For the first time in a long time, there’s a mom on the U.S. Solheim Cup team

Alison Lee had just finished a 100-minute massage when she picked up the phone. The 31-year-old mom had her parents fly in to help with son Levi while she and her partner, Trey Kidd, attended the wedding of a sorority sister. 

For Lee, it’s been a pedal-to-the-floor six months as she has crisscrossed the globe trying to qualify for a third Solheim Cup in less than half the time of her peers. 

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After she’d done it – become the first American player since Juli Inkster in 2011 to automatically qualify for a Solheim Cup team after giving birth – she needed that massage. 

“I’m at a point now, where I weigh less than pre-pregnancy,” she said. “I’m not eating enough, which is why I decided to take [FM Championship] off so I can just get a little bit of a break.”

Lee requested a second room where the players are staying in The Netherlands so that her parents could be close with Levi. The only mom in the 24-player competition Sept. 11-13 at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, Lee is usually the one getting up with her son during the night on the road because she’s strict about his sleep schedule. Every week is so different for her 16-month-old, that she holds tight to whatever she can keep routine.

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Two years ago at the Solheim Cup in Virginia, Lee was pregnant with Levi, though only the captain, Stacy Lewis, four-ball partner, Megan Khang, and her caddie knew it. 

“Even my parents didn’t know,” she said.

Two weeks before the event, Lee couldn’t hit balls on the range for more than 10 minutes without throwing up. She phoned Lewis concerned that she might not be able to play. A friend suggested she take some Zofran, and that got her through, though Lewis didn’t play her until the afternoon session each day so that she could get more sleep.

A mom hasn’t played in the Solheim Cup – for either side – since 2019, when Suzann Pettersen, playing as captain’s pick, came back from maternity leave and won the cup for Europe in dramatic fashion on the 18th green. She then retired on the spot.

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On the European side, Karine Icher gave birth to daughter Lola in 2011 and then qualified via points in 2017. Catriona Matthew and Maria Hjorth both gave birth in 2009 and, incredibly, qualified for the team the same year. (That was the same summer Matthew won a major 11 weeks after giving birth to her second daughter Sophie.)

“I think, at the time, you just get on with it, don’t you?” said Matthew, adding that her main goal was to get back on the Solheim Cup team.

While the talent at the top isn’t necessarily stronger, 57-year-old Matthew concedes that the tour is undoubtedly deeper than it was in her prime. 

Lee came back to the LPGA in mid-April, a month earlier than she’d planned to better her chances of making it to Bernardus.

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Karen Stupples, who played as a captain’s pick in 2011 when son Logan was 4 years old, believes the sooner a player returns to the tour, the better for her game.

“I think players are extending the maternity leave longer,” said Stupples, “and it’s making it harder for them to come back. I came back at 10 weeks, and Beanie [Matthew] came back earlier than that.”

Two-time U.S. captain Stacy Lewis was the last LPGA player to win as a mom at the Scottish Open in 2020. Lewis was a pick for the 2019 team but had to pull out with an injury before the competition started.

Lee has dealt with several aches and pains this season, chalking much of it up to a lack of rest. Even so, she’s playing some of the best golf of her career, thanks in part to a reluctant switch to the broomstick putter, which has stabilized her shaky hands. 

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A share of third on Mother’s Day at the Mizuho Americas Open kicked off a strong stretch that included an early share of the lead at the U.S. Women’s Open at Riveira and a share of fifth at the KPMG Women’s PGA at Hazeltine. 

Currently No. 57 in the world, Lee secured the last automatic qualifying spot off the Rolex Rankings last month with a pair of top-15 finishes late in the game.

She admits to exceeding even her own expectations this season. After watching so many moms come back to the tour and struggle to keep their cards, Lee had big goals but no idea if all the sacrifices would be worth it.

“I feel like I have a big weight lifted off my shoulders,” she said, adding “all the hours that you put into practicing, if I don’t perform well, you almost feel like you wasted that time, and it’s time you can’t get back. Time you spent away from your kid, and it’s hard to battle with that.”

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Lee told U.S. captain Angela Angela Stanford from the start that she wanted to make the team on her own – without needing a pick. 

“I love a player that talks about Solheim,” said Stanford, “talks about how much they want to be on the team and then they back it up.”

Lee also happens to be on only player on the 2026 team that has previously won in Europe, something Stanford knows might become crucial in the team room.

In 2015, Lee became a central character in one of the most controversial Sundays in Solheim Cup history. The rookie’s week in Germany began with food poisoning and on Sunday, during the conclusion of a four-ball session that had spilled over due to weather, Lee picked up an 18-inch par putt on the 17th green that she thought Europe had conceded. 

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As Charley Hull walked off the green, Pettersen told the group’s rules official that the putt hadn’t been given. The miscommunication resulted in a loss of hole for Lee and partner Brittany Lincicome, who walked to the 18th tee stunned. Europe ultimately won the match, and Team USA’s furor over the situation ignited the biggest comeback in cup history that afternoon.

“I feel like it just confirmed for me what kind of player I want to be, what kind of person I wanted to be,” said Lee of a situation that she felt turned nasty.

From controversy to pregnancy, Lee wanted another shot at the Solheim Cup, with a toddler in tow.

Her comeback season has already been an inspiration to many of her peers, whether it’s players who are thinking about starting a family or those back home with a young one now.

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“I’ve inspired a few moms even just to go out and hit some balls,” said Lee, “see what it feels like.”

Spark a new dream.  

Beth Ann Nichols is a senior writer Golfweek covering the LPGA and women’s golf.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: For the first time in a long time, there’s a mom on the U.S. Solheim Cup team