Aug. 19, 2009

By: Bob Gillespie The State

Sugar Grove, Ill. -- For three days last week, Beth Daniel was awash in details: lining up menus for meals, keeping events on schedule, even walking the golf course to repair divots in her (few) spare moments.

That was in her role as honorary chairperson of the Beth Daniel Junior Azalea at the Country Club of Charleston course where she learned the game. This week, Daniel has similar duties, albeit on a considerably larger stage.

The Furman All-American and LPGA Hall of Famer is in the Chicago suburb of Sugar Grove, Ill., as captain of the U.S. team in the 11th Solheim Cup. And if the stakes are higher in this biennial meeting of top women's players from the U.S. and Europe, which begins Friday, at least the 53-year-old has an idea what to expect.

"Yeah, there are some similarities," Daniel said, laughing. "All kinds of organizational things; I was on the phone the other day going over our schedule of meals -- it's my responsibility to figure out, while working around tee times, when the players need to eat.

From transportation to making sure the uniforms are, indeed, uniform to having snacks that suit everyone's tastes - it's all part of the job. And all before the first shot is struck.

The U.S. holds a 7-3 mark and has never lost at home, riding a two-event win streak after topping the Euros 16-12 in Halmstad, Sweden, in 2007. Daniel then was assistant captain to former Furman teammate and friend Betsy King.

"Betsy put a lot on me, and I learned a ton," she said.

Already, she has dealt with what might be her toughest call: naming her two captain's picks. Her choices - former child prodigy and LPGA rookie Michelle Wie, 19, and 49-year-old veteran Juli Inkster, who has a daughter Wie's age - were widely endorsed by LPGA insiders and media, but Daniel passed on such players as Laura Diaz, Stacy Prammanasudh, Pat Hurst and Jane Park.

"It was hard," Daniel said. "But if you look at the stats, I feel I made the picks I had to."

Inkster was easy. Daniel's first 10 players all wanted her experience (seven Solheim appearances) and enthusiasm. "She's a match-play expert, too," Daniel said. "I tell our players, `Go ask Juli.'"

Wie, the world's most recognizable women's player, "was playing as well as anyone," Daniel said. "And her birdie average (4.08 per round) is the best on the team."

As Friday approaches, rather than breathing a sigh of relief, Daniel said, she frets over not the competition, but what comes after. Two years into retirement, the Solheim Cup run-up has been an extended stay within her sorority.

"It's going to be bittersweet when it's over," she said. "I've been so close to (the players), but this is kind of potentially my last hurrah" with the LPGA. "I've been told I won't be a captain again; I'll be doing TV (with the Golf Channel), but I'll be distanced from the Tour. Sunday will be emotional for me. I don't know what's ahead. So I'm going to savor every moment."

Including the menus, the clothing, the buses. ...