Three players went unbeaten over the three days but only one earned 4 points over the five sessions.
CASARES, Spain — The 2023 Solheim Cup couldn’t have been closer.
The 18th edition of the biennial bash between the United States and Europe was all square at 8-8 entering Sunday singles, and after the final 12 matches – five won by the both teams and two ties – the competition ended in a 14-14 tie, and the Europeans retained the Cup.
In the event’s 23-year history, the Americans have taken home the trophy on 10 occasions, with the Europeans earning the other eight. Team Europe hasn’t lost since 2017 in Iowa.
Spain’s Carlota Ciganda was the only player to score four points this week (4-0-0) and was one of four players who went unbeaten, joining Gemma Dryburgh (0-0-2), Megan Khang (3-0-1) and Cheyenne Knight (2-0-1). Two players went winless for each team, but only one failed to earn a point.
Here’s a breakdown of how each player fared this week by event at the 2023 Solheim Cup.
“I actually picked up my tour bag last week and that kind of started it.”
One day after Suzann Pettersen told the media that Charley Hull is not injured, Hull told Golf Channel’s Amy Rogers that she is, in fact, dealing with neck pain.
One of the hottest players on the LPGA coming into the Solheim Cup, Hull has only played in two sessions so far, losing with Emily Pedersen in Friday foursomes and winning alongside Leona Maguire Saturday afternoon.
Hull, who has kinesiology tape on the back of her neck, told Rogers that she’s suffering from a facet sprain.
“I actually picked up my tour bag last week and that kind of started it,” she said, “and then I’ve done it from sleeping as well on the plane over here.”
Hull said she’s operating at about 70 to 80 percent right now. She faces Danielle Kang in Sunday singles in the third match of the day. A veteran of five previous Solheim Cups, Hull has four runner-up finishes on the LPGA season including two majors.
“It’s been pretty sore, I’m not gonna lie,” Hull told Golf Channel. “I’ve kind of had to change my swing a little bit to kind of turn through it.”
The Englishwoman plans to take next week off to rest up for her LPGA title defense next month at the Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America in Texas.
World No. 2 Lilia Vu is on the bench for the opening matches, as is rising star Rose Zhang.
CASARES, Spain — The opening tee shots of the 2023 Solheim Cup are just hours away and the first group of pairings have officially been announced.
Friday morning’s foursomes pairings and matches at Finca Cortesin on Spain’s southern coast were released during the opening ceremony Thursday night at nearby Marbella Arena, with none other than U.S. star Lexi Thompson, who has struggled this year, set to take the first swing alongside Megan Khang against European and Swedish rookies, Linn Grant and Maja Stark.
Notably on the bench for the American side are world No. 2 Lilia Vu, who won two major championships this season, as well as rising star Rose Zhang, who has a penchant for match play.
“I wanted to get off to a good start. I wanted to get out four really good pairings and that’s kind of been my focus this whole time,” said U.S. captain Stacy Lewis. “So it was more about who matched up together versus even — I didn’t even look at who was sitting, to be honest. I wasn’t even worried about who was sitting. It was more just what are my best four options.”
“For my sake, I feel like I’ve had these four pairings down on paper for quite a few months now,” added European captain Suzann Pettersen. “It was more like in what order do you play ’em.”
Check out the four matches and pairings, as well as the eight players who will ride the pine pony for the first session of matches at the 2023 Solheim Cup. (Note: Spain is six hours ahead of Eastern Time in the U.S.)
If you look at past records, the advantage at the 2023 Solheim Cup lies with the home side Europeans.
CASARES, Spain — Who are the favorites at the 2023 Solheim Cup?
The gambling experts in Las Vegas currently have the host Europeans as the favorites at -115, but it’s a close bet with the Americans at +100. A tie is currently +950.
The Rolex world ranking gives the U.S. side a slight advantage as all 12 Americans are ranked inside the top 50. Nine Euros are inside the top 50, with two outside the top 120.
If you ask United States captain Stacy Lewis, she’ll say Suzann Petersen and her European counterparts have to be favored. After all, Team Europe has claimed the last two Cups and will be playing on home soil.
“And that’s not to doubt my team. I just think Europe is really, really strong. They have got all the momentum in this event right now,” said Lewis last month when she made her captain’s picks for the biennial event that begins on Friday at Finca Cortesin on Spain’s southern coast. “That’s going to be our biggest thing is we are going overseas, and we don’t have the momentum on our side. And so we are going to go try to flip it.”
“We have a lot of new blood that has not experienced the last two years,” Lewis continued. “They don’t know what it’s been like, and I think that’s going to be to our advantage, as well.”
Sure, ignorance can be bliss, but the other side of that coin is a lack of high-pressure experience in a truly unique event. That could be an issue for the U.S., who fields a 12-player team this week that features five rookies.
Not only is Team Europe two-time defending champions, but of the 24 players competing, nine have winning records in the event, and six are European.
Charley Hull said she didn’t even realize she had a Twitter account because her agent had been running it for her the past five years. But when Hull randomly logged on earlier this week in search of a message she’d sent her cousin some time ago, something else caught her eye.
