GAINESVILLE, Va. — For Europe to overcome the biggest first-day setback in Solheim Cup history and stay in contention to win its fourth-straight title, it would take a Saturday of domination.
European captain Suzann’s Pettersen’s squad played to that level through nine holes of foursomes. Little by little, however, the Americans clawed back into the fight and are now tantalizingly close to snapping Europe’s five-year hold on the most prestigious team trophy in women’s golf.
After being down 3-1 in foursomes, the Americans rallied behind Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz to split the morning session, and Megan Khang and Alison Lee carried the momentum into afternoon four-balls for another split session — a Solheim first — to push the United States to a 10-6 lead after two days of match play at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.
“Thought it was a very successful day for us,” U.S. captain Stacy Lewis said. “I kind of compared it to shooting a 62 one day and then how do you follow that up. I thought the team did a really good job of following that up.”
“We’ve got to go get off to a great start like we’ve done all week, go get the energy early, use the crowd, and finish it off as quick as we can.”
The Americans hold the second-largest lead entering the singles session and will need only 4 1/2 points across Sunday’s 12 matches to capture the trophy for the first time since 2017. The U.S. scored 5 points in four-ball this tournament after only scoring 5 1/2 in the last two Solheims combined.
“It’s a tough task. It’s a lot to ask,” Pettersen said. “But the situation is 10-6. All you can do is just literally go out hard, play your heart out, and hopefully we get enough points that we can kind of keep this exciting and fun for the bottom half to show up and get their points, as well.”
Korda and Corpuz kept their lights-out play going, becoming the first duo to win four consecutive matches, dating to last year in Spain.
Trailing Carlota Ciganda and Emily Pedersen from the 2nd through 12th holes, the Americans parred No. 13 while Europe bogeyed, bringing the match all square.
On the par-5 14th — what’s become the ‘stadium’ hole, ringed with crowds for its entire length — the Americans struck gold, twice.
From the middle of the fairway, Corpuz topped the second shot with her 3-wood. The ball stayed low, but sliced away from the water, singed the right edge of a bunker, and rolled softly onto the green. From 25 feet away, Korda drilled the eagle putt with a fist pump to take their first lead.
Europe would level on 15, and on the par-4 17th, Ciganda and Pedersen three-putted, while Korda’s pin-hunting second shot used the back slope of the green to spin the ball with a few feet, giving them the 1-up lead and eventually the match win.
Lauren Coughlin and Lexi Thompson took the other U.S. morning point, 4-and-3 over Georgia Hall and Maja Stark, never trailing in the contest. The Virginia native is just the third rookie to win each of her first three Solheim matches and the first in 26 years.
Europe was buoyed by Anna Nordqvist and Celine Boutier 4-and-3 winners over Lilia Vu and Sarah Schmelzel in a match that was never tied after the Americans bogeyed the first. Charley Hull and Esther Henseleit captured the other point after Henseleit stuck her second shot on the par-4 18th to a foot for a conceded birdie that wasn’t matched.
If Europe had thoughts of pulling away again after their strong morning, Khang and Lee snatched them away immediately in the afternoon.
On her second shot on No 2 in four-ball from just about 90 yards away, she used a wedge that got the ball to stick and spin right back into the cup for an eagle.
“It’s probably one of the coolest moments of my career, and it was a lot of fun to be able to experience that, especially with crowds like we did this week,” Lee said.
The duo’s caddies took off their shirts in a wild scene — something that was preplanned if either of them were to hole out in their round —as the Americans took a 1-up lead.
“Right after the first hole, [Khang’s caddy] kind of looked at us and said, ’Come on, guys, I want to see one of you guys hole out. I want to see a really good shot,’” Lee said. “He said that if one of us holes out we’ll get $500, and I said ’I don’t want your money. I don’t need $500. How about you take your shirt off?’ And he’s like, ’Yeah, I’ll do it.’”
It foreshadowed an afternoon of American shotmaking. On No. 11, Khang’s birdie putt on the par-3 trickled to the left side of the cup, hung there for what felt like an eternity — a la Tiger Woods’ chip-in on No. 16 at the 2005 Masters — then fell in as another raucous celebration between her and Lee ensued.
“For Megan to make a few really good ones on top of that really kept the momentum going,” Lee said. “We had a lot of good mojo in our group today.”
Three holes later, Khang’s second shot cleared the water, bunker, bounced in the rough and rolled down the slope of the green to within 10 feet of the hole. No. 14 magic struck again as Khang’s eagle putt poured in the left side of the cup as her firecracker personality ignited the crowd. She and Lee would take the point, 6-and-4, on the next hole.
“It worked out in alternates that if you hit off the odds, kind of that stretch of — there’s a six-hole stretch there on the back nine, kind of that 10 through 14, 15 stretch, I don’t even know what it is, but there’s six holes in a row that you would be hitting the birdie putts,” Lewis said. “We kind of put that as our focus on putting our better putters on the odds. It allowed us to really take advantage of that part of the golf course.”
Fourteen was the final hole for the second Americans off in the afternoon, Andrea Lee and Rose Zhang. The Stanford duo were equally impressive, putting on a putting clinic in a 6-and-4 win over Boutier and Linn Grant. Zhang has only lost one hole outright in her first two days of play.
Europe would take the day’s final two points. Ciganda and Pedersen teamed again, this time to win 2-and-1 over Thompson and Ewing, who’s now lost her last six Solheim matches. The British close-friend tandem of Hull and Hall nabbed the other, 1-up over Corpuz and Vu - never trailing, but needing all 18 holes to win.
“To come out of the day with the same lead that we started was really big for us,” Lewis said, “and we had to fight through some tougher matches today.”
European putting was all over the map in the late day, with a bundle of misses on long putts rolling too strong past the cup and short ones burnishing the sides of the hole. Pettersen and Co. will need that corrected foremost to have any chance of winning the 8-of-12 points needed for at least a second-straight tie, which would allow them to retain.
“I really feel like we haven’t had any magic on the greens. We haven’t had many momentums kind of going our way, and still, we’re managing to kind of get two halves out of all of today, 2-2, 2-2,” Pettersen said. “I think we’re doing pretty good. I just think what hurt us the most was, again, the very slow start. It kind of puts us behind straight off the bat.”
Leona Maguire, a fixture of previous European Solheim victories, was conspicuously absent from both Saturday sessions. The Ireland native will play only two matches in Virginia, her singles match on Sunday and a 6-and-4 win with Hall in a Friday four-ball.
“Where we kind of stood after yesterday, we kind of had to go by form,” Pettersen said. “Unfortunately up until now, Leona hasn’t kind of been, I don’t know, the rock that I kind of was hoping for.”
Patrons had no trouble making it to the golf club Saturday, with the grandstand at No. 1 packed bright and early after a transportation disaster Friday left it nearly half-empty.
LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said it was her organization, not the club, that was responsible for a lack of “manpower” and not enough buses to move fans from offsite parking lots to the grounds. The LPGA offered two any-day grounds tickets for the rest of the weekend to affected fans, but no refunds.
“Many have bought tickets for three days, bring a friend, come for an extra day, and that was the best way we could find just to acknowledge that the morning was not what we expected, what we wanted, what we believe in, what we value,” Marcoux Samman said.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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