Just because there\u2019s no \u201ci\u201d in team doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t rate the individuals on a roster. That in mind, here\u2019s a report card for every player (plus the captains) on each squad in this week\u2019s Solheim Cup, which Europe won 15-13 after winning six of the first eight singles matches on Sunday.<\/p>\n
TEAM USA\u2018S GRADES<\/p>\n
Allisen Corpuz (1-3-0) \u2014\u00a0Alongside Nelly Korda in Friday foursomes, Corpuz took out Europe\u2019s top team of Charley Hull and Lottie Woad. But in Sunday singles, placed in the critical meat of the lineup, she ran out of steam on the back nine against Nanna Koerstz Madsen.\u00a0Grade: C<\/p>\n
Lauren Coughlin (3-1-1) \u2014\u00a0Aside from the undefeated Alison Lee, no American earned more points than Coughlin, who appeared in all five sessions and backed up her rock-solid play in fourball and foursomes by handing Leona Maguire a rare Solheim Cup loss. Grade: A<\/p>\n
Lindy Duncan (2-1-0) \u2014\u00a0At 35, Duncan was the oldest player on U.S. side, and she showed veteran poise in her first Solheim Cup, knocking off Maja Stark on Sunday to hand the Swede her only loss of the week. Grade: A-<\/p>\n
Megan Khang (1-2-0) \u2014 Despite recent struggles on the LPGA Tour, Khang was a slam-dunk captain\u2019s pick, given her sterling Solheim Cup record and her contributions to team chemistry. In partner play, Khang was her usual plucky self. But her eight-match win streak was snapped on Saturday, and she fell to Charley Hull in Sunday\u2019s tone-setting opening match. Grade: C<\/p>\n
Auston Kim (1-3-0) \u2014 Give Kim credit for her fire on Sunday, when she fought back from 4 down to put a scare in Europe\u2019s top-ranked player. But Lottie Woad still won the vital point. A grade of C means average, and that\u2019s what the week was for Kim. Grade: C<\/p>\n
Nelly Korda (2-1-1) \u2014\u00a0Korda lost one match \u2014 in partner play against the Swedish buzzsaw of Linn Grant and Maja Stark \u2014 and sat out Saturday afternoon. Otherwise, the World No. 1 did most everything that was asked of her, bagging 2.5 points, including a Sunday singles win over Mimi Rhodes. Grade: B+<\/p>\n
Jennifer Kupcho (1-3-0) \u2014\u00a0On the one hand, Kupcho supplied her team with the week\u2019s most electric moment with a pair of closing birdies in Saturday fourballs. On the other, the player known to some as Clutch-cho came away with just one point for the week. Grade: B-<\/p>\n
Alison Lee (4-0-0)\u00a0 \u2014 The top point-earner for team USA, Lee shined all week, at no point brighter than on Sunday, when she fought back from 4 down to win her singles match over Esther Henseleit. Grade: A<\/p>\n
Andrea Lee C (1-3-0) \u2014 With her partner, Yealimi Noh, Lee got a big win on Saturday afternoon over Hull and Woad. But on Sunday she fell to Solheim Cup rookie Nastasia Nadaud to remain winless in three tries in Solheim singles. Grade: C<\/p>\n
Yealimi Noh B (1-1-1) \u2014\u00a0Noh sparkled in partner play, but left alone in the spotlight on Sunday, she stumbled against Solheim Cup rookie Julia L\u00f3pez Ram\u00edrez.\u00a0Grade: B<\/p>\n
Angel Yin (0-1-1) \u2014 Stricken with stomach issues for much of the summer, Yin was the biggest question mark for the Americans heading into the competition. But she was keen to play, and U.S. captain Angela Stanford went with her instead of potential alternate Lilia Vu. Trying to gut it out did not go well for Yin. After earning a half point on Friday, she sat out all day Saturday and was out of sorts in Sunday singles, falling 4 and 3 to Linn Grant. Grade: C- (but A for grit!)<\/p>\n
Rose Zhang (2-2-0) \u2014\u00a0Entrusted with the anchor match on Sunday, Zhang earned a full point. It\u2019s not her fault that it didn\u2019t matter. She was more than steady enough throughout the competition to justify her place as a captain\u2019s pick. Grade: B<\