Mel helps Euro stars lift Solheim Cup
DERBY’S Mel Reid is celebrating after helping Europe claim only their second Solheim Cup victory on US soil at Inverness Club in Toledo.
Reid made her fourth appearance in the competition and in the Saturday foursome she teamed up with Leona Maguire to beat the Kora sisters, Nelly and Jessica, 1up.
The Korda sisters won 6&4 and 6&5 in the same format at Gleneagles in 2019 but looked nervous from the outset and gifted the European pair a two-hole lead with a bogey on the fourth and a double bogey on the sixth.
Jessica chipped in for birdie on the 13th to halve the deficit but Reid and Maguire, a rookie and the first Irish player to feature in the contest, held their nerve to see out the win.
In the Sunday foursomes, Reid and Maguire beat Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing 5 and 4.
Reid and Maguire won four of the first five holes and were six up after 12 before Korda produced a rare moment of magic to eagle the 13th and keep the match alive. But the European pair secured victory on the next.
After that win, Reid told Sky Sports: “Leona and I haven’t really spoken to each other at all before this week and I said to her she might like me by the end of the week!
“The more we keep winning, maybe she will, a bit quicker than expected!
“She is such an impressive player and I’m incredibly proud of the way she has played.
“With foursomes, you have just got to make as few mistakes as possible.
“I take full responsibility for (hole) six, I hit two shots that weren’t very good and we lost a hole.
“But other than that we played birdies and pars, and that’s all you have got to do in foursomes, you have just got to try and make them win the hole.
“We played very solid, I think we played better today than we did on the first day.”
In the Sunday afternoon fourballs, Reid and Maguire snatched a half against Jennifer Kupcho and Lizette Salas on the 18th, Reid getting a bounce off the bank of a bunker to set up a birdie from close range.
In the singles on the final day, Reid lost to Yealimi Noh by one hole.
Reid played the first four holes in three over par to fall four behind but pars at the next two holes were enough to halve the deficit.
She kept the contest alive until the 18th before missing a par putt which would have claimed an unlikely half.
Maguire’s singles victory over Kupcho gave her four and a half points from five matches on her debut – a record for a rookie on either side – and provided the ideal springboard for a hard-fought success.
Victories for Madelene Sagstrom and Celine Boutier edged Catriona Matthew’s side closer to their target of 14 points to retain the trophy, before wins for world number one Nelly Korda, Brittany Altomare and Megan Khang kept the contest alive.
It fell to Finnish rookie Matilda Castren to make a nerveless par save on the 18th to beat Lizette Salas and make sure the trophy would return across the Atlantic, with Emily Pedersen then guaranteeing half a point from the bottom match to ensure outright victory, 15-13.