Lou Stagner, a golf performance coach and assistant at Princeton, had posted a direct message he’d received from an anonymous follower that read in part: “I am a 3-handicapper that plays from 6,900 yards and I hit my driver 290. I would make every cut on the LPGA and be a top-20 player.”
Stagner predicted the amateur would, in fact, finish last every week on the LPGA. The idea that a single-digit male handicapper can hang with the top female players in the world is not uncommon on Golf Twitter.
Hull decided to have some fun with it, replying: “Shall we sort this game out. I’ll let him play off the red tees whilst I’ll play off the whites.”
The Englishwoman’s challenge soon went viral.
Shall we sort this game out 👀 I’ll let him play off the red tees whilst I’ll play off the whites https://t.co/MAGfE4hprP
“I was like, the cheek of him,” said Hull, when asked about the exchange during a conference call with the media on Wednesday to preview next month’s Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America, which Hull won last year.
With four runner-up showings this season Hull, a two-time winner on the LPGA, will soon head to Spain to compete in her sixth Solheim Cup. Hull said every part of an LPGA pro’s game is more consistent than a top amateur.
“I play with a lot of my guy friends over here, men pros, some are on the European Tour and some are on the Challenge Tour,” said Hull, “and, like, I go out and play off the same tees as them and we have good games and I beat them a lot of times. So, I don’t know, I feel like that guy needs to wake up a bit.”
Charley Hull of England looks on during the Day Two of the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Club on August 11, 2023 in Tadworth, England. (Photo by Luke Walker/Getty Images for HSBC)
LPGA veteran Angela Stanford, who won the 2020 VOA, was also on the call and asked to weigh in on the topic.
“I feel like I’ve been a 3-handicap like the last year and I’ve made like two cuts,” said Stanford with a laugh. “So I don’t know why that gentleman thought that that, you know, … I don’t know where his head is. But I think from 1 to 18 we are so much more consistent than an amateur. And then, if it’s an entire tournament, if you have to go four days I can guarantee you, if he makes the cut, when Saturday rolls around, it’s a completely different ball game. And I laughed, and I love that Charley piped up and said it. I mean, she’s saying what we all think.”
Lee has now won six of the last eight tournaments in which she held the 54-hole lead.
It was a weekend of rallies at the 2023 LPGA Kroger Queen City Championship, which also produced a new world No. 1.
Minjee Lee was six shots back of the lead after 36 holes but through 10 holes Sunday during the final round, she held a five-shot lead. Ballgame, right?
As ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso likes to say: Not so fast, my friends, because that’s just when Charley Hull turned on the jets and put on a rally of her own at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati.
Hull birdied the par-3 11th and then overcame a bogey on the next hole to make three straight birdies on Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to forge a tie atop the leaderboard at 16 under.
Lee and Hull were still tied on the 18th tee box and they each proceeded to hit driver into the same fairway bunker, their balls ending up with 10 feet of each.
From there, Hull blasted out and got her ball to the front fringe, giving herself a 54-foot birdie putt to win. She missed just left and then watched as Lee, whose third shot was a chip to about eight feet, need to make her putt for par, which she did for a final-round 71. Hull then made her one-footer for a par of her own for a final-round 69 and the two headed back to the 18th tee box for a playoff, the ninth of the LPGA season.
Lee’s second shot on the first playoff hole found the green, but Hull’s took a huge bounce and came to rest near the grandstands behind the green. Her putt from off the green rolled and rolled and rolled and nearly went in, coming to a rest one rotation short of the cup.
Lee then pulled her 20-footer for birdie left and it was back to the 18th tee box for a second playoff hole. That’s where Lee landed her second shot short of the green but it bounded on and rolled to about three feet.
“You have to land it like 25 yards short of the green because I was also coming out of the rough,” she said after he round. “So I just hit pitching wedge and hit it three quarter and it was really… you can’t really predict how far it’s going to run so it was just a guesstimate.”
She then poured in the birdie putt to get the win.
Lee secured her first victory of the season and the ninth in her LPGA career. She now has seven top-20 finishes in her last nine outings. More impressively, Lee has now won six of the last eight tournaments in which she led after three rounds.
“I guess I just have a lot of grit,” she said when asked about her ability to close. “Coming down the stretch I never give up, and I like to think that I’m always putting pressure on my opponents and not giving it up too easily. So I think I just have great fight in me and really great resilience.”
The LPGA breaks for the Solheim Cup in two weeks. There are two events back-to-back after that, but the Aussie says she has other plans.
“I’m actually looking forward to a couple weeks off and some down time,” she said. “Going to go back to Perth during Arkansas and Dallas, so hopefully I can enjoy this one back home with my friends and family.”
Hull fell just short of her third LPGA win.
New No. 1 in Rolex Rankings
Ruoning Yin plays her shot from the fifth tee during the final round of the 2023 Kroger Queen City Championship at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Ruoning Yin, who finished solo third at 14 under, couldn’t quite catch the leaders but by virtue of a top-4 finish, will ascend to the No. 1 spot when the Rolex Rankings are updated on Monday.
