If Ian Woosnam, one of the smallest players in men’s professional golf, can captain Europe to victory in a Ryder Cup, can Alison Nicholas, who was one of the smallest competitors in the women’s game, do the same in the Solheim Cup? We shall find out in a little less than two years, when Nicholas will lead Europe’s attempt to win the trophy in the United States for the first time.

Few players are held in such high esteem as Nicholas, who is two inches shorter than 5ft in her spikes but brings huge experience and character to the team that will compete at Rich Harvest Farms, near Chicago, Illinois, from August 20 to 23, 2009.

“I love everything about the Solheim Cup,” Nicholas, who was named captain yesterday, said. “I am passionate about it. I love the camaraderie that is involved and that it is a team event, which we don’t encounter much in women’s golf.”

Nicholas, 45, played in the first Solheim Cup, in Florida in 1990, and a further five matches, scoring 8½ points in all. She was a member of the winning teams of 1992 and 2000, a vice-captain in 2003, when Europe won in Sweden, and again in 2005, when they lost in the US. She and Laura Davies were a formidable partnership, one inspiring the other in much the same way as Severiano Ballesteros and José MarÍa Olazábal were so successful together in the Ryder Cup.

During her 20-year career, Nicholas won 18 professional tournaments round the world, including the 1997 US Women’s Open. That year, she also won the European Order of Merit and was appointed MBE for services to golf.

Nicholas retired from professional golf in 2004 and realises that she will struggle to keep abreast of the young players who may be candidates for her team. “My vice-captain will be someone who is still playing,” Nicholas said. “I don’t know who it will be yet because I haven’t made up my mind.

“I know the pendulum seems to have swung America’s way with their young players coming through and I know it is going to be a difficult match to win. But it won’t be impossible.”

Karen Lunn, chairman of the Ladies European Tour (LET) and of the European Solheim Cup Committee, said: “Alison has all the credentials we were looking for in a captain and thoroughly deserves this opportunity. Her record as a player in the Solheim Cup was outstanding. She is also a life member of the LET and has been a great supporter of the Tour over many years. She fully understands the difficulty of the task that lies ahead in going on to US soil to get the cup back.

“Her credentials in the US, especially her US Women’s Open victory in 1997 against Nancy Lopez, who had 20,000-plus fans supporting her in Portland that day, shows that she has the grit and ability to win in these circumstances against the odds.”