Final Test for U.S. Solheim Cup Qualifying ANDREWS, Scotland - Morgan Pressel stopped in the middle of an interview Friday to admire a reporter's sequined sneakers. Pressel is as keen on fashion as she is on golf, and with career earnings of nearly $5 million, she can indulge in almost any wardrobe item her heart desires. Pressel, 25, has lately been coveting a white-billed cap with an American flag patch that she saw atop the head of Meg Mallon, the captain of the United States Solheim Cup team. When Pressel mentioned how awesome the cap was, Mallon offered to get one for her. Pressel demurred, saying she preferred to earn it. "I'll get one when I make the team," she said she told Mallon. The Women's British Open here has had the feel of an Olympic selection event as golfers on both sides of the Solheim Cup, the biennial competition between Europe and the United States, are trying to earn or solidify berths. The teams for the Cup, scheduled for Aug. 16 to 18 outside Denver, will be announced after the Open champion is crowned Sunday at the Old Course. That is, if the weather cooperates. Play was stopped at 12:33 p.m. Saturday because of wind gusts that reached 40 miles an hour. Tournament organizers tried in vain to wait out the weather, suspending play after a five-and-a-half-hour delay. Nine golfers completed their rounds, but the top 14 never started. Of those who finished, the average score was 78.2. The South Korean Inbee Park, who is trying to become the first professional player, man or woman, to win four majors in the same year, expressed her concern about continuing to an official whom she summoned for a ruling after her ball moved on the fourth green. Around the same time, four other golfers reported that their balls were oscillating. Within minutes, play was suspended with Park one under par for her round. The howling winds caused a shift in Mallon's anxiety. Who is going to form her team became less of a worry than when the tournament would end so the teams could be named. Although the tournament officials hoped to crown a 72-hole champion Sunday, the forecast called for strong winds, and they would not rule out a Monday finish. The top eight in the United States Solheim Cup standings, calculated over two years, will automatically make the team, as will the top two in the world rankings who did not qualify. Mallon will pick the remaining two players for the 12-woman squad. Pressel, who has competed in the past three Solheim Cups, started the week 12th in the standings and was third, at No. 51, among Americans in the world rankings who had not qualified, behind Lizette Salas (No. 20) and Jennifer Johnson (No. "Having played on three teams, it's something that I don't want to miss, and something that I'm definitely thinking about, and at the same time, trying not to think about," said Pressel, who compiled a 4-0 record in the Americans" defeat two years ago and has not lost a Solheim Cup match since her rookie appearance in 2007. Pressel, a one-time major winner, said she wished she had a dollar for every time in the past week someone had mentioned her Solheim Cup prospects. "I'd be a bazillionaire," she said. She positioned herself beautifully for a berth on the team and a run at the championship with opening rounds of 66 and 70. At eight under par, Pressel entered Saturday two strokes behind the leader, Na Yeon Choi. Also in the mix was Nicole Castrale, who was one stroke behind Pressel at Saturday's start. Castrale's Solheim Cup prospects appeared dim after she had shoulder surgery in 2010 and gave birth to her first child in 2011. She began last year ranked well outside the top 400, but she has climbed her way to No. 77 and is the seventh-highest-ranked American who has not qualified for the team. "I feel like I've done a pretty good job of moving up in the last two years," Castrale, 34, said. She added, "I've been fighting all year, so just see what happens." Johnson, 21, a winner this year on the L.P.G.A. Tour, missed the Open cut but remains in the Solheim Cup conversation, as does the 55th-ranked Gerina Piller, who advanced to the weekend with two strokes to spare. Twenty-five spots behind Piller in the rankings, and one stroke behind her after the first two rounds, is the world No. 80 Michelle Wie, who is battling to make her third Solheim Cup. Wie's desire to be a part of the United States team is written in the blue stars on her red-white-and-blue golf bag. Wie, who compiled a 3-0-1 record in her first Solheim Cup appearance, in 2009, won the second of her two L.P.G.A. titles in 2010. Her performance has tailed off drastically since she posted seven top-10 finishes in 2011. Wie, 23, has two top-10 finishes in 2013, one more than last year, but also seven missed cuts, including a withdrawal from the United States Women's Open after an opening 80. "Obviously it's been a tough year," Wie said. It's obviously not ideal to be playing for a captain's pick. But I've been trying to play really well all year. I think I've been getting better and better. Mallon said: "The thing she told me is: "I just feel like a fish swimming upstream right now. I know I'm playing really well, but I just can't get over the hump." " Wie's fortunes have teetered on the greens. Her putts have burned the edges of the cup this year more times than she cares to count. After her opening 74 here, she said, "I hit so many putts and I was walking like it was going in, and it just didn't go in." Wie had more putts drop on Friday, including a five-footer for birdie on the last hole to get to even par for the tournament after a bogey on No. 17 left her on the cut line. "It just confirmed what I know about her, which is she never gives up the fight," Mallon said. It is not easy watching Solheim Cup veterans like Pressel try to play their way in and like Wie try to avoid being left out. Mallon, a four-time major winner and eight-time Solheim Cup competitor, said: "It's just like my career, you know? Nothing came easy to me, and my captaincy's reflecting that right now. It's a difficult and gut-wrenching time.