It is 8-8 after the Europeans split the morning foursome matches and win the afternoon fourballs, with 12 singles matches Sunday left
Europe picked up the pace at the Solheim Cup on Saturday, pulling even with the United States at 8-8 after splitting the morning foursome matches and winning the afternoon fourballs.
The contest will be decided by the 12 singles matches on Sunday, when Europe will try to win an unprecedented third straight Solheim Cup. The Europeans arrived as favorites but had to come from behind after the Americans took a 4-0 lead in Friday’s first session.
The U.S. kept its two-point lead from the first day after the teams split the morning session on Saturday, but Europe was in control during most of the afternoon and ended up winning it 3-1.
“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.”
The Europeans sealed the afternoon victory when home-crowd favorite Carlota Ciganda and rookie Linn Grant defeated Danielle Kang and Lilia Vu 2 and 1.
Ciganda, the only Spaniard in the European team, made a clutch birdie for a win on the 16th hole and is the only player with a perfect record. She won three straight sessions after sitting out the opening one on Friday.
Leona Maguire and Charley Hull earlier defeated Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing 4 and 3, with Maguire — who thrived in her Solheim Cup debut two years ago — making birdies on nearly half of her holes.
“Suzann was pretty clear on what our job was today, so mission accomplished,” Maguire said.
