Carlota Ciganda is set to compete in the 19th edition of the Solheim Cup on American soil this coming Friday, which will also mark her seventh consecutive appearance in this competition, since her debut in 2013. These are significant achievements. The group of players who have competed in more than seven editions of the Solheim Cup is very small, a level that the Spaniard is about to reach. In fact, to date, 132 players (*) have debuted in the Solheim Cup, combining the two teams (67 Americans and 65 Europeans), and only twelve have participated in eight or more editions.
Four are American. Christie Kerr (9 editions), July Inkster (9), Meg Mallon (8) and Beth Daniel (8).
And eight are European. Laura Davies (12), Catriona Matthew (9), Suzann Pettersen (9), Annika Sorenstam (8), Anna Nordqvist (8), Sophie Gustafson (8), Helen Alfredsson (8) and Trish Johnson (8). It should be noted that Nordqvist is also present this week at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club (Gainesville, Virginia), in the ranks of the European team, so she is going to play her ninth edition. The club that the Swede enters, as you can see, is truly exclusive: in a few days only Laura Davies will have played more editions than Nordqvist, who is 37 years old and could still have some way to go…
Ciganda is 34 years old and it would also be worth asking how many editions of the Solheim she has left to play. Impossible to guess, of course. Davies’ record, twelve editions, seems out of reach for everyone. If anything, by age, it could be considered whether the English Charley Hull would even match those twelve editions. Hull is going to compete this week in her seventh edition, like Carlota, but the Englishwoman is 28 years old.
Carlota has played 23 Solheim Cup matches to date. It should be noted that only thirteen players in the history of the Solheim have played 25 or more matches, a figure that the Navarrese is likely to match and surpass in this edition. Of those twelve, five are Americans: Kerr (38 matches), Inkster (34), Creamer (31), Mallon (29) and Daniel (26). And eight are Europeans: Davies (46), Matthew (37), Sorenstam (37), Pettersen (36), Gustafson (31), Nordqvist (31), Alfredsson (28) and Johnson (25).
There are also thirteen players who to date have scored more points than Carlota, who currently has 13. Six are American: Kerr (21 points), Creamer (19.5), Inkster (18.5), Mallon (16.5), Pepper (14) and Daniel (13.5). And seven are European: Davies (25 points), Sorenstam (24), Matthew (22), Pettersen (21), Nordqvist (16.5), Gustaffson (16) and Hull (13.5).
There is almost no need to recall Carlota Ciganda’s stellar role in last year’s Solheim at Finca Cortesín, where she scored four points and won all the matches in which she participated, being also decisive in that unforgettable confrontation against Nelly Korda. But if we talk about pure and hard legend, there is an area in which the Spaniard is already writing a page worthy of all consideration, and that is the Sunday singles. Carlota, to date, has won four, tied one and lost only one, so she has 4.5 points in the singles. Well, right now only six players have scored more points than the Spaniard in the Sunday singles in the entire history of the Solheim. Namely: Inkster (7 points), Matthew (6.5), Davies (6), Mallon (5.5), Creamer (5) and Pepper (5). Sorenstam, for example, scored 4.5 points in this section, the same as Carlota, but in eight editions.
(*) In this edition the figure of 132 players who have at least played a match in the Solheim Cup will go up to 135, as three players debut in the competition, the Americans Lauren Coughlin and Sarah Schmelzel, and the Swiss Albane Valenzuela.
