Eight Hall as Solheim sizzles
A BRILLIANT fightback from Georgia Hall and Celine Boutier in miserable conditions at Gleneagles left the Solheim Cup in the balance.
Hall and Boutier were four over par after seven holes and unsurprisingly four down against Ally McDonald and Angel Yin but fought back to claim their third win together and the home side’s only victory of the afternoon fourballs.
The European pair were still three down with five to play but Boutier drove the green on the short 14th and holed from 30 feet for an eagle before also making a birdie on the par-five 16th.
Hall’s par on the 17th was enough to move ahead for the first time in the match and a conceded birdie on the last completed the brilliant comeback.
“I’m over the moon,” former Women’s British Open champion Hall said.
“We didn’t have the best of starts and the weather was horrendous but we grinded it out and managed to get the job done.”
Rookie Boutier added: “I had the best partner out there and I couldn’t have done it without her, that’s for sure.”
Suzann Pettersen and Anne van Dam had earlier lost a hard-fought contest with Brittany Altomare and Annie Park on the last, while Caroline Masson missed from six feet on the 18th to win her match with Jodi Ewart Shadoff against Lexi Thompson and Marina Alex.
Lizette Salas and Danielle Kang beat the Spanish pair of Carlota Ciganda and Azahara Munoz 2&1 as darkness descended to level the scores at 8-8 ahead of today’s 12 singles matches. As the holders, the United States need to win six points to retain the trophy and secure an unprecedented hat-trick of wins.