The Europeans carried the momentum to Saturday morning while an American pairing earned another big win.
CASARES, Spain — If you didn’t set an alarm to wake up for Saturday morning’s foursomes session at the 2023 Solheim Cup you missed some great golf.
After the Americans swept the Friday morning session for the first time in the biennial event’s 17-year history, Team Europe carried on the momentum from a 3-1 afternoon fourball win and halved the Saturday morning session with the U.S., 2-2. Team USA holds a 7-5 advantage as the event heads into afternoon foursomes.
“I think it’s important because you don’t want to give too much to the Americans,” said fan-favorite Spaniard Carlota Ciganda of changing the momentum. “I mean, they are tough to beat. They are really strong and they are really good, so we can do this, but we have to play good golf, and we have to be very present and hopefully that’s enough.”
Ciganda and Emily Pedersen never trailed in their match against world No. 2 Lilia Vu and Jennifer Kupcho as the Europeans put the first point of the day on the board in the opening match. The Euros won Nos. 5 and 6, the Americans responded by claiming Nos. 7 and 8 and then tied the ninth to send the match to the back nine all square. From there, Pedersen and Ciganda took control with a win on No. 10 and never looked back.
“We knew what the job is, to go out and get points,” said Pedersen after the match. “And Carlota and I spoke last night, from the start every shot counts, and we did that. I think we were really good at staying present. We got over it when we made mistakes and then we just kept on fighting, kept the spirits high. So we did great as a team.”
U.S. captain Stacy Lewis has a dynamite foursomes pairing in Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz as the veteran-rookie combo won their second foursomes match of the week, this time with a 5-and-3 shellacking of Georgia Hall and Celine Boutier. The European pairing entered the week undefeated in the format but have now lost the last two days. Korda and Corpuz are no strangers to taking down high-profile pairings as they beat Leona Maguire and Anna Nordqvist, 1 up, on Friday.
“Allisen and I just played really well the past two days. I think we just bonded really well on the golf course,” said Korda. “We didn’t make too many mistakes, especially today, and we rolled in a lot of putts.”
“I think Nelly is really calm, which is kind of what I need. I play pretty low energy,” added Corpuz. “Obviously she has the experience as well. So just knowing that having someone like her by my side has helped me a lot to get comfortable.”
Corpuz has played all three matches thus far and has yet to lose, winning twice and earning a tie in Friday fourball.
Speaking of pairings that won and lost on both Friday and Saturday in foursomes, Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang went to work once again on Day 2 and took down Maguire and Nordqvist, 1 up, after the playing assistant captain Nordqvist missed a putt to tie the match on the 18th green.
Thompson and Kang were 2 down through eight holes, but then won Nos. 9-11 to flip the match. Nordqvist and Maguire tied the match with birdie on No. 15, but a par for Team USA on the 17th provided the late advantage.
The best match of the session was the last between European rookies and best friends Maja Stark and Linn Grant against Team USA’s Danielle Kang and Andrea Lee. The Swedes had every opportunity to put Kang and Lee away, but the Americans fought back at every step and made clutch putt after clutch putt to keep the match in check.
Stark made one of her own for birdie on No. 17 to give Europe a 1-up lead with just the 18th to play, and then Grant followed suit with a 10-footer for birdie that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
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