DEN BOSCH, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Lottie Woad assured it. Carlota Ciganda \u2014 who else? \u2014 sealed it.<\/p>\n
Vamos! The Solheim Cup is back in the hands of Team Europe.<\/p>\n
The blue wave came early in the Sunday singles at Bernardus Golf and never went away, all the way through to Woad holing a putt from 2 feet on No. 17 to win her match and guarantee the Europeans would reach the 14 1\/2 points needed to reclaim the crystal trophy from the United States.<\/p>\n
Woad, one of Team Europe\u2019s four rookies, punched the air and jumped into the arms of her teammates who flooded onto the green in celebration.<\/p>\n
Within 10 minutes, Ciganda, inevitably, officially got the Europeans to the victory target.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard, who got the decisive point when Europe retained the Solheim Cup in 2023, completed a 4-and-2 victory over Jennifer Kupcho, a feisty American who had roared \u201cVamos!\u201d (\u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d) when holing an outrageous 93-foot putt on the way to beating Ciganda in a spiky four-balls match on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I knew she had no chance,\u201d Ciganda said. \u201cI was like, I want to kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strains of \u201cOl\u00e9, Ol\u00e9, Ol\u00e9, Ol\u00e9\u201d drifted across the course as the last matches finished and the European team and staff celebrated, spraying Champagne over each other and draping flags over their shoulders.<\/p>\n
Captain Anna Nordqvist, her assistants along with the players and their caddies formed a line, put their arms over one another\u2019s shoulders, and walked as one up the 18th fairway toward the green where Celine Boutier \u2014 the remaining European player on the course \u2014 was wrapping up her match.<\/p>\n
When Boutier finished, she piled into the mass celebrations.<\/p>\n
The final score in the Netherlands: Europe 15, the United States 13.<\/p>\n
To a backdrop of blue-and-yellow smoke, Nordqvist hoisted aloft the Solheim Cup on a podium in front of a first-tee grandstand filled with jubilant Team Europe fans, then gave each of her celebrating players and assistants a touch of the trophy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis feels so good,\u201d said Nordqvist, who announced her retirement from playing two weeks ago. \u201cThere\u2019s just been so much hard work this week and in the last two years leading up to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Europeans have now won three of the last five editions, the only loss in that stretch coming in Virginia two years ago. The U.S. team didn\u2019t have possession of the trophy for long and is still without a win on the road since 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Europeans played great today, and that\u2019s the way it goes,\u201d U.S. captain Angela Stanford said. \u201cTheir backs were against the wall, they had nothing to lose, and that\u2019s exactly what they did \u2014 they came out and played well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teams were tied at 8-8 after two days and set out Sunday in heavy rain for the 12 singles matches, with Europe going out fast, putting blue all over the scoreboard and ultimately winning six of the first eight matches. Ciganda, in Match 11, added the crucial other victory.<\/p>\n
Early wins for Charley Hull and Linn Grant laid the platform for victory, the only wobble for Europe coming when U.S. player Alison Lee came from 4 down after 11 holes to beat Esther Henseleit, 1 up, for the greatest comeback in Solheim Cup history.<\/p>\n
Rookies contributed massively for Europe all week and especially Sunday, with Woad, Nastasia Nadaud and Julia Lopez Ramirez all winning matches in the singles.<\/p>\n
Nadaud, a 21-year-old Frenchwoman, was a revelation this week, winning three points. Only Grant, Lee (both 4) and Lauren Coughlin (3 1\/2) collected more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s been one of the best teams that we\u2019ve had in the last few years,\u201d Ciganda said. \u201cEveryone just a unit, a team. That\u2019s what Europe is about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. leads the all-time series 11-8, with one draw.<\/p>\n
Redemption for Woad and Hull<\/p>\n
A big part of the narrative of the week was the misfiring performances of Europe\u2019s highest-ranked players.<\/p>\n
Hull and Woad, two English players, were paired in each of the first four sessions \u2014 a first for a Solheim Cup \u2014 and only contributed a half-point.<\/p>\n
Redemption came Sunday, with Hull leading from the front \u2014 she beat Megan Khan, previously undefeated in singles, 3 and 2 in Match 1 \u2014 and Woad going 4 up after nine holes against Auston Kim before winning 2 and 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s been playing so good this week and not really getting anything off of it,\u201d Nordqvist said of Woad. \u201cBut holing the winning putt, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s ever going to be hard to (forget) for her.\u201d<\/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 Lottie Woad assured it. Carlota Ciganda \u2014 who else? \u2014 sealed it. Vamos!…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-895469","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\/895469","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=895469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}