ANDALUCIA, Spain — Nelly Korda got here into this week’s Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin questioning who she would play alternate-shot matches with as a result of her older sister, Jessica, is not on the U.S. crew.
The Korda sisters proved to be a formidable duo in Nelly’s first two Solheim Cups, combining to go 2-1 in foursomes matches they performed collectively in 2019 and 2021. Nelly might need discovered her an acceptable alternative in U.S. Ladies’s Open champion in Allisen Corpuz.
Korda and Corpuz produced a 5 & 3 victory over England’s Georgia Corridor and France’s Celine Boutier on Saturday morning, serving to the U.S. keep a 7-5 lead over the Europeans. It was the second match received by Korda and Corpuz in two days.
“Allisen and I simply performed rather well the previous two days,” Korda mentioned. “I believe we simply bonded rather well on the golf course. We did not make too many errors, particularly immediately, and we rolled in numerous putts.”
Jessica Korda, who’s 5 years older than her sister, stepped away from the sport in Might due to a again harm. She introduced in August that she’s anticipating her first little one.
Corpuz claimed her first LPGA Tour victory by profitable the primary U.S. Ladies’s Open at Pebble Seashore Golf Hyperlinks in California in June. She’s a Ryder Cup rookie, so having Korda as a teammates has helped calm her nerves.
“I believe Nelly is basically calm, which is form of what I would like,” Corpuz mentioned. “I play [with] fairly low power. Clearly, she has the expertise as properly. So simply figuring out that having somebody like her by my aspect has helped me rather a lot to get snug.”
The Europeans picked up the primary level of Saturday morning’s session when Denmark’s Emily Okay. Pedersen and Spain’s Carlota Ciganda took down Lilia Vu and Jennifer Kupcho, 2 & 1, to chop the People’ result in 5-4. The U.S. duo took Nos. 7 and eight to make the flip in any respect sq., however then the Europeans received three holes on the again 9 to seize the match.
“I believe it is necessary since you do not wish to give an excessive amount of to the People,” Ciganda mentioned. “I imply, they’re powerful to beat. They’re actually sturdy and they’re actually good. We are able to do that, however we now have to play good golf, and we now have to be very current and hopefully that is sufficient.”
The U.S. did not wait lengthy to regain momentum. Korda and Corpuz put the ending touches on their dominant win to provide the U.S. a 6-4 lead. Then Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang pulled away from Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist and Eire’s Leona Maguire for a 1-up victory and one other U.S. level.
Khang and Thompson had been down 2 after seven holes, however tied the match and went 1 up after the Europeans carded three straight bogeys. The European pair picked up a birdie on the par-4 fifteenth gap to tie the match once more. On the par-3 seventeenth, the People went 1-up with a par, after the Europeans made an enormous mistake and settled for a bogey.
Europe stayed inside two factors after Sweden’s Linn Grant and Maja Stark defeated Danielle Kang and Andrea Lee 1 up within the remaining match. Stark made an extended putt on No. 17 to place the Europeans forward, after which Grant made an analogous putt on No. 18 to shut out the match.
The groups will play 4 four-ball (greatest ball) matches on Saturday afternoon, adopted by 12 head-to-head singles matches Sunday. Europe retains the Solheim Cup by reaching 14 factors whereas the U.S. would wish 14½ factors.
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