[Photo: Kate McShane]
The Solheim Cup has come a long way since the first matches in 1990 in Orlando. The US team easily won that first competition at Lake Nona in Florida, but Europe won two years later in Scotland and a heated rivalry was born.
Here we are 36 years after the inaugural Solheim Cup with the 20th playing at Bernardus Golf Club in the Netherlands. The US leads the series overall 11-7-1 and currently holds the trophy after winning two years ago in Virginia. But the Americans have not won in Europe since 2015 when they came from 10-6 down to win in Germany. In the past 10 Solheim Cups, the US is 5-4-1 overall.
This year Anna Nordqvist and Angela Stanford are leading their respective squads, with Nordqvist playing nine times for Europe and Stanford playing six times.
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Match pairings for Friday’s opening foursomes session were announced at the opening ceremony. Both captains, understandably, opted to lead with their top players as Charley Hull and Lottie Woad will lead Europe against world No.1 Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz, who are a perfect 4-0 playing together. They go off at 3:40pm (AEST), which is 7:40am in the Netherlands.
“It’s just been about how we’ve played the golf course and how our players fit the golf course,” Stanford said. “I think with Nelly and Allisen’s history, they seem to have a nice rapport about ’em, so felt like they have earned the right to go out first here this year.”
Spain’s Carlota Ciganda is playing in her seventh Solheim Cup but was left out of Europe’s foursomes line-ups. Her spark and fire will probably be seen on the first tee on Friday morning, just not by playing. There’s no doubt she’ll play in the afternoon fourball session.
“It’s obviously a very hard choice, like, who you’re sitting out and who you’re playing,” Nordqvist said. “But I think you’ve got to look at it like what’s possible for the two days and, you know, try to make sure you find those pairings that the players enjoy and you try your best and we’ll see what happens.”
For the Americans, Megan Khang fits the bill of another fiery competitor but is not playing Friday morning. Nor is Angel Yin, who has had health issues the past few months that have created questions about whether she’ll play this week and, if so, how much she’ll play. She’s ranked 25th in the world, qualified for the US team second in points and is needed for the Americans to keep the matches tight on foreign soil.
Stanford, with final thoughts on her team, said, “they’re mentally tough and they have some grit. It’s time to go have some fun.”
Said Nordqvist: “It’s very exciting to be back in Europe. It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Here are the Friday foursomes pairings for the 20th Solheim Cup:
Match 1 – 3:40pm AEST: Charley Hull–Lottie Woad (EUR) vs Nelly Korda–Allisen Corpuz (US)
Match 2 – 3:52pm AEST: Nanna Koerstz Madsen–Celine Boutier (EUR) vs Alison Lee–Lauren Coughlin (US)
Match 3 – 4:04pm AEST: Esther Henseleit–Leona Maguire (EUR) vs Andrea Lee–Lindy Duncan (US)
Match 4 – 4:16pm AEST: Maja Stark–Linn Grant (EUR) vs Rose Zhang–Jennifer Kupcho (US)
Not playing for Europe: Carlota Ciganda, Julia Lopez Ramirez, Nastasia Nadaud, Mimi Rhodes
Not playing for the US: Angel Yin, Yealimi Noh, Auston Kim, Megan Khang
