The U.S. won their first Solheim Cup since 2017.
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Lilia Vu hasn’t had the season she wanted. She was injured, unable to defend the first of her two major titles from a year ago.
But the World No. 2 came back and won, almost like what she did Sunday at the Solheim Cup.
Facing a 2 Down deficit with two holes to play, Vu birdied the 17th, then knocked her approach at 18 to just a few feet, winning the final two holes to tie her match and it couldn’t have been more crucial.
That ended up being the clinching half point for the Americans’ first Solheim Cup victory since 2017 clinching 14.5 points for the week. Coming into the day with a four-point lead, the Americans ended up with a closer-than-expected win of 15.5 to 12.5.
The U.S. victory perhaps came slightly later than expected after Charley Hull delivered the most unexpected rout of the event. In the first match of Sunday singles, Hull dominated World No. 1 Nelly Korda, never trailing in a 6 and 4 romp for the Englishwoman.
While Hull did her job, there was a small wave of red that came afterward.
In the second match, Megan Khang capped off her second-consecutive undefeated Solheim Cup with a lopsided victory of her own over Emily Pedersen, who like Hull, was tied for the best record for Team Europe this week, going 2-2-0. Khang made four birdies and an eagle in just 12 holes on her way to a decimating 6 and 5 win.
While Georgia Hall took care of Alison lee 4 and 3 in the third match, things started setting quickly for an American win.
First, Rose Zhang, already 5 Up in her match, knocked her second shot on the par-5 14th in the middle of the green with a 5-wood and then watched as her ball swung around a slope and rolled right by the hole, stopping just a few feet below it. Her opponent, Carlota Ciganda, the hero of last year’s Cup retention for the Europeans in her home country, also hit the green in two but conceded the match, 6 and 4, when her eagle putt never scared the hole.
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Moments later, Allisen Corpuz, who herself made a long birdie putt at 14 to secure a half point, closed out Anna Nordqvist on the next hole 4 and 3 to get the U.S. to 13 points. Agonizingly close to victory
But then that’s where the run of red halted for a moment. Of the seven remaining matches, Lexi Thompson was the only American leading and the rest were either tied or slim European leads. At one point, five of those final seven matches were tied as things came down to the wire.
The next points wouldn’t go on the board for more than an hour, when Andrea Lee birdied the 16th to tie her match with Esther Henseleit and ground out the half-point with a four-footer for par at the last.
But in the next tied match that came to 18, Thompson, who lost her lead when Celine Boutier birdied the 15th hole, lost the full point to Boutier when the Frenchwoman knocked her approach at the last to just five feet and made the putt to give the Europeans hope.
It still left the U.S. with 14 points, just a half point from clinching victory, meaning the stage was set for Lauren Coughlin, after the best season by far of her professional career, to earn the clincher in her home state.
She left herself a birdie putt on 18, but after her opponent, Maja Stark ran her birdie putt 10 feet past, Coughlin didn’t get the putt, which would have won the Solheim Cup, to the hole. Stark then buried the comebacker to preserve any European chance at the win again.
At the same time, Leona Maguire closed out Ally Ewing 4 and 3, but that still meant the Europeans needed to sweep all the remaining matches to retain the Cup and come out with the second straight tie.
But the next match to come to the 18th hole was Vu and Valenzuela where Vu finally stifled the European comeback effort.
The last two matches on the course ended shortly thereafter with USA’s Jennifer Kupcho defeating Europe’s Linn Grant 2 and 1 and Grant’s fellow Swede Madelene Sagstrom beating American Sarah Schmelzel 1 Up.
Singles Sunday turned out to be an anomaly compared to the rest of the matches. After just four matches reached the 18th hole Friday and Saturday — none ending in a draw — five of the 12 matches reached the final hole Sunday, resulting in three ties.
