دسته: گلف

Well, well, well. Who’d have given Europe a chance of going into the Sunday singles level after the USA whitewashed them yesterday morning? Not too many folk, I’ll be bound. But here we all are. It’s set up deliciously for a day of drama and rollocking entertainment tomorrow. Hope you’ll join us as it all unfolds. See you then!

4&3 Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing
Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin 2UP
2&1 Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee
2&1 Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu
Europe 8-8 USA

Europe captain Suzann Pettersen speaks to Sky Sports. “I am out of words. We have to remember we are not there, there are still 12 points up for grabs tomorrow. But we made quite a comeback and now we are tied, and now we put it into fifth gear and keep going. It was unbelievable golf. It’s only in the Solheim Cup. It keeps happening, every single time! I couldn’t be more proud. We will be ready to go in the morning.”

Europe 8-8 USA

Ciganda up first. She wedges up from the bottom of the bank at the front of the green to a couple of feet. That should secure the par. In fact it’s conceded by Kang. No point messing about. And the USA nearly get some karmic reward for their sportsmanship when Vu so nearly holes out from the sand! That one’s conceded too … and Kang, presumably with adrenaline coursing through her veins, picks up the ball and absent-mindedly flings it towards Vu’s head in the manner of a baseball pitcher! Vu is forced to take evasive action, bending backwards and batting it away. Every member of the watching USA team creases up with laughter. Grant can’t make her birdie putt, so it’s over to Kang, who …

To the 17th. Linn Grant sends her tee shot straight at the flag, but it only just lands on the green and spins back towards the fringe. Carlota Ciganda comes up well short, the ball dropping back down the false front. The door swings ajar for the Americans … but Lilia Vu dumps her tee shot into the bunker on the left. Danielle Kang is up last … and sends a gorgeous one over the flag to 12 feet. Chance for the USA here!

Danielle Kang and Lilia Vu both have birdie putts on 16. Kang goes close, her straight uphill effort sliding inches wide to the left. Vu goes even closer, her 15-foot right-to-left drifter lipping out, surely just the width of a dimple away from dropping. So now Carlota Ciganda has a look at birdie herself from a similar place to Vu … and in it goes! Europe are dormie two!

2UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (16)
Europe 7-8 USA

Just the one match out on the course now, and it’s delicately poised. So much of tomorrow’s mood music relies on this.

1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (15)
Europe 7-8 USA

Europe 7-8 USA

Europe 7-7 USA

It’s advantage USA on 18. Hedwall’s drive heads towards the lip of a bunker and she’s forced to wedge out. Nordqvist doesn’t have the length to get on in two anyway, and lays up. Cheyenne Knight ditto, but Angel Yin blooters a long tee shot down the middle … then lashes a long iron that makes it onto the front of the green! A huge opportunity to close this out now for the States. Yin has been sensational since being accidentally fired up on the 10th green.

As the shadows lengthen, Lilia Vu has a chance to level the final match from 15 feet on 15. It drifts harmlessly left. So much heading inexorably for the crunch.

Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin 1UP (17)
2UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (16)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (15)
Europe 6-7 USA

A chance for Andrea Lee to halve the USA’s deficit on 16. She’s pin high, just in the fringe, 12 feet to the right of the flag. Her putt always looks like missing on the left, though in the end it doesn’t miss by too much. Over to Rose Khang, who also has a chance from similar distance … but she shoves her effort wide right. Europe are dormie two.

Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin 1UP (17)
2UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (16)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (14)
Europe 6-7 USA

… makes it. No fuss. Everyone’s going up 18. The USA certain of at least half a point.

Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin 1UP (17)
2UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (15)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (14)
Europe 6-7 USA

Nordqvist’s effort is pretty poor as well, always destined to die off to the left, never with a chance. And she’s left it four feet away too. The Europeans have left themselves a little work to do for their pars. A bronze cent for Angel Yin’s thoughts. She must be thinking about karma, and the chickens coming home to roost for Europe after their saucy cheek in asking her to clean up from 18 inches on 10. And she really must be thinking about it now, as Hedwall hoicks another dreadful putt miles wide and long! Nordqvist has to make hers now to keep the match alive. And she …

For a second, Angel Yin thinks she’s drained her putt. She takes an excited step after the ball, but it shaves the right-hand side of the hole and stops a couple of feet past. Caroline Hedwall up next. She gives it a rare old rattle and it’s always missing wide right, and flying five feet past too. Always an erratic putter, today she’s gone from the ridiculous to the sublime and now back again. Up to Nordqvist now.

