Amy Alcott has been named Captain of the Ping Junior Solheim Cup’s United States team for the 13th edition of the biennial competition, Sept. 18-19, 2023 at The Old Course at La Zagaleta, located in southern Spain,.
“This is a wonderful honor. When I got the call from (Ping Chairman) John Solheim, I was very flattered,” Alcott said. “I have always believed that junior golf is the lifeblood of the game. I grew up chipping and putting into soup cans in my front yard in Southern California and competed in junior tournaments from the ages of nine to 17.”
Modeled after the Solheim Cup, the Ping Junior Solheim Cup features the 12 best female junior golfers (ages 12-18) from the United States against their counterparts from Europe. The team match play event includes foursomes, four-ball and singles matches played over two days and rotates between U.S. and European host sites coinciding with the Solheim Cup. The event includes each team watching the final days of the Solheim Cup matches at Finca Cortesin, Sept. 18-24, 2023.
Amy Alcott is a highly celebrated icon of women’s golf. Before her illustrious professional career that earned her a place in the LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame , Alcott won the 1973 U.S. Girls Junior at Somerset Hills Country Club in New Jersey. It was that same year that she set the course record for women at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Alcott turned professional in 1975 at the age of 18 and earned LPGA Rookie of the Year honors that year. Over the course of her 27-year professional career, Alcott won 32 individual titles that included 29 LPGA victories and five major championships. She was a three-time champion of the now Chevron Championship and made tradition the now famous jump into Poppies Pond at Mission Hills Country Club with her win in 1988.
“I went out on the tour at 18 years old. I always thought the early years of getting involved in a sport and gravitating towards it – it is a period in your life when you play golf that you have the most acuity to learn. You realize early on that it is journey and not a destination. That’s what I hope to share my joy and knowledge with these 12 young juniors, I am sure they will have a lot to teach me,” Alcott says.
After her playing career Alcott went into the business of golf, including golfcourse design. . She worked with architect Gil Hanse in designing the host course for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
The United States leads the all-time PING Junior Solheim Cup Series 7-3-1 and had won six consecutive matches prior to their loss in 2021. The US last won, 13-11, when the event was hosted in Scotland in 2019.