CROMVOIRT, Netherlands — Mimi Rhodes and Nastasia Nadaud weren’t expecting Europe captain Anna Nordqvist to call on them to play in Saturday morning’s foursomes matches in the Solheim Cup at Bernardus Golf Club. Leaning on rookies is a risky proposition, even if the pair had teamed to grab a fourball win on Friday night.
But European captain Anna Nordqvist wanted to see if the spark between the two could continue, putting them out on Saturday morning at Bernardus Golf in foursomes. And sure enough the hunch paid off as they claimed another win and helped the Europeans pull out front 7-5 by the end of the session.
“I was just saying after [Friday’s] win, we probably both felt very comfortable getting into [Saturday] morning,” said the 21-year-old Nadaud. “I have to say we didn’t really expect to play [Saturday morning’s] foursomes. It was a great surprise. As Mimi said, we played very sensible and had loads of fairways and greens and gave ourselves opportunities. It was a pretty good morning.”
Rhodes, a 24-year-old Englishwoman, and Nadaud, who hails from France, were both captain’s picks, but they’ve played like veterans rather than first-timers. They have energy and moxie and are adept at getting the home crowd behind them. They had plenty of fun in defeating Allisen Corpuz and Auston Kim, 2 and 1, in a fourball match on Friday afternoon. They worked so well together that Nordqvist called on them again Saturday.
Nordqvist addressed why she put the two together after their first Solheim Cup match.
“Being out on tour and having spent time around these players, the rookies are really cool. They’re just so young and so fearless,” Nordqvist said. “A lot of people probably go, `why? I was like, well, why not?’ They have a great personalities. They love match play. Mimi has a great match play record in the Curtis Cup. Nastasia is young, but she’s very aggressive. And their caddies are really good friends. It was just something about them really having good chemistry too. Sometimes you’ve just got to trust the instinct.”
If the Europeans win this Solheim Cup, this pairing could go down as Nordqvist’s gamble that paid off big time. Nadaud is the youngest player in this year’s Solheim Cup.
The top pairing of Charley Hull and rookie Lottie Woad are 0-2-1 through the first three matches, so the rookies picking up two wins was monumental.
“Anna has always been telling us about the first few holes to try and get up, and it’s a high percentage for us to win the match,” Rhodes said. “We made sure that we were playing sensible and making sure we were hitting the ball on the green and giving ourselves putts, and that’s what happened. Luckily, [Nadaud] was rolling them in at the start. “It was just a great day overall and we played smart out there.”
Nadaud was heading out in fourball play as well on Saturday afternoon with Leona Maquire in a match against Rose Zhang and Auston Kim.
Rhodes and Nadaud used the same gameplan from Friday, fairways and greens and Nadaud had a sizzling putter. Rhodes shelved any nerves very quickly Friday.
“Once I got off the first tee, it was just a lot of fun out there,” Rhodes said of Friday’s win. “I just was playing golf out there with Nas and our caddies, and, honestly, the chemistry was unreal. It just felt really comfortable, especially when we had two balls on the green the whole time and we were just giving ourselves looks for birdie.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
