European fight back sets up tense final day at Solheim Cup
Captains Suzanne Pettersen and Stacy Lewis – sharing a moment today – photo Solheim Cup
Halfway through the opening day of the 2023 Solheim Cup in Andalucia in Spain, one could have been forgiven that the result was a foregone conclusion.
After all, the 4-0 lead the Americans had established in a dominating opening morning had the Europeans on the back foot, especially given their historic strength in the Foursome format in play in the opening stanza of the event.
But by the completion of play on day two the Europeans had drawn level, winning both their Fourball matchups 3-1 and despite not gaining any ground in their Saturday morning Foursomes, which they shared with the Americans 2-2, they head into their twelve singles matches on Sunday looking good to extend their recent domination in this intriguing trans-Atlantic battle.
The standout for the Europeans has been the only Spaniard in the team, Carlota Ciganda who has won all three of her matches after sitting out the opening Fourball on Friday morning. In doing so she is the only player on either team with a 100% record.
Ciganda has paired with Sweden’s Linn Grant and Denmark’s Emily Pedersen to win.
The Europeans have won four of their last six encounters against the Americans and the momentum they have built since lunchtime on Friday will go a long way to improving on that already impressive record.
While, on paper at least, the Europeans are the weaker of the teams in terms of world rankings, those sorts of stats go out the window when such a contest is on the line, especially in front of a very much partisan European crowd.
“I’m out of words, but we have to remember we are not there yet, there are still 12 points up for grabs tomorrow,” Europe captain Suzann Pettersen said. “We made quite a comeback, now we are tied and we’ll put it in fifth gear and keep going. If you look at how we started after yesterday’s morning, we’ve come a long way.”