Tell you what, Knight gives her bunker shot a good go. She splashes out aggressively, her ball skirting the hole and ending up three feet past. It’s hardly a gimme, especially in these circumstances, but it makes the par much more likely, and gives her partner Yin more licence to go for the birdie. Yin prowls the green before lining up her putt. She’s first up.

It’s going to be a putting contest on 17. Nordqvist, Hedwall and Yin surround the flag, all around 20 feet away. Nordqvist the only one on the green, the other two on the fringe. Knight in the bunker … so having set it up as a test of the flat stick, what price her holing out from the sand to secure the point for the USA? Entertainment ahoy!

Yeah, it’s a difficult one all right. She sends her putt flying off the fringe and skittering wildly past the hole … and not in anything like the right direction either! No matter, it was in or nothing. A half. The players move on to the par-three 17th … and there’s cheers ringing in their ears, because back on 15, Emily Pedersen drains a much easier putt from the fringe to put Europe two up in the third match! Meanwhile it’s two putts for Carlota Ciganda on 14 and that’s a tied hole as well.

Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin 1UP (16)
2UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (15)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (14)
Europe 6-7 USA

Anna Nordqvist lags a long rake up close to secure Europe’s par on 16. So it’ll be a putting contest between Angel Yin and Caroline Hedwall. In fact Yin is a little further out than I first thought … but she nearly drains the 25-footer! Millimetres wide right. Over to Hedwall then. With holes running out quickly, this is crucial for Europe. It’s not easy, though, putting through the shadows and with the fringe bothering her backswing.

Carlota Ciganda cracks her drive at 14 into the heart of the green. She’ll have a gently uphill look at eagle from 50 feet. Up on 16, Cheyenne Knight has found herself out of position, up a bank along the right of the hole. No matter! A soft-handed swipe with the wedge, and she bounces her ball down to kick-in distance. Par secured! And immediately back to 14, where Danielle Kang flashes a long bunker shot to pick-up range. Birdie secured!

An outrageously good shot by Caroline Hedwall at 16. Her drive ends up on a grassy bank just above a bunker. She forced to play it with both feet in the sand, the ball above her. She flashes a 4-iron into the heart of the green, the ball only just rolling off the back, not too far from the pin. Anna Nordqvist’s more traditional approach isn’t as close to the pin, but firmly on the shortest stuff. But neither are as close as Angel Yin, who continues to propel her team towards the line, and will be putting for birdie from 15 feet.

Lee’s putt is weak and dies off to the left. Par. All down to Zhang now … and she curls the right-to-left 12-footer into the hole for a street-fighting birdie! Sagstrom is told to pick up her coin and the teams move on. That’ll feel like a mini-victory for the USA. Meanwhile up on 15, a similar sensation for Europe, as Angel Yin’s birdie effort from 30 yards stops a turn short, whereupon Caroline Hedwall scrambles par with a staunch up and down. Finally it’s a hole back for the US on 13, reward for Lilia Vu sending one of her trademark heatseeking approaches towards the flag and a foot or so away.

Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin 1UP (15)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (14)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (13)
Europe 6-7 USA

Zhang and Lee both whip their second shots into the green. Not close, but not miles away either. Both will have looks at birdie from 15 feet or so. Then it’s the turn of Pedersen, whose drive stopped just short of a fence and the woods behind. She lobs up to similar distance. Then finally Sagstrom, putting from the fringe at the back. What she’d give for an eagle now. A 30-foot putt with a gentle right-to-left break. She rolls the rock well, the ball briefly threatening to drop before skating past the right lip. A couple of feet past. That’ll be a birdie, surely. One of the USA team really has to make their putt now.

A slight advantage to Europe on 14. Madelene Sagstrom’s drive ends up on the fringe at the back of the green, while Rose Zhang finds a bunker to the right and Andrea Lee almost skies a fairway wood, though she’ll still be hitting wedge in. Emily Pedersen’s drive disappeared into bother far right. Up on 15, meanwhile, Angel Yin and Anna Nordqvist are both on in regulation.

Danielle Kang has pulled off some outrageous feats with her flat stick this afternoon. Not so on 12, where she races a hysterical 20-foot birdie putt at the hole. Despite the ball hitting the cup, it still has enough juice to roll off the green and away down a swale! From the sublime, etc. Then Lilia Vu lips out for par from five feet to give Carlota Ciganda the opportunity to snatch the hole from similar distance! The home favourite makes no mistake, and Europe double their lead in that crucial last match.

Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin 1UP (14)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (13)
2UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (12)
Europe 6-7 USA

On 13, Andrea Lee sinks a must-make 15-foot birdie putt. Must-make because Madelene Sagstrom was well inside her, and she follows her in … albeit only just, the ball briefly threatening to stop on the lip. Hole tied.

