Europe takes 5-3 lead with fourballs victory at Solheim
PARKER, Colo. — Europe took an important step Friday toward winning the Solheim Cup on American soil.
Carlota Ciganda of Spain salvaged an unlikely par from a hazard on the par-5 15th hole and kept her and Suzann Pettersen from falling behind. Pettersen won the next hole with a birdie, sending them from 2 down at the turn to a 1-up victory in a pivotal fourballs match that staked Europe to a 5-3 lead.
A long day at Colorado Golf Club ended with Stacy Lewis, on the losing end of that match, getting into a heated discussion with an official over the use of a laser by the official to determine the right drop. At one point, Lewis threw her hands in the air. Along with using a laser, Lewis was upset with the length of the chaotic ruling.
The laser was used to make sure Ciganda’s options would be equal distance from the hole.
“Part of the problem we had with it was the rules official lasered the flag and made it public information. So he gave them a number,” said Lewis.
That was a moot point, however, when Ciganda eventually dropped from an entirely different spot. She hit her fourth shot just off the green, then holed a 15foot putt right when it looked as if the Americans would take the lead.
“The explanation was about as bad as the ruling, I thought,” said Lewis.
It was a tough day for Lewis, who is coming off a Women’s British Open title at St. Andrews.
Lewis struggled with the pace of lightning fast greens on the front nine as she and Lizette Salas fell too far behind to catch up in morning foursomes. Lewis played with another U.S. rookie, Lexi Thompson, who twice squandered good birdie chances late in the fourballs.
Lewis is 1-5 in the Solheim Cup.
Pettersen and Carolina Hedwall led the European charge by winning both their matches. Pettersen, playing in her seventh Solheim Cup, drilled a fairway metal into 20 feet on the 16th hole that set up Beatriz Recari for the eagle putt to take charge in a foursomes match. In the afternoon, it was Pettersen’s seven-foot birdie putt on the 16th — after Thompson three-putted for par — that gave Europe the lead.
Hedwall was part of what European captain Liselotte Neumann called her “Swedish Vikings” to lead off the warm, sunny opening session south of Denver. Hedwall and Anna Nordqvist finished the front nine with two birdies to build a 3-up lead and they never let Lewis and Salas any closer.