Porter-King to captain U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team
The 2015 winning U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team (Solheim Cup/Twitter photo)
BRASELTON, Ga. (Nov. 9, 2018) – Over the years, some prestigious players have stepped up to captain the Junior Solheim Cup teams. Mary Bea Porter-King is the latest. Porter-King will captain the U.S. team at the 2019 matches in Gleneagles, Scotland.
Porter-King was an accomplished junior golfer herself, having started in the game at age 7. She rose through the ranks of junior, amateur, college and professional golf, and spent 25 years competing on the LPGA. She is perhaps best known for scaling a fence to administer CPR to save the life of a drowning 3-year old boy in 1988 during an LPGA Qualifying round in Phoenix. Her heroics led to the formation of the Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian Award, presented annually by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association in honor of an individual who, through a heroic or humanitarian act, saves or betters the lives of others. She was the first recipient of the award in 1989.
Porter-King co-founded the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association in 1998 when she retired from professional golf, a role she continues today.
She has dedicated much of her life to serving junior golf as a teacher and administrator and was awarded the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Budget Service Award for her work in junior golf. Appointed to the USGA Girls’ Junior Championship committee in 1994, then in 2001, Porter-King served five years on the USGA Executive Committee. She now serves on the U.S. Junior Amateur Committee and was recently awarded the USGA Ike Grainger Award for 25 years of volunteer service.
“Being around junior golfers constantly forces you to see the game with fresh eyes,” Porter-King said. “Most of us only get to fall in love with golf once, through our own experience. Being part of the 2019 PING Junior Solheim Cup means I get to fall in love with the game all over again through the eyes of these wonderful American players.”
Other past players who have served as Junior Solheim Cup captains include Kathy Whitworth, Nancy Lopez, Meg Mallon and Joanne Carner.
Modeled after the Solheim Cup, the Ping Junior Solheim Cup biennially features the 12 best female junior golfers (ages 12-18) from the United States against their counterparts from Europe. The United States leads the all-time PING Junior Solheim Cup series 6-2-1 and has won five consecutive matches. Team Europe last won, 14-10, when the event was hosted in Sweden in 2007. Porter-King will coach opposite European Team captain and former Solheim Cup captain Mickey Walker.
The first 10 girls on the PING Junior Solheim Cup United States team will be selected based on a combination of the AJGA’s Rolex AJGA Rankings and the
Golfweek/Sagarin Junior Girls Rankings. The final two spots are reserved for captain’s picks.
Information from the AJGA used in this report
ABOUT THE Junior Solheim Cup
Inaugurated in 2002, The PING Junior Solheim Cup is
a version of The Solheim Cup for female amateurs
born after 2001 and follows a similar format to the
biennial event, featuring the top 12 European junior
amateurs versus their U.S counterparts.
College/university golfers are ineligible to participate
in the event, even if they meet the age cutoff. The
event is held over two days, with six four-ball and six
foursomes matches the first day, and twelve singles
matches the second day.
View Complete Tournament Information