One of the shots of the week by Cheyenne Knight at the short par-four 14th! Her drive left her with a long bunker shot. She blasts it out with maximum power … and maximum action, the ball landing and spinning gloriously to a halt a couple of feet from the flag. That was necessary, as well, because Anna Nordqvist had gone equally close with a more textbook second having laid up from the tee. This should be honours shared.

Europe 6-7 USA

Better news for Europe back on 11, as Linn Grant makes her seventh birdie of the day! Having knocked her approach to 15 feet, she guides in a right-to-left slider to regain the lead in the final match for the hosts. There is some sensational golf being played this afternoon by both sets of players, and good luck correctly predicting how these final three matches are going to turn out!

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (14)
Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin 1UP (13)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (12)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (11)
Europe 5-7 USA

Angel Yin pours in another! She curls in her right-to-left birdie putt from 15 feet, and Nordqvist and Hedwall really shouldn’t have asked her to make that one-and-a-half footer on 10. Since then, fuelled by righteous indignation, she’s brought the hurt to the European duo! Three holes on the bounce, and the USA have some red on the board for the first time in a while!

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (14)
Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin 1UP (13)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (12)
Ciganda/Grant A/S Kang/Vu (10)
Europe 5-7 USA

Ah, Hedwall’s ball stuck on the bank above the bunker. So she’s chipping on. Whether that’s a stroke of luck or not, coming out of the sticky Bermuda rough, is a moot point. She only gets to within ten feet. But Nordqvist keeps her head, drawing the old Texas wedge from the holster and rolling up from off the back of the green to tap-in distance. Knight and Yin will still have good looks at birdie, but at least they’re being asked the question now.

Having lost the previous two holes, Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall are severely rattled. The former goes over the back of 13, the latter into a bunker to the right. Cheyenne Knight and Angel Yin are both on the dancefloor, and there’s trouble afoot here for Europe.

Yes, Ally Ewing is in survival mode all right. She rams home her birdie putt, forcing Leona Maguire to tidy up for her birdie. In that one goes, and it’s dormie four to Europe. That’s Maguire’s seventh birdie today!

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (14)
Nordqvist/Hedwall A/S Knight/Yin (12)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (11)
Ciganda/Grant A/S Kang/Vu (10)
Europe 5-7 USA

Ally Ewing gets a free drop from the cart path behind 14 and wedges up to 12 feet. Nelly Korda is similarly close in two. But Leona Maguire has sent her second straight at the flag to three feet. One of the Americans will surely have to make their birdie putts if this match is to continue.

Neither Anna Nordqvist nor Caroline Hedwall can make their par at the par-three 12th. And so, in the blink of an eye, their two-hole lead has evaporated. Suddenly there’s a little bit of momentum on America’s shoulder.

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (13)
Nordqvist/Hedwall A/S Knight/Yin (12)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (11)
Ciganda/Grant A/S Kang/Vu (10)
Europe 5-7 USA

An awful stroke of luck for Ally Ewing, who absolutely batters a drive down the short par-four 14th. It lands on the green and springboards through the back, before bouncing off down a hill and along a cart path. No idea where that’s going to end up. Meanwhile back on 10, Danielle Kang makes yet another big birdie putt, curling in a left-to-right 25-footer on the par three to square the match! That’s her fifth birdie of the round, and yet her team isn’t in the lead. You see, for the record, Linn Grant has made six.

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (13)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (11)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (10)
Ciganda/Grant A/S Kang/Vu (10)
Europe 5-7 USA

Ally Ewing isn’t going down without a fight. She rams home a 12-foot birdie putt on 13, turning the pressure onto Leona Maguire, who is pin high, ten feet away after that lovely approach. Maguire doesn’t betray any nerves, though, and calmly slots her own putt to keep Europe four up with five to play.

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (13)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (11)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (10)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (9)
Europe 5-7 USA

A near miss for Emily Pedersen at 10. Her birdie putt lips out. Meanwhile Leona Maguire sends a glorious hybrid into 13. So I’d love to say that Europe aren’t giving the USA any encouragement right now … but having angered Angel Yin by making her putt out from close range on 10, they pay the price at 11. Yin rattles in a birdie putt from 15 feet, spooking Caroline Hedwall who has one of her own from ten feet. Hedwall can’t make it, and the lead in the second match is down to one.

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (12)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (11)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (10)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (9)
Europe 5-7 USA

That rare thing: a Danielle Kang missed putt. Her birdie effort lips out on 9, and she grimaces, fearing the worst with Linn Grant stepping up to attempt a straight ten-foot birdie putt of her own. But Grant’s effort slides off to the right, and the chance to double Europe’s lead goes by with it.

