Europe races ahead with a 5-3 lead over USA at Solheim Cup
Print Edition
Europe took an important step toward winning the Solheim Cup on American soil for the first time, taking a 5-3 lead after Friday’s opening day in Colorado.
This is the largest lead that defending champion Europe has had on a Friday since 5-3 in 2005. The Americans came back to win that time, and still have never lost the cup on home soil.
In a pivotal fourballs match, Carlota Ciganda of Spain salvaged an unlikely par from a hazard on the par-5 15th hole and kept her and Suzann Pettersen from falling behind. Pettersen won the next hole with a birdie, sending them from 2 down at the turn to a 1-up victory.
Stacy Lewis, on the losing end in that match, had a heated discussion with an official over the use of a laser to determine the right drop. At one point, Lewis threw her hands in the air. The laser was used to make sure Ciganda’s options would be equal distance from the hole.
“Part of the problem we had with it was the rules official lasered the flag and made it public information. So he gave them a number,” Lewis said.
That was a moot point, however, when Ciganda eventually dropped from an entirely different spot. She hit her fourth shot just off the green, and holed a 15-foot putt just as it looked like the Americans would take the lead.
Lewis, coming off a Women’s British Open title, lost both her matches. She struggled with the pace of lightning-fast greens on the front nine as she and Lizette Salas fell too far behind to catch up in morning foursomes. In the fourballs, Lewis played with another US rookie, Lexi Thompson, who twice squandered good birdie chances.
Pettersen and Carolina Hedwall led the European charge by winning both their matches. Pettersen, playing in her seventh Solheim Cup, drilled a fairway metal into 20 feet on the 16th hole that set up Beatriz Recari for the eagle putt to take charge in a foursomes match.
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