing much better all season and especially of late (which us why she's saving herself for the Ricoh Women's British Open and Gal is playing both weeks)--but don't rule out dark horses like Charley Hull, Laura Davies, Melissa Reid, or Carin Koch, who would be sentimental picks for various reasons and who still can impress Captain Liselotte Neumann this week and next in the WBO.

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