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (12)
2UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (10)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (9)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (9)
Europe 5-7 USA

Leona Maguire restores Europe’s four-hole lead in the first match. A glorious tee shot at the par-three 12th, creamed to three feet. Birdie. Ally Ewing and Nelly Korda both missed the green, and though Ewing chipped up and rolled in a 12-footer to save par, it wasn’t enough.

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (12)
2UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (10)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (9)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (8)
Europe 5-7 USA

Emily Pedersen with yet another dart. But before she can take her birdie putt, Rose Zhang rolls a 15-foot one of her own. Pedersen isn’t to be denied, though, and makes her putt for the half. Meanwhile up on 10, Cheyenne Knight and Angel Yin both miss good birdie chances, allowing Anna Nordqvist to scramble a tie with par. The Europeans then ask Yin to tidy up from a couple of feet – they’d not allowed Knight to pick her marker up either, from even closer – and once Yin completes the task, she stands with her hands on her hips, half perplexed, half insulted. Let’s see how this develops, then.

3UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (11)
2UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (10)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (9)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (8)
Europe 5-7 USA

Lilia Vu nearly backspins her third at 8 in for eagle. A pick-up birdie, but it’s not enough to win the hole, because Carlota Ciganda chips up to 12 feet then rolls in a forensic birdie effort of her own.

3UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (11)
2UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (9)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (8)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (8)
Europe 5-7 USA

In order: Leona Maguire, Ally Ewing, Charley Hull and Nelly Korda go close with birdie putts on 11. Close but no cigar. Europe remain three up. “Hoping Maguire and Hull can close their match out early to give Leona a rest,” writes Paul Maguire. “Five rounds in three days would be a killer on the calves.”

Meanwhile up on 9, it’s a birdie shootout between Cheyenne Knight, Angel Yin and Caroline Hedwall, who have the pin surrounded. Knight and Yin pass their six-footers up, leaving Hedwall with a downhill five-footer. A huge chance to put Europe three up … but she pulls it straight off the bat. Everyone will walk off the green sick, ruing the excellent chances they’ve just let slide. We move on.

3UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (10)
2UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (9)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (8)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (7)
Europe 5-7 USA

Emily Pedersen goes very close with a downhill 30-foot birdie effort on 8. Her ball dies to the right one turn before it reaches its destination. Just the half, Rose Zhang having made a very adventurous par, her second shot disappearing down a cart path and ending on a nearby patch of mud; she chipped back onto the green with one foot on the path, getting no free drop because the nearest point of relief was in the bushes.

Some joy for the Americans in the first match at last! Ally Ewing putts up from a swale to the left of 10, over the bump, a right-to-left swing and in. She’d been given a read by Charley Hull, who had gone close from a similar position; she clearly learns fast. She also follows orders well, her captain Stacy Lewis having popped up at the 10th tee to offer encouragement and bark at her players to keep going despite their unpromising position. Well, that’s one back. They couldn’t, could they?

3UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (10)
2UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (8)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (7)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (7)
Europe 5-7 USA

Caroline Hedwall is a streaky putter all right. A dismal three-putt at 4, but that 20-footer to snatch an unlikely half at 7, and now another from similar distance for birdie at 8. A little cushion for Europe in match two … and they’d thought they’d built a similar buffer in the final match, Carlota Ciganda curling a birdie putt in from the back of 7. But Danielle Kang is a putter of street-fighting brilliance, and not for the first time today she rattles one in to deny Europe, just as she did with Linn Grant on 6. This is an astonishing display by Kang, who has kept the US in contention in that fourth match!

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (9)
2UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (8)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (7)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (7)
Europe 5-7 USA

Leona Maguire can’t make her birdie putt at 9, the ball always staying high on the right side. The door’s open for Ally Ewing, then. Not wide open, mind: it’s a tricky downhill 12-foot right-to-left slider. She sets it off on its journey … but is quickly up and out of it in disgust, fully aware it’s always going to miss wide on the left. Europe hit the turn four up.

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (9)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (7)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (7)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (6)
Europe 5-7 USA

Emily Pedersen makes her fifth birdie of the day, this time at 7. She’d sent her approach pretty much pin high, and rolls in the putt from 15 feet. That puts Europe up in all four matches. Three of the leads are tissue-paper thin, but a lead’s a lead’s a lead, ain’t that the truth. The USA need to check Europe’s momentum. Over to Ally Ewing …

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (8)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (7)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (7)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (6)
Europe 5-7 USA

Charley Hull and Nelly Korda both find themselves stuck up on a bank to the right of the 9th fairway. From tricky positions and with awkward stances, Hull sends her wedge just over the back of the green while Korda can’t quite get up and over the false front. Over to their partners, perhaps, and from the centre of the fairway Leona Maguire wedges pin high, 20 feet to the right of the flag, while Ally Ewing sets up the best opportunity from the heart of the green, ten feet over the flag. Advantage USA in this lead match, and they really need something here.

