Team Europe has withstood the deafening chants of “USA! USA! USA!” and swept the afternoon four-ball session to take a commanding five-point lead going into Sunday’s singles matches. The shutout was the first in 11 years on the competition.
Team Europe started the day with a 5.0-3.0 lead over Team USA, but after the morning foursome session that the Americans dominated 2-1-1, they gained ground on Team Europe cutting the lead to 6.5-5.5.
The highlight of the morning session though for Team Europe when Anna Nordqvist aced the 187-yard Par-3 17th and along with Caroline Hedwall they defeated Morgan Pressel and Jessica Korda 2UP in the first match of the morning foursomes.
Stacy Lewis and Paula Creamer got their first win this weekend when they defeated Karine Icher and Azahara Muñoz 1UP. The Americans took a 4UP lead after the won their third consecutive hole on the Par-5 10th.
But Icher and Muñoz made three birdies and a par to win four straight holes and tie the match heading to the 15th hole. But Lewis hit a wedge-shot to eight feet of the hole and Creamer converted the birdie to put the Americans ahead again.
Icher and Muñoz would fight back and squared the match with a birdie on the Par-3 17th.
On 18th, Lewis put Creamer in trouble when she smothered her approach shot into trees to the left of the green. But Icher hit an even worse shot, thinning her third shot out of a fairway bunker and lodging the ball inside a yucca plant in front of the sand.
Creamer successfully hit the third shot out of trouble. After a drop and a bad pitch, the Europeans were laying six and conceded the hole and the match.
Brittany Lincicome and Lizette Salas dominated Catriona Matthew and Caroline Masson since the second hole alternating leads between 1UP and 2UP until they reached the 18th hole 1UP over the Europeans. But a dramatic birdie by the Europeans rendered the match all-square, tallying what until then look like an improbable half a point to each team’s total.
On the anchor morning match, Brittany Lang and Michelle Wie rallied to defeat the strong and fiery pairing of Suzann Pettersen and Beatriz Recari 2UP.
The Europeans took the lead right on the first hole as Recari made a long birdie try at one to give the Europeans the early lead. They took the fourth with a par before the teams halved the next five.
Lang drained a 40-footer for birdie at the Par-4 10th which combined with Pettersen’s miss of a five-footer for par at Par-4 11th got the match squared. On the Par-5 12th, Lang blasted from a bunker to tap-in range and that gave the Americans the hole and their first lead of the match at 1UP.
But the Europeans battled back as Recari squared the match with a birdie on the Par-4 14th, but the Americans were conceded a short birdie effort at Par-5 16th as they went back on top 1UP with two to go.
Lang would then roll a long eagle try within three feet at the Par-3 17th. Recari then chipped to four feet, but Pettersen surprisingly missed and Wie made the birdie try to give the Americans the match and inched within one point 5.5-6.5 of the Europeans.
Afternoon Four-Ball Session
This first match was the key and set the tone for the rest of the European pairings in the afternoon. European Captain Lisolette Neumann sent out Cup rookies Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Charley Hull, the youngest player in event history, against Cup veteran Paula Creamer and rookie 18-year-old Lexi Thompson.
Neumann gave the afternoon off to three of her best players, Suzann Pettersen, Catriona Matthew and Anna Nordqvist.
The Europeans took the lead right away on the first hole, but the Americans squared the match on the fourth hole and took the lead on the fifth, only to see the match squared right back on the sixth hole.
Creamer was not at his best on this match, but the teenagers took over the match and put up a show with their ball striking, and especially Hull’s clutch putting. Both Ewart Shadoff and Hull matched Thompson’s power equalizing the match.
The would be all squared until they reached the Par-3 17th where Hull hit nine-iron just over the bunker to four feet making the putt to give her team a 1UP lead. On the 18th, Ewart-Shadoff blasted her tee shot 30 yards past Thompson’s tee shot leaving her with only a nine-iron into the green. The birdie putt was conceded for the 2UP win.
In the other four-ball matches, Spain's Azahara Munoz and Carlota Ciganda defeated Gerina Piller and Angela Stanford 1UP, Caroline Hedwall and Caroline Masson beat Michelle Wie and Jessica Korda 2-and-1 and Karine Icher along with Beatriz Recari earned a 1UP victory over Americans Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel.
Team Europe’s Caroline Hedwall has been the stalwart so far winning all of her four matches so far. The Swede now sports a 6-1-1 record in two Cup appearances. She played as a rookie on the victorious European squad in the 2011 Solheim Cup where she won a crucial half point in the Sunday singles matches that helped secure the 15-13 victory at Kileen Castle in County Meath, Ireland.
Team Europe now leads Team USA 10.5-5.5, matching the largest lead in Solheim Cup history. The European women, who have never won the Trans-Atlantic match play showdown on US soil, of the 12 singles matches on Sunday, only needs to win three matches and halve another to capture the cup away from home for the first time since this event began in 1990. It also would be the first time Europe retained the cup.