Nelly Korda waits on the 15th green during Day Two of the Solheim Cup. | Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images
Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz led the way for Team USA on Saturday morning, but the teams split the session, winning two matches apiece.
Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz dominated, thus giving Team USA an easy point at the Solheim Cup on Saturday morning.
They began their match against Georgia Hall and Celine Boutier with two straight birdies, a harbinger of things to come.
Korda and Corpuz would win 5 & 3, ending the match on the 15th green with another birdie.
“Allisen and I just played really well the past two days,” Korda said after the match. “I think we just bonded really well on the golf course. We didn’t make too many mistakes, especially today, and we rolled in a lot of putts.”
“I think Nelly is really calm, which is kind of what I need,” Corpuz added. “I play pretty low energy. Obviously, she has the experience as well. So just knowing that having someone like her by my side has helped me a lot to get comfortable.”
The Americans looked more than comfortable on Saturday morning.
Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images
Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz celebrate after closing out the match on the 15th green.
They were off and running in the third match in foursomes, as Korda and Corpuz quickly found themselves 2-up through two holes.
Hall and Boutier then made a birdie at the par-5 4th hole, which got the match back down to one, but the Americans roared back with two consecutive victories on the 6th and 7th holes to extend their lead to 3-up.
The match would get no closer than that the rest of the way.
It is not as if Korda and Corpuz were playing against Europe’s weak link, either.
Boutier, who won the Amundi Evian Championship this past July, was arguably the best female player on the planet all summer.
Hall, meanwhile, won the 2018 Women’s Open and is a tremendous player in her own right.
But Boutier and Hall were outclassed by Korda and Corpuz, who hit plenty of clutch shots, with none more significant than on the opening hole.
“Mistakes are okay,” Korda said when asked about hitting big-time shots. “Then, I just [have] to be fearless.”
No other match on Saturday morning was as lopsided as this one.
In the first match of the day, Emily Pedersen, who recorded a hole-in-one Friday, and Carlota Ciganda of Team Europe defeated Jennifer Kupcho and Lilia Vu, 2 & 1.
“It was just great. It felt good to go out early,” Pedersen said afterward. “We wanted to go out early and get that one point so we can get up and get ahead of the Americans. So it was good.
The other two matches in the morning foursome session extended all the way to the 18th green, with each team winning 1-up.
Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang defeated Leona Maguire and Anna Nordqvist to earn a point for the Americans. It was all tied on the par-3 17th, but Thompson and Khang made a par while the Europeans made a bogey to give the Americans the edge.
“Lexi’s a beast,” Khang said after the match.
“Yeah, we were ready to go,” Thompson added.
The morning’s final group also saw the match tied on the par-3 17th. But the Super Swedes, Linn Grant and Maja Stark, made a birdie to put themselves ahead by one going into the 18th. Stark holed the putt to put the Europeans ahead.
Danielle Khang and Andrea Lee made par and could not win the final hole, thus giving Europe the point. Both teams birdied the 18th.
After day one, the Americans held a 5-to-3 lead, but the margin remains the same midway through Saturday. Team USA has a 7-to-5 lead as foursomes are underway at Finca Cortesín in Malaga, Spain.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
