U.S. Rides Historic Sweep to Day 1 Lead Over Europe at Solheim Cup

The U.S. swept the morning alternate shot session 4-0, then held on in the afternoon to take a 5-3 lead into Saturday.

ANDALUCIA, Spain — Day 1 is complete at the 2023 Solheim Cup, and the U.S. team finds itself in unfamiliar territory:

Leading.

It’s the first time the U.S. has led a Solheim Cup on foreign soil since 2007, when they eventually won the Solheim Cup in Halmstad Sweden 16-12.

Friday was a tale of two sessions, with the U.S. sweeping the morning foursomes and then scrambling to fight off a game European squad that won the afternoon fourballs session 3-1 and cutting the overnight deficit from four to two points.

Megan Khang and Lexi Thompson won their morning alternate shot match / USA Today

“You get knocked down, you stand up, and you try it again, and that's kind of what I told the girls, and they did,” European Captain Suzann Pettersen said. “We're not even halfway there and we're right in it. So, it was great momentum this afternoon. We kept the energy on the course. We kept the energy in the crowd. I feel like we did a lot of good stuff in the afternoon that we will have to try and feed off in the morning.”

The afternoon session for Europe was highlighted by the second hole-in-one in Solheim Cup history, when Demark’s Emily Pedersen found the bottom of the cup on the 178-yard par-3 12th hole.

The ace tied the match against the U.S. duo of Allisen Corpuz and Jennifer Kupcho, and it eventually ended in a tie on the 18th hole.

The second shot of the day came when Ireland’s Leona Maguire missed the green on the par-5 18th hole but then chipped in for a birdie that turned tied match into a European point after Lexi Thompson misplayed a chip shot for eagle and Allisen Corpuz could not convert a lengthy birdie putt.

“My third shot spun back, but it was a really nice chip,” Maguire said. “Chipping off this Bermuda is quite tricky. I just wanted to get it close to give Georgia (Hall) a chance to give a go at the putt, but nice to go one better.”

The 4-0 drubbing in the morning foursomes was highlighted by a U.S. team that held the lead in 48 of the 67 holes contested while Europe could only manage to lead in 4 holes.

It was the first time in the history of the Solheim Cup that the U.S. had swept the Friday foursomes session and it gave captain Stacy Lewis a solid start as she tries to bring the cup back to the U.S. for the first time since 2019.

“I wanted to get four really good pairings out this morning and get the momentum and get off to a good start,” Lewis said.

In 2007, the U.S. had a one-point lead, 4.5 to 3.5 after the first day, but eventually gave it back when the Europeans took control of the afternoon fourball matches 3 -1.

In Saturday foursomes, Pettersen said that she needs energy right off the bat and made some changes to her lineup, including Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, who won her fourball match with Linn Grant.

“I'm just trying to put a leash on this week,” Pettersen said of Ciganda. “I mean, she would jump off and fly if she could. So, I'm really just trying to keep her grounded.”

For Lewis, how do you change what worked perfectly? But like a mad professor, Lewis has gone back to the analytics to fine-tune a virtuoso performance of Friday morning.

“Well, I think what I learned this morning was our little theory and kind of the way we did our pairings, it works,” Lewis said. “So, what you're going to see is really going to be pretty similar. But this morning was really just -- I mean, for me, I've been working on these pairings for so long and just the theories of why you put certain players together and it just showed that it worked. That was a huge relief for me this morning.”

2023 Solheim Cup Friday Afternoon Fourball Results

Match 5 – USA Rose Zhang & Megan Khang tied Europe Gemma Dryburgh & Madelene Sagstrom

Match 6 – Europe Leona Maguire & Georgia Hall d. USA Lexi Thompson & Lilia Vu

Match 7 – USA Jennifer Kupcho & Allisen Corpuz tied Europe Emily K. Pedersen & Maja Stark

Match 8 – Europe Carlota Ciganda & Linn Grant d. USA Angel Yin & Ally Ewing

2023 Solheim Cup Saturday Morning Foursomes Pairings

Match 9 – USA Jennifer Kupcho & Lilia Vu v. Europe Carlota Ciganda & Emily Pedersen

Match 10 – USA Lexi Thompson & Megan Khang v. Europe Anna Nordqvist & Leona Maguire

Match 11 – USA Allisen Corpuz & Nelly Korda v. Europe Celine Boutier & Georgia Hall

Match 12 – USA Andrea Lee & Danielle Kang v. Europe Linn Grant & Maja Stark