Carlota Ciganda makes a birdie putt from the fringe at the back of 6, and suddenly Europe are up in three again! Her home fans start with the olés, and it’s bedlam at the moment. Ciganda celebrates with her putter in the air, shades of Jack Nicklaus on 17 at Augusta in 1986.

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (8)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (7)
Sagstrom/Pedersen A/S Zhang/Lee (6)
1UP Ciganda/Grant v Kang/Vu (6)
Europe 5-7 USA

Leona Maguire didn’t make too many big putts this morning. She’s made one now, though, confidently stroking a birdie effort at 8 straight at the cup from 20 feet. In it drops, and Europe are racing away in the lead match. Meanwhile in the second match, Cheyenne Knight bumps a chip up from a swale back-left of the 7th green, and rattles it in for an extremely unlikely birdie! The crowd go quiet as the USA cavort … but then Caroline Hedwall tickles in a 20-foot left-to-right downhill slider for a spectacular half! The crowd start making quite a lot of noise again, and that’s going to be a super-sickener for the Americans. This Solheim Cup is very much in the balance, and the assorted back and forths are extremely entertaining.

4UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (8)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (7)
Sagstrom/Pedersen A/S Zhang/Lee (6)
Ciganda/Grant A/S Kang/Vu (5)
Europe 5-7 USA

Linn Grant makes another big birdie putt! She rakes this one across 5, and punches the air in delight. The young Swede is making a real mark on her first Solheim Cup. That cranks up some pressure on Danielle Kang, who is much closer and would have fancied herself to win the hole. Now she needs to make a ten-footer to halve it. But in it goes. She’s made a series of ice-cool putts this week, and there’s another. Meanwhile up on 6, Andrea Lee drains a monster of her own, and the birdie snatches the hole and takes the lead away from Europe.

3UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (7)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (6)
Sagstrom/Pedersen A/S Zhang/Lee (6)
Ciganda/Grant A/S Kang/Vu (5)
Europe 5-7 USA

Charley Hull fizzes a long iron in the general direction of the green at the par-five 8th. Sort of. The ball slices to the right and nearly takes her captain Suzann Pettersen’s head off! Pettersen thankfully takes evasive action, toppling backwards to the turf and out of the road of danger. That’s what you get for dropping Hull for the last two sessions, huh.

Madelene Sagstrom drains a wonderful birdie putt from off the front of green at 5. It effectively salvages a half, because Andrea Lee is close and she rolls in a four-footer for her birdie. Meanwhile up on 7, Charley Hull knocks her second to six feet and – with the US only good for Nelly Korda’s par, Ally Ewing having had some chipping issues – guides in a right-to-left curler for birdie and the hole. Europe flying in this opening rubber!

3UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (7)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (5)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (5)
Ciganda/Grant A/S Kang/Vu (4)
Europe 5-7 USA

Emily Pedersen is on a flag-hunting mission today. Now she sends an arrow straight at 5, where she’ll have a great look at birdie from eight feet. But so will Rose Zhang, who follows her in with a glorious wedge of her own. Putting competition coming up.

The tree guarding the 5th green gets in Cheyenne Knight and Angel Yin’s way. Neither can get close with their approaches, and they end up facing mid-range par putts. They don’t drop, while Caroline Hedwall, who had the foresight to lay back from the tee so she could easily get over the aforementioned tree, has a ten-foot birdie putt coming up. Coins are picked up and the hole is conceded. Europe are now up in three.

2UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (6)
1UP Nordqvist/Hedwall v Knight/Yin (5)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (4)
Ciganda/Grant A/S Kang/Vu (3)
Europe 5-7 USA

Emily Pedersen follows Caroline Hedwall in finding the par-five 4th green in two mighty blows. She’s a more dependable putter, though, truth be told, and illustrates that by nearly making her long eagle putt. A tap-in for birdie suffices for the win. Europe up in two.

2UP Hull/Maguire v Korda/Ewing (6)
Nordqvist/Hedwall A/S Knight/Yin (4)
1UP Sagstrom/Pedersen v Zhang/Lee (4)
Ciganda/Grant A/S Kang/Vu (3)
Europe 5-7 USA