Europe on the ropes as USA claims 4-0 foursomes whitewash
Nelly Korda with Stacy Lewis and her daughter. Picture: LET
Leona Maguire produced some late magic with the putter but it wasn’t enough to stop an impressive US side from scorching to a shock 4-0 foursomes whitewash in the Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin.
Europe now has a mountain to climb in this afternoon’s fourballs given that the team that has led after the first day has won seven of the last eight Solheim Cups.
The Co Cavan star made a series of important putts alongside an out-of-sorts Anna Nordqvist. But it was not enough as they fell one up to world number one Nelly Korda and rookie Allisen Corpuz.
It was the first taste of Solheim Cup defeat for Maguire, who had won four and a half points from her previous five matches.
With Ally Ewing and Cheyenne Knight hammering an injured Charley Hull and Emily Pedersen 5&4 in the bottom match and Lexi Thompson and Meghan Khang seeing off a late fightback by Swedish rookies Maja Stark and Linn Grant to win 2&1, Europe needed something from their “silent assassin”.
But it was not enough to prevent a whitewash as Danielle Kang and Andrea Lee were three under par in a one-up win over Celine Boutier and Georgia Hall.
Maguire and Nordqvist won the first in par after Korda drove into the lake at the driveable par four, but the Americans went par-birdie-birdie from the third to go two up.
Nordqvist had driven into bushes at the fifth to hand that hole to the US but she made amends by draining a 40-footer for a two at the par-three sixth to cut the gap to one hole.
Maguire then made a clutch seven-footer for a winning par at the seventh to square the match, but while she ripped her approach to six feet at the ninth, Nordqvist failed to hole the birdie putt after Corpuz made a 12-footer before her to apply pressure.
One down through the turn, the Americans were up in three and all square in the other match at that stage.
When Nordqvist drove into the trees at the 11th, Europe were two down yet Maguire kept them in the contest, making a four-footer at the 12th and a 12-footer at the 15th for crucial halves.
The Ballyconnell battler then made an eight-footer for birdie at the 16th to cut the gap to one hole.
But while she then drained an outrageous 30-footer for a two at the 17th, Corpuz matched her birdie to guarantee the Americans at least a half before they closed out the match with a half in par fives at the 18th.
Thompson has been in poor form for almost a year, but she relished hitting the opening tee shot and was thrilled to get the win against Stark and Grant.
"It means a lot to me, first off, to just be able to hit the first tee shot out there,” Thompson said. "I kind of live through this tournament. It's my favourite one of all time. I love representing my country and to be alongside my partner and my team and playing under Stacy, it's incredible.”
US skipper Stacy Lewis could not have been happier with the morning.
“You could not ask for much more,” she said. “Just seeing the pairings those middle two matches, they were going to be tough and we saw a ton of fight in our girls and fortunately, we were on the right side of it.
“It’s been the talk all week, the vibe we’ve had all week, just letting the girls being themselves and they’ve trusted in all my crazy talk of stats. They've believed in me and that’s what I told them when they got done - thank you for believing in me.”
She added: “I was just trying to get a lead, to be honest. I didn't care what it was. So to go 4-0 is a little bit unexpected. But I'll take it and run. Everybody I've seen, it's like, Let's get back to work. It's 2-2, let's go get back to work.”
As for her decision to take a chance on Thompson, she said: “I just had a feeling yesterday. She hasn’t been in my line-up that I’ve had for a couple of weeks and just the way the last four days have gone and the way she seemed mentally, I had a good feeling about it and Megan has been playing amazing."
Korda and Corpuz were also thrilled to beat such tough competitors as Nordqvist and Maguire.
“It’s great toge the W and I’m glad Allisen made the putt I left her on 18,” Korda said. "We have a lot of red on the board.”
Corpuz added: “European skipper Suzann Pettersen will come under fire for playing the injured Hull, who is understood to have been struggling with a shoulder injury all week.
The Norwegian has put out four new pairings for this afternoon's foursomes, dropping Nordqvist, Hull and the impressive Boutier.
Rookie Gemma Dryburgh comes in to partner Madelene Sagstrom against rookie sensation Rose Zhang and Megan Khang with Maguire paired with Georgia Hall, who was one of her winning partners in 2021, against Thompson and Lilia Vu, the winner of two majors this season.
Corpuz goes out again with last year’s Chevron Championship winner Jennifer Kupcho against Pedersen and Stark while the Spaniard Carlota Ciganda partners Grant against Angel Yin and Ewing.
Afternoon fourballs (Irish time)
12:40 p.m Irish time. Rose Zhang/Megan Khang vs. Gemma Dryburgh/Madelene Sagstrom
12:55 p.m. Lexi Thompson/Lilia Vu vs. Leona Maguire/Georgia Hall
1:10 p.m. Jennifer Kupcho/Allisen Corpuz vs. Emily K. Pedersen/Maja Stark
1:25 p.m. Angel Yin/Ally Ewing vs. Carlota Ciganda/Linn Grant
