DEN BOSCH, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Nelly Korda played like the world No. 1 in a record-setting partnership with Allisen Corpuz, helping the Americans split the opening foursomes 2-2 with Team Europe in a loud and wet start to the Solheim Cup in the Netherlands on Friday.<\/p>\n
The early soundtrack to Day 1 \u2014 party music and chants just after dawn on a typically boisterous first tee \u2014 quickly turned into cheers from visiting American fans around a gloomy Bernardus Golf as Korda and Corpuz dominated the star-studded opening match against Europe\u2019s best top players, Charley Hull and Lottie Woad.<\/p>\n
With their 4-and-3 win, the U.S. pairing claimed a fifth straight win \u2014 an unprecedented feat at the Solheim Cup.<\/p>\n
When Alison Lee and Lauren Coughlin put more red on the board by beating Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Alison Lee as rain started to fall, the United States had two of the 14 points needed to take the crystal trophy back across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n
Europe rallied, though, with victories in the final two matches of the session.<\/p>\n
The Swedish pairing of Maja Stark and Linn Grant went 4 up after seven holes and wound up winning 3 and 2 against Rose Zhang and Jennifer Kupcho.<\/p>\n
Then, in the only match that went beyond the 16th hole, Esther Henseleit and Leona Maguire \u2014 who were also never behind \u2014 completed a 2-up win over Andrea Lee and Lindy Duncan on No. 18.<\/p>\n
Korda and Maguire deliver \u2014 again<\/p>\n
Korda is one of 12 players in the American team this week but is carrying the expectations of a nation.<\/p>\n
She delivered early and improved her Solheim Cup record to 11-5-1, the kind of points tally Tiger Woods wished he\u2019d had in Ryder Cups.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always make the joke to Nelly \u2014 it\u2019s so nice to be 30 yards ahead of where I would be on my own drive,\u201d Corpuz said. \u201cIt just makes the hole so much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Korda and Corpuz combined for the first time in Spain in 2023, winning two points, and did so again in a winning U.S cause in Virginia the following year.<\/p>\n
They were 1 down after the first hole here, after Woad poured in a 15-footer for birdie, but the Americans only lost one more hole in the rest of the match.<\/p>\n
As for Maguire, she moved to a 9-3-1 record, the best by any European player who has played at least five matches. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve been just very fortunate to have great partners,\u201d the Irishwoman said.<\/p>\n
Party atmosphere on first tee<\/p>\n
The first tee is always the place to be in these big teams events and it lived up to its billing Friday inside the horseshoe-shaped grandstand containing around 3,000 spectators.<\/p>\n
U.S. captain Angela Stanford danced onto the tee after emerging from the tunnel. Stark and Grant swayed their hips to ABBA\u2019s \u201cDancing Queen.\u201d Duncan, a 35-year-old rookie who never expected to play a Solheim Cup, took video with her cell phone. Maguire teed off after chants of \u201cWe\u2019ve got Maguire, USA is terrified!\u201d and cheers for each of her practice swings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re living the dream,\u201d European captain Anna Nordqvist said of the players, \u201cand as a golfer it doesn\u2019t get better than this.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was all very jovial, though, with respectful silence for each drive in front of a banner that read: \u201cDutch Courage. European Glory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pairings for afternoon four-balls <\/p>\n
1:05 p.m. (7:05 a.m. EDT\/1105 GMT) \u2014 Yealimi Noh and Angel Yin, United States, vs. Charley Hull and Lottie Woad, Europe.<\/p>\n
1:20 p.m. (7:20 a.m. EDT\/1120 GMT) \u2014 Megan Khang and Alison Lee, United States, vs. Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Celine Boutier, Europe.<\/p>\n
1:35 p.m. (7:35 a.m. EDT\/1135 GMT) \u2014 Allisen Corpuz and Auston Kim, United States, vs. Mimi Rhodes and Nastasia Nadaud, Europe.<\/p>\n
1:50 p.m. (7:50 a.m. EDT\/1150 GMT) \u2014 Nelly Korda and Lauren Coughlin, United States, vs. Carlota Ciganda and Julia Lopez Ramirez, Europe.<\/p>\n
The United States has an 11-7-1 advantage in a series that dates to 1990.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full golf coverage here <\/p>\n
Steve Douglas, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEN BOSCH, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Nelly Korda played like the world No. 1 in a record-setting partnership with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-891784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}