USA storm into four-point lead at Solheim Cup

The European crew faces a mountain to climb on Saturday to in its bid to retain the Solheim Cup after they path the US by 4 factors on the finish of day one.

Within the morning foursomes session, the house facet bought off to a sizzling begin, successful three of the 4 matches at Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership in Virginia.

Esther Henseleit and Charley Hull went out within the first match and had been defeated 3&2 by Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz.

Rose Zhang and Lauren Coughlin beat Celine Boutier and Albane Valenzuela by the identical margin. Whereas the scoreline was repeated within the remaining match when Lilia Vu and Sarah Schmelzel took down Linn Grant and Carlota Ciganda.

Europe’s solely level of the morning session got here from Emily Pedersen and Maja Stark who mixed properly of their 2up win.

After Europe constructed a 4-up lead by the primary 5 holes, the American duo of Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho clawed the rating again with birdies on 14 and 15. Nonetheless, the Europeans held on with pars on 16 and 17 earlier than a superb strategy on the final by Pedersen noticed the duo win their remaining gap to complete 2-up.

Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagström earned Europe’s solitary level within the afternoon fouballs

AFTERNOON FOURBALLS

Within the afternoon four-ball session, it was the same story for each groups because the US repeated the 3-1 scoreline from the morning session to construct a cushty 6-2 lead over the Europeans on the finish of the primary day.

Korda teamed up with Megan Khang and the duo defeated Georgia Corridor and Leona Maguire by 6&4, whereas the all-rookie pairing of Coughlin and Schmelzel defeated Pedersen and Stark 3&2.

It was an emphatic end to the afternoon for Andrea Lee and Zhang who each made eagles on the 14th gap to safe a 5&4 victory over Grant and Hull after the match had been all sq. after eight.

Europe’s second level of the day got here by the all-Swedish partnership of Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagström. The Swedish duo, who had been enjoying collectively for the primary time within the Solheim Cup, dominated their match in opposition to Lexi Thompson and Alison Lee.

Sagström and Nordqvist received six holes on the trot from the eighth by to 13 to file a 6&5 victory.

Pettersen appeared happy that her crew managed to keep away from the 4-0 whitewash that they suffered within the opening foursomes in Spain final yr saying: “Clearly, we had – I wouldn’t say a poor begin – however we made development in our morning session from final yr, which was good; one step in the suitable course.

“The afternoon, one level out of the 4. I wish to say we performed opponents which can be enjoying unbelievable golf, that’s primary. Generally we nearly invite them to play even higher generally.

“On the identical time, we have now to face actuality, and we have now an enormous job to do. We proved to ourselves we had been able to doing this final yr, so the idea is there. There’s a whole lot of factors but to be performed for. We’ve simply bought to return out tomorrow hungry.

“I believe the gamers have to really feel some form of a revenge to really feel like they’ll get some momentum going. It’s all the time exhausting whenever you see your opponents making putt after putt, after which we don’t make any. I believe it’s a mixture of the whole lot. On the identical time, the People performed unbelievable.”

TRAFFIC CHAOS

The beginning of the Solheim Cup bought off to a chaotic begin off the course, with hundreds of followers left in queues for hours after issues with shuttle buses from a public automotive park. The delays meant that the opening matches had been performed in entrance of half empty grandstands as followers, a lot of of whom had queued since daybreak, had been unable to get to the course. Such was the chaos that some followers even gave up and went dwelling with out having seen a shot. Refunds will certainly be required,

“We recognise and deeply apologise to all followers affected by the challenges with shuttling from parking to the golf course,” the LPGA stated in an announcement. “We’ve made important modifications to our transportation system to mitigate these points transferring ahead, and we’re engaged on methods to specific our remorse to these impacted.”