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2015 Solheim Cup Blues: Team Europe sets the Friday pace

By Elizabeth Bethel

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First day play at the 2015 Solheim Cup established a tone and level of competition that collapsed on Saturday and colored the way Solheim Sunday unfolded.

At the end of the first day — but not the entire first round — the 2015 Solheim Cup leaderboard had a decidedly blue tint.  Could this signal the beginning of  back-to-back routs?  Are the Europeans set to take the Americans to the cleaners for a third time?

The Friday morning matches looked evenly balanced.  It was everything I hope for in match play.  Captain Inkster sent out BFFs Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer to battle against Anna Nordqvist and Suzann Pettersen in the opening alternate shots match and it was a lovely thing to watch. Pressel and Creamer made a smooth, well-coordinated team and finished up their match 3&2 to put the first point on the board for Team USA.

By lunch time Charley Hull and Melissa Reid, playing beautiful golf, had edged out two of the Team USA hot shots, Michelle Wie and Brittany Lincicome; Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson, who were playing inspired team golf, did away with Karine Icher and Azahara Munoz, and Sandra Gal — who was obviously having the time of her life — and Catriona Matthew sent Stacy Lewis and Lizette Salas back to the locker room empty handed. 

When the afternoon better ball matches teed off it was Team USA – 2, Team Europe – 2 and I was settled down to enjoy what was looking to be a wonderful three day battle between teams so evenly matched that even the oddsmakers couldn’t call it.

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Going into the second day, that’s sadly not the case. The Pressel-Creamer Morning Magic took a nap after lunch as Caroline Hedwall joined up with Anna Nordqvist for a match that was all about Swedish power golf.  I’d hoped to see Hedwall delivering the kind of game she played two years ago in Colorado, but she’s still struggling with her game.  Still, I fought my way past my partisanship to enjoy watching her strike the ball.

And Charley Hull was on a tear all day.  She and Gwladys Nocera just plain outplayed Angela Stanford and Team USA’s rookie Allison Lee — whose putter seemed to have gone stone cold on her — to add another blue point to the leaderboard.

Hull was in sensational form as she and Nocera inflicted an eighth successive Solheim Cup defeat on Stanford. The English teenager birdied the fifth to give her side a one hole advantage and then carded seven birdies in eight holes from eighth. Stanford eagled the driveable par four 13th and also birdied the 14th to extend the match but it came to an end when Hull secured a par five on the 16th hole.

"“Charley is playing unbelievable,” Gwladys Nocera, her veteran French partner, explained after their match had concluded. “It was up to me to play safe and try to make a few putts to help here. It was teamwork. She’s very impressive.”"

It seemed for a time that Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson were going to repeat their morning performance in their afternoon match, but Carlota Ciganda and Mel Reid had other ideas about that.  Cignada in particular came alive after the turn and the pair evened things up on the 17th.

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A rain delay set the last two afternoon matches behind and darkness arrived as both were coming down the home stretch.  The fourball series will continue at 7.45 Saturday morning with the two games tantalizingly poised.

German duo Caroline Masson and Sandra Gal are looking to be favorites to extend Europe’s lead after finishing at one up through 15 holes against Gerina Piller and Brittany Lang while the other game halted in dramatic fashion when Carlota Ciganda holed a nine iron from 135 yards on the 17th to ensure that she and her partner Mel Reid will go down the last tomorrow morning all square with Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson.

This is the way match play should unfold — a contest between equals that goes to the final hole still contested.  Team USA Captain Juli Inkster set the tone for Saturday morning when she summed up Friday’s matches:

"“That’s the beauty of match play. It’s the beauty of golf. The good thing is we’ve got one more hole to play and we have three more holes with the other one. There’s still a lot to play for.”"

Play resumes at 7:45am Saturday morning local time (1:45am ET) to finish the better ball matches, and then the 2nd round alternate shots matches will tee off at approximately 9am local time.  Golf Channel will begin coverage at 3am ET.

Next: From Solheim Hi-Jinks to Golf

None of us could have anticipated what Saturday would bring at the 2015 Solheim Cup or how that disputed conceded putt that left Alison Lee and Charley Hull both in tears would carry over to the 2017 Solheim Cup.

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