The European team faces a mountain to climb on Saturday to in its bid to retain the Solheim Cup after they trail the US by four points at the end of day one.
In the morning foursomes session, the home side got off to a hot start, winning three of the four matches at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia.
Esther Henseleit and Charley Hull went out in the first match and were defeated 3&2 by Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz.
Rose Zhang and Lauren Coughlin beat Celine Boutier and Albane Valenzuela by the same margin. While the scoreline was repeated in the final match when Lilia Vu and Sarah Schmelzel took down Linn Grant and Carlota Ciganda.
Europe’s only point of the morning session came from Emily Pedersen and Maja Stark who combined well in their 2up win.
After Europe built a 4-up lead through the first five holes, the American duo of Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho clawed the score back with birdies on 14 and 15. However, the Europeans held on with pars on 16 and 17 before an excellent approach on the last by Pedersen saw the duo win their final hole to finish 2-up.
AFTERNOON FOURBALLS
In the afternoon four-ball session, it was a similar story for both teams as the US repeated the 3-1 scoreline from the morning session to build a comfortable 6-2 lead over the Europeans at the end of the first day.
Korda teamed up with Megan Khang and the duo defeated Georgia Hall and Leona Maguire by 6&4, while the all-rookie pairing of Coughlin and Schmelzel defeated Pedersen and Stark 3&2.
It was an emphatic finish to the afternoon for Andrea Lee and Zhang who both made eagles on the 14th hole to secure a 5&4 victory over Grant and Hull after the match had been all square after eight.
Europe’s second point of the day came through the all-Swedish partnership of Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagström. The Swedish duo, who were playing together for the first time in the Solheim Cup, dominated their match against Lexi Thompson and Alison Lee.
Sagström and Nordqvist won six holes on the trot from the eighth through to 13 to record a 6&5 victory.
Pettersen seemed pleased that her team managed to avoid the 4-0 whitewash that they suffered in the opening foursomes in Spain last year saying: “Obviously, we had – I wouldn’t say a poor start – but we made progression in our morning session from last year, which was good; one step in the right direction.
“The afternoon, one point out of the four. I want to say we played opponents that are playing fantastic golf, that’s number one. Sometimes we almost invite them to play even better sometimes.
“At the same time, we have to face reality, and we have a massive job to do. We proved to ourselves we were capable of doing this last year, so the belief is there. There’s a lot of points yet to be played for. We’ve just got to come out tomorrow hungry.
“I think the players need to feel some kind of a revenge to feel like they can get some momentum going. It’s always hard when you see your opponents making putt after putt, and then we don’t make any. I think it’s a combination of everything. At the same time, the Americans played fantastic.”
TRAFFIC CHAOS
The start of the Solheim Cup got off to a chaotic start off the course, with thousands of fans left in queues for hours after problems with shuttle buses from a public car park. The delays meant that the opening matches were played in front of half empty grandstands as fans, many of of whom had queued since dawn, were unable to get to the course. Such was the chaos that some fans even gave up and went home without having seen a shot. Refunds will surely be required,
“We recognise and deeply apologise to all fans affected by the challenges with shuttling from parking to the golf course,” the LPGA said in a statement. “We’ve made significant changes to our transportation system to mitigate these issues moving forward, and we’re working on ways to express our regret to those impacted.”
SATURDAY FOURSOMES PAIRINGS (UK time)
12:05 am: Emily Pedersen/Carlota Ciganda v Allisen Corpuz/Nelly Korda
12:17 am: Esther Henseleit/Charley Hull v Ally Ewing/Jennifer Kupcho
12:29am: Maja Stark/Georgia Hall v Lexi Thompson/Lauren Coughlin
12:41am: Anna Nordqvist/Celine Boutier v Lilia Vu/Sarah Schmelzel
