U.S. Solheim Cup captain Mallon predicts Patriots' Super Bowl win

Orlando, Fla. -- Newly anointed U.S. Solheim Cup captain Meg Mallon may be taking her 2013 team into Tim Tebow territory, but the Massachusetts native wears both her U.S.A. and New England Patriots red, white, and blue colors on her sleeve.

"Go, Patriots!" Mallon exclaimed after Thursday’s announcement during this week’s PGA Merchandise Show that the four-time major champion would try to get the Americans back into the winning column at Colorado Golf Club next August. "You know Tom Brady’s not going to have two bad games in a row, that’s all I can say. That’s not going to happen."

Meg Mallon hopes to do for the 2013 U.S. Solheim Cup team what she did for the junior Solheim Cuppers last year -- win (Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images)

Mallon, who has serious New England roots, having been born in Natick and winning the 2004 U.S. Women’s Open at The Orchards Golf Club in South Hadley, referred to Brady’s own admission that he "sucked" in the Pats’ 23-20 squeaker over the Baltimore Ravens in last Sunday’s AFC championship game. Should Brady again struggle with his passing in the early going of the Super Bowl on February 5, however, coach Bill Belichick could do worse than call in the 48-year-old Mallon, who earned rave reviews for her notorious putter-toss at the end of the LPGA Tour’s 1995 Healthsouth golf tournament at Eagle Pines Golf Course in nearby Lake Buena Vista.

Laughingly recalling a bad day on the course that included seven three-putts, Mallon related her conversation with her caddie walking up the 18th fairway.

"I told him, ‘I just want to get rid of this putter,’" Mallon said. "He said, ‘Let’s get rid of it."

So Mallon let it fly, and her somersaulting flat-stick throw went as viral as it could in the long-ago time before YouTube and Twitter. "It turned out to be a pretty good helicopter in the middle of the the pond and Golf Channel did a breakdown of my swing," said Mallon, who walked into the clubhouse where her competitors handed out Olympic-like scoring for her performance.

"Russia 10.9, Sweden," Mallon said with a chuckle, "and I’m like, how did they see that?"

As for the putter, which Mallon believes was a Ping Anser 2, the folks at Eagle Pines reportedly retrieved the shamed stick and enshrined it in a trophy case in the clubhouse. "They asked me if I wanted it back and I said no," Mallon said. "I threw it in there because I didn’t want it."

Unfortunately, the Pete Dye- and Tom Fazio-designed Eagle Pines is no more, so there was no one who could confirm the final resting place for Mallon’s water-logged hammer.

The eight-time Solheim Cup contestant with a 13-9-7 record, Mallon served as the winning captain of the Ping U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team in 2011, an experience that could help her in the biennial matches slated for August 13-August 18, 2013.