She will unseat Lilia Vu, who climbed to No. 1 a month ago after winning the 2023 AIG Women’s Open. Yin, No. 2 in the rankings heading into the week, was outside the top 400 this time a year ago.
Defending champ earns solo fourth
Ally Ewing tees off on first hole during the final round of the 2023 Kroger Queen City Championship in at Kenwood Country Club. (Photo: Albert Cesare/The Enquirer)
Ally Ewing, who won the inaugural Kroger Queen City Championship in 2022, shot a 66 and finished solo fourth.
Mel Reid also shot a final-round 66 to earn a tie for fifth, posting her best finish of the season and first top-10. She came into the Kroger having missed the cut in four of her last five outings.
Another Sunday 66 was recorded by Brooke Henderson, who was celebrating her 26th birthday. She tied for 23rd.
Rose Zhang tapped in for par for a 72 on Sunday, a day after posting a 73. She finished tied for 31st.
A total of 80 golfers made the cut and played the weekend.
Three players will make their debut for the European side next month in Spain.
In just a month’s time the U.S. and Europe will square off at the 2023 Solheim Cup, and one of the two squads has been set.
European captain Suzann Pettersen announced her four captain’s picks on Tuesday, completing the 12-player team bound for Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, Sept. 22-24. Team Europe is comprised of the top-two players in the Europe Solheim Cup standings, the top-six players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking (not already eligible) and four captain’s picks.
The Americans have been victorious 10 times, most recently in 2017 at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in Iowa, while the Europeans are looking for a third consecutive win and their eighth overall.
Meet the 12 players who will take on the U.S. at the 2023 Solheim Cup.
Check out the photos of the protest during the final round of the last women’s major of the season.
Lilia Vu is the story of the day in women’s golf as the 25-year-old claimed her second major title of the season and third win of the year on Sunday at the 2023 AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath near London.
However, on the 17th hole, a group of protesters from Just Stop Oil invaded the green with flares to speak out against the UK government from licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects. The group similarly protested last month’s Open Championship at Hoylake during the second round. A sign carried by one of the protesters read, “stop insuring climate crisis.”
Charley Hull had just hit an approach to the green when two invaders ran onto the putting surface with smoke flares. After the protesters were cleared, Vu finished her hole and went on to win the tournament.
“What a bunch of idiots,” Hull said after the round.
“I suffer from asthma, but didn’t have my inhaler on me and that stuff was really thick, so no it was not nice. I wasn’t scared when it happened, just thought they were idiots,” she said. “Someone said they are protesting about oil, but how did they get here today? Drove probably.”
Hull shot a 1-over 73 to finish six shots behind Vu for her second runner-up finish at a major championship this season.
Ally Ewing was in complete control after her Friday 6-under 66 at the AIG Women’s Open, leading by five shots. But after stumbling to a 3-over 75 at Walton Heath in England, Ewing will tee off two shots out of the lead Sunday.
Charley Hull made one of the moves of the day, firing a 4-under 68 to grab a share of the 54-hole lead with Lilia Vu. Vu, who won the Chevron Championship earlier this season, was one better than Hull on Day 3, shooting a 5-under 67.
“I think today was really about for me just in terms of confidence,” Vu said after her round. “It’s been a while since I played — I say awhile. It’s been since Chevron that I actually felt pretty decent about my game and where it’s at.
“So I’m just going to do the same thing I did today, just focusing on tee shots and giving myself a good opportunity for birdies, and just do that tomorrow, not think too much about the wind. Because every time that happens, it just slips away from me.”
The pair, at 9 under, is one shot clear of their closest chasers, Hyo Joo Kim and Angel Yin. Kim shot a third-round 68 while Yin signed for a 67.
There are several big names lurking a few shots back, including Linn Grant (6 under), Nasa Hataoka (4 under) and Nelly Korda (4 under).
“Tee-to-green really well. Putting, I’d probably give myself a D,” Korda said. “It was — I started off pretty well and then on the back nine, I just kind of started making more mistakes with the short stick.
“But overall, I would say I moved up on moving day, and conditions were tough and I’ll take that.”
Jin Young Ko is 1 under and eight back, while Rose Zhang slid down the board thanks to a 3-over 75 and will tee off Sunday 11 back of the leaders.
Final round coverage will be broadcasted on USA Network 7 a.m.-12 p.m. ET Sunday before switching to Golf Channel from 12-2 p.m. ET.
The fourth of five women’s major championships is here as the best players in the world have made their way to Evian-les-Bains, France, for the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club.
Last year’s champion Brooke Henderson comes into the week in great form, totaling three top-15 finishes in her last four starts, including the U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Hyo Joo Kim, the 8th-ranked player in the world, is the betting favorite at +1200 (12/1). She’s yet to win in 2023, however, she’s finished inside the top 20 in nine of her 10 LPGA starts this year. Kim tied for third at the Evian last season.
Brooke M. Henderson of Canada plays her second shot at the eighteenth hole during day four of The Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club on July 24, 2022 in Evian-les-Bains, France. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
