BATON ROUGE – Two former members of the LSU women’s golf team will be involved with trying to keep the Solheim Cup in Europe when the competition between the United States and continental Europe begins Friday at the Finca Cortesin in Casares, Andalusia, Spain.
Former All-American and SEC Player of the Year Madelene Sagstrom will be making her third appearance in the Solheim Cup, while former Tiger Caroline Martens will be serving as vice-captain for her Norwegian countrywoman Suzann Pettersen, who is captaining the European squad.
Martens played on the Ladies European Tour (LET) for several years after a successful LSU career (2005-09). She was part of the Norwegian national team for over 15 years.
Sagstrom in her previous two Solheim Cup appearances has won both her singles matches in both 2017 and 2021. She was on the team that lost to the U.S. in Des Moines (2017) when the European team was captained by Annika Sorenstam. Last year, Europe won on American soil in Toledo with Catriona Matthew as the captain. Sagstrom won the first full point in singles in the 15-13 win on the final day, defeating Ally Ewing, 3&2.
Sagstrom has won once on the LPGA tour, has represented her home country of Sweden in the Olympic Games and has won over $3.5 million in prize money on the tour.
Sagstrom played at LSU from 2012-15 and as a freshman was part of the team that finished third in the NCAA Championship. She was the SEC Player of the Year and ANNIKA Award finalist in her senior season of 2015.
There will be both foursomes and fourball matches on both Friday and Saturday before the 12 singles matches to conclude the event on Sunday. It will take 14 ½ points for the United States to win the cup and a 14-14 tie will allow Europe to retain the Cup, which will be contested again next year to allow the event to be in opposite years from the men’s Ryder Cup, which is next week.
The television coverage of the Solheim Cup will be on Golf Channel and Peacock. Friday and Saturday’s coverage will be from 1 a.m. to Noon CT, while the singles on Sunday will air from 4-to-11 a.m. CT.