Despite the Struggles of Rose Zhang, Lexi Thompson and Co, Solheim Cup US Team Falls Prey to Europe’s Strategy

This Friday started off the Solheim Cup with a spiked momentum for the US Team and its fans. The four matches that took part in the first session in the morning, turned out quite fruitful to the Americans. It is a rare occurrence that a Solheim Cup clean sweeps the opponent in a session, and the US team achieved that feat this morning.

However, things changed in the afternoon. The European team stopped being as generous as they were in the first session. Not letting the US team get away with another dominant round, as they changed their game.

Europe won the even matches in the afternoon 

Five out of eight players who played for Europe in the morning played in the afternoon as well. Only three players were replaced by the resting four. However, there was a drastic change in the way Europe played. The players were a lot more calm and steady this time around.

This is especially true for the Leona Maguire and Georgia Hall pair, both of whom played in the morning as well. They could not make a mark in the first session though. They were paired with different players, however. In the afternoon the two of them paired up and scored a 1-up for the European team, against Lexi Thompson and Lilia Vu.

On another story arc, in Match 4 of the afternoon session, Carlota Ciganda made a stellar entry to Solheim Cup 2023. She walked a victory lap with her pair Linn Grant and won the match with a 4 and 2 score, after playing 16 holes.

Although Europe didn’t win the other two matches, it didn’t lose them either. In Match 3, Emily Pedersen made an outstanding hole-in-one, joining the club of ace scorers in the Solheim Cup. The club only has two members as of now thought, including Anna Nordqvist and Pedersen.

Read more: Team USA’s Unofficial Non-Playing Pair Goes the Extra Mile For the Women in Red Thanks to Morgan Pressel

Here are more details on the two matches that tied after the pairs were through the 18 holes.

The odd matches ended with halved scores

Rose Zhang and Megan Khang, played against Gemma Dryburgh and Madelene Sagstrom in Match 1 of the afternoon session. Zhang and Khang got along as well as their names did and put up a good fight. 

While the European pair tried to get back in the lead, the US pair equalized and eventually the match got tied. This match probably had the highest number of holes won by one team or the other and not halved. Each team won five holes each out, and only 8 holes were halved.

Emily Pedersen and Maja Stark faced Jennifer Kupcho and Allisen Corpuz in Match 3. While 12 holes were halved between the two pairs, each pair won three holes in the match. Pedersen surely made history with her magnificent ace.

Although the US team retains the lead after the two sessions, now the difference is only two points. After the morning session, the US team had a massive lead of 4 points against the null score of Europe. As the commentators kept saying, there is still a lot of golf to be played in this year’s Solheim Cup.

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