Maja Stark and Linn Grant broke the flawless run of Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz, giving Team Europe a 7-5 advantage over the United States after Saturday's foursomes session, even though Charley Hull and Lottie Woad endured a record‑tying defeat. The opening day at Bernardus Golf saw the two sides deadlocked, a rarity that has occurred only once before in Solheim Cup history. However, the European squad seized the momentum on Saturday morning by securing three of the four points on offer, putting them in front for the first time in the competition. Korda and Corpuz entered the day with a perfect 100‑percent record in foursomes, having won five consecutive matches together.
Their streak was halted when Stark and Grant opened the morning round, delivering a decisive 3&2 victory that set the tone for Europe. Anna Nordqvist’s much‑talked‑about pairing of Hull and Woad failed to produce any points. Alison Lee, playing her third consecutive session, teamed with Lauren Coughlin to post a 6&5 win – the joint‑largest margin ever recorded in Solheim Cup foursomes. The English duo could not recover, losing four holes in a row early and never finding a foothold.
Rookie partners Mimi Rhodes and Nastasia Nadaud continued their flawless start by beating Andrea Lee and Auston Kim 4&3. Their performance marked the first time a rookie pair had won two matches together in a single Solheim Cup. Leona Maguire and Esther Henseleit then clinched a dramatic final‑hole win, ensuring Europe took the whole session. Nordqvist’s decision to field an all‑Swedish partnership paid immediate dividends.
The Swedes captured the first point, matched the Americans with a birdie on the next hole, lost the third after a birdie by the opposition, but responded by winning the following hole and never relinquishing the lead again. They added a birdie on the seventh and extended the gap when Stark chipped in for an eagle from just off the eighth green. A par on the ninth gave them a third consecutive hole, pushing the lead to four at the turn.
Korda and Corpuz attempted a comeback, winning back‑to‑back holes from the 10th onward to halve the deficit. Their hopes were dashed when Stark holed an eight‑foot birdie putt on the 16th, ending the Americans’ perfect foursomes record.
"It’s the best feeling ever," Stark said after the win. "We played solid golf both today and yesterday – it’s hard to beat when you’re not making any bogeys." Hull and Woad were kept together despite only earning half a point from two matches on Friday. The English pair fell behind early when Lee and Coughlin captured four straight holes from the fourth.
Woad managed a close‑range birdie on the eighth to level, but Lee and Coughlin responded with consecutive birdies on the back nine, sealing an emphatic victory with a par on the 13th. "I feel like we both just hit it so solid," Lee remarked.
"All I had to do was sit back and watch Lauren [Coughlin] play. She hit incredible shots into the green and made some amazing putts." Rhodes and Nadaud made history as the first rookie duo to win two matches together in a single Solheim Cup, and they did so with the largest margin ever recorded for a debutant pairing in foursomes.
"We didn’t really expect to play this morning," Nadaud admitted. "It was a great surprise yesterday.
We played very sensibly – we found lots of fairways and greens and gave ourselves opportunities." In another swing‑of‑the‑pendulum match, the American pair of Kim Kaufman and Lilia Vu (referred to as Kupcho and Zhang in the original report) surged two up after six holes. Henseleit missed three short putts but rallied when she and Maguire won three of the first four holes on the back nine, pulling Europe back into contention. Team USA fought back, taking successive holes from the 14th onward.
Maguire leveled the match on the 16th, but Europe clinched the final point when Zhang’s approach clipped the lip of a bunker on the last hole and resulted in a closing bogey. "We knew we weren’t doing a whole lot wrong," Maguire said. "We got off to a nice start, just like yesterday, and they answered with a birdie on three.
We had to stay patient and keep creating chances. Holes 10, 11 and 12 were key turning points." As the competition heads into its final day, the question looms: who will lift the Solheim Cup? The singles matches begin on Sunday at 9 am on Sky Sports Golf, with the opening match slated for 10:10 am. Fans can follow the action live, stream without a contract on NOW, or catch the latest Sky Sports offers.
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