The mountain Europe has to climb on Sunday at the Solheim Cup is a steep one. Europe is down 10-6 with 12 singles matches remaining, needing a major comeback to retain the cup.
European assistant captain Laura Davies says that the current state of the leaderboard is not for lack of great play by her team.
“They’ve got it all,” Davies said of Europe. “They’re trying so hard. It’s so crushing. Back there on the sixth hole, lovely putt from Carlota [Ciganda] and Lexi [Thompson] chips in; the next hole she hits it absolutely dead; follows with another great shot. So, hard just to break away and get a point off these players because they are playing so well.”
The highlight reel for the U.S. has been rather epic: Big drives and approaches from Nelly Korda, hole-outs and chip-ins from Allison Lee, Lexi Thompson and Andrea Lee, long putts made by Rose Zhang—it’s a tough act to keep up with. European captain Suzann Pettersen knows it’s that kind of spark her team has been missing in Virginia.
“I really feel like we haven’t had any magic on the greens. We haven’t had many momentums kind of going our way,” Pettersen said.
Despite all of that, the team knows there is still a chance. History has proven this to be true.
“We’re still in it. We need a massive day tomorrow,” Pettersen said. “We need to go another record singles series again. It’s been done before.”
Pettersen is referencing the 2012 Ryder Cup, aka the “Miracle at Medinah.” The U.S. was leading by the same 10-6 score heading into singles, just like it is in this Solheim Cup. On Sunday at Medinah, the unlikely occurred: Europe won eight and tied one singles match to overcome the large deficit and win the Ryder Cup.
The European Solheim Cup team knows the story, and is looking to repeat it.
“Twelve points, we can win all of them,” Ciganda said. “That’s what we’re going try to do, everyone focus on their match, and why not? Medinah, the miracle of Medinah, it’s coming.”
It should also be noted that the U.S. came back from being 10-6 down on Sunday to win the 2015 Solheim Cup in Germany.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com