At 22 years old, Nanna Koerstz Madsen is without question a rising star in women’s golf. Let’s recap her finishes this year – worldwide. She finished in a tie for seventh at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open and has been extremely consistent in four starts on the Epson Tour including her win on Sunday at the Epson Classic.
Koerstz Madsen has dual Ladies European Tour and Epson Tour membership so she is eligible to make Team Europe for the Solheim Cup.
After the win in Georgia, she is now No. 77 in the world according the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and the tenth highest ranked player from Europe. Based on the criteria to make the European Solheim Cup team, her best chance might be as one of four LET members selected by the team captain, Annika Sorenstam – who did congratulate Koerstz Madsen via social media after her win. Don’t put too much stock into that, but the captain is certainly paying attention.
"I would love to play to Solheim Cup," said Koerstz Madsen. "But, my main goal this year is LPGA which means I have to give up some LET events which make my chances of making the team smaller. So LPGA has more focus than Solheim. But you can always hope for a captain pick."
The eight players that are currently slotted to make the Team Europe are Georgia Hall, Florentyna Parker, Mel Reid, Anna Nordqvist, Suzann Petersen, Charley Hull, Carlota Ciganda and Karine Icher.
Without playing on the LPGA Tour because of a bad week at Stage II of LPGA Qualifying Tournament, Koerstz Madsen has a higher world ranking than three of the eight.
If you look at the Ladies European Tour’s Order of Merit, there are a few players that Koerstz Madsen will have to beat out for one of the final four spots. Klara Spilkova currently leads the money list in two starts and Sandra Gal is sixth and seems like an obvious pick. Azahara Munoz and Caroline Masson are probably two others that could get in the way of Koerstz Madsen. It is interesting to note that Koerstz Madsen is eighth in Solheim Cup points (top 4 earn spots) and Emily Pedersen, who also played the Epson Classic this past week, is seventh on that list. Could there be two Epson Tour members in the Solheim Cup?
Who knows what direction Annika decides to go, but it is clear that Koerstz Madsen has to be considered.
Here are the facts. In four starts on the Epson Tour, she hasn’t finished worse than T15 and has two top 10’s including the win. In her young career, she has won on the LET, Epson Tour and represented her country in the 2016 Olympic Games. By the way, she finished T13 in the Olympics – the only Europeans that finished ahead of her were Charley Hull (T7), Suzann Petersen (10th) and Anna Nordqvist (T11). It’s a small sample size, but she has proven big stage experience.
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