Carin Koch Named European Solheim Cup Captain

A month of speculation is finally over, as Team Europe has their captain - Sweden's Carin Koch. Koch was a member of four Solheim Cup teams, and served as Captain Neumann's vice-captain last year in Europe's victory over the Americans.

Koch's individual career looks relatively unimpressive, as she only won twice on the LPGA Tour and once in Europe; however, she excelled on the Solheim Cup stage, going 10-3-3 in her four appearances in the event. Not only that, but Liselotte Neumann believed in Koch enough to bring her along as a vice-captain last year, so this appointment appears to make sense on the service. Koch was bound to get the position at some point, and with the Europeans defending the Cup on home soil, they appear to be playing with house money. She's not the big name like Juli Inkster was for the Americans, but she has enough experience to be able to hold this team together.

Koch's first order as captain was to name Annika Sorenstam as vice-captain, a position she has held the two previous Solheim Cups. At this point, you almost have to speculate that Annika is turning down the position of captain for some reason. She would seem the most logical to take over the team whenever she chooses, and with her being named vice-captain three Cups in a row, Team Europe clearly has confidence in her abilities to lead. Perhaps Annika is waiting for her kids to grow a bit older and for the Cup to return to America before taking over the team.

There were reports earlier in the week that Liselotte Neumann was going to take over again as captain, but those reports were apparently untrue. I did not take much stock in them to begin with, as Neumann appeared to suggest after last year that she had no intention on returning as captain. It is hard to follow up a performance like the Europeans had last year, so why not go out on top?

Both the American and the European teams need to have different approaches going into the Solheim Cup matches. The Americans need to have more focus, and not worry about the glitz and glamour and all the side activities that they tend to do in these events. For the Europeans, they need to not focus on the crowd or the fact that they are the defending champions; they're still going to be the underdogs, and they need to play as such. Koch is a perfect captain to get them into that mentality. The jury is still out whether Inkster can fulfill the goals for the Americans.