[Photos: Naomi Baker]
Carlota Ciganda dropped her putter in jubilation, pumped her arms and yelled in an improbable end to the final fourball match in the Solheim Cup on Friday.
The Spaniard, on the European team for the eighth time, made a pressure-packed 15-foot par putt on the final hole with the sun setting in the background at Bernardus Golf to halve her match alongside rookie Julia Lopez Ramirez against world No.1 Nelly Korda and Lauren Coughlin.
RELATED: Player sobbed after her Day 1 match and had every reason to do so
Korda and Coughlin walked down the 18th fairway smiling because Lopez Ramirez (fairway bunker) and Ciganda (errant drive) were both in trouble. Then, Ciganda missed right on her second shot, and Lopez Ramirez left her approach in a bunker and needed two swings to get out. Ciganda put her third shot on the green, and when Korda and Coughlin missed birdie putts to win the match, Ciganda made her big putt for par to halve the hole and end the day on a high note for the host team.
After all the drama of the day, in which the Americans scored three come-from-behind wins, the teams are tied at 4-all. They were tied at 2-all in the morning foursomes as well, making history because ties in both sessions had never happened in the Solheim Cup.
“I love this week. I love playing for the team and for my teammates and for Anna, who is a good friend of mine,” Ciganda said. “Playing alongside Julia, my Spanish friend, was amazing. We had a great match against Nelly and Lauren.”
In an intriguing move by European captain Anna Nordqvist, she paired Charley Hull and Lottie Woad in the afternoon fourball after they were handily beaten, 4&3, by Korda and Allisen Corpuz in the morning foursomes. Those are her two best players, both ranked in the top 10 in the world, and the pairing went winless at 0-1-1.
“You send Charley and Lottie out first in both sessions and we took some of their best body blows,” American captain Angela Stanford said. “I told them I was proud of them. We are a heavyweight fighter with our mentality.”
The victory by Korda and Corpuz moved their record together to 5-0-0, making them the first pair to win five straight matches together. Including the afternoon half, Korda raised her record to 11-5-2. Coughlin [above] went to 4-0-2 after she and Alison Lee beat Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Celine Boutier, 3&2, in foursomes. Lee was 2-0 on the day. No European player earned more than one point.
Megan Khang was dancing in her cowgirl hat at the start of the day, being the ultimate hype woman for her teammates on the first tee at the Solheim Cup. It was a wonderful atmosphere with an estimated 5,000 fans in the grandstands behind the first tee despite cloudy skies and rain in the morning.
Khang didn’t play in the foursomes matches, and she was a little embarrassed when she saw the video on social media afterwards. She made good on her fourball match with Alison Lee as the duo got the first win of the afternoon. Khang and Lee had a comeback 5&3 win over Celine Boutier and Koerstz Madsen in fourball matches. That put Khang at nine consecutive undefeated matches in the Solheim. Lee, the lone player on the US team who last won a Solheim Cup in Europe in 2015, also got a win with Coughlin in foursomes.
As for the day’s final match, Ciganda making that putt seemed like a win for Europe even though it accounted for only half a point.
“It’s been incredible golf of the US and Europe… What a way to finish with Carlota making the putt on 18,” Nordqvist said.
Neither Yealimi Noh nor Angel Yin played in the morning, but Noh was terrific in her pairing with Yin in the afternoon. Noh and Yin halved their match against Hull and Woad. Yin was still a bit of an unknown as she was shaking off rust from a two-month absence due to gastrointestinal issues.
Yin had two birdies on the front nine, but she was also spraying the ball around much of the day, leaving herself awkward stances and difficult shots. It made for an adventurous day that left her sobbing after the round.
Noh had a blind bunker shot on 17 and made the eight-foot putt for a birdie to win the hole. She made a 10-foot putt on the 18th for par and tie the match against the Europeans best two players.
Stanford huddled with her team afterward and she told them she was proud of them.
“I feel we had all four seasons,” Stanford said of an up-and-down day. “…I told the team afterward that I expected them to throw the kitchen sink at us right off the bat. I thought we held up pretty well playing on the road. Fans are loud. We had all the different elements. Proud of where we are and how we fought.”
“…Lauren and Nelly came off the 18th talking about how tough that match was. They were up [late] but down most of the match. We have to do that one more day and singles we can really roll. I’m hoping we’re close when it gets to Sunday. I know how hard it is here. I thought, If we can just hang around…”
They did.
