Team Europe Solheim Cup captain Suzann Pettersen claims that as long as there’s still a chance to claim victory in Virginia, her team will continue to fight.
The USA take a comfortable four-point lead over Europe into the Sunday singles as they look to regain the Solheim Cup for the first time in four attempts.
The spoils were shared two each in both the foursomes and final fourballs, with the US successfully seeing off the threat of a European fightback in the morning on their way to securing a 10-6 lead heading into the final day’s action at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia.
Carlota Ciganda, who holed the Solheim Cup clinching putt to see Europe retain the trophy with a 14-14 tie last year, says she still believes the team can pull of a ‘Miracle at Medinah’ style comeback to match the Ryder Cup thriller from 2012 where Europe trailed by the same scoreline before stunning the USA in the singles.
We have a chance for sure, Ciganda said. I don’t know what the score is going to be, but there’s 12 points [still to play for] and we can win all of them – that’s what we’re going to try to do, everyone focusing on their match.
Why not? The Miracle of Medinah… it’s coming.
Team USA have not won the Solheim Cup since 2017, with Europe following back-to-back victories in 2019 and 2021 by retaining the title with that dramatic 14-14 draw in Spain last September.
Eight points is the most a European team has ever scored on the final day of a Solheim Cup, back in 2003. A repeat of that here would see Europe again retain the trophy via a tie.
Team Europe captain Suzann Pettersen also struck a positive note going into Sunday, telling Sky Sports: There is hope, absolutely.
We have seen miracles before – Medinah, and Germany in 2015.
We just wanted to go out there and play our best golf and have fun, and that’s exactly what we did.
With the score at 8-4, Europe needed a big comeback in the afternoon fourballs, but the Americans continued to dominate. Lexi Thompson and Brittany Altomare secured the first point of the session with a 2&1 win over Georgia Hall and Leona Maguire, before Lizette Salas and Jennifer Kupcho beat Mel Reid and Matilda Castren 3&2 to make it 10-4.
The final match of the day saw Yealimi Noh and Mina Harigae hold off a late charge from Charley Hull and Emily Kristine Pedersen to secure a half point, leaving the USA with a commanding 10.5-5.5 lead heading into the singles matches on Sunday.
Captain Pat Hurst was pleased with her team’s performance, saying: We have given ourselves a chance, and as long as there is hope, these girls are going to go out there and fight. We know Europe is going to come out strong tomorrow, but we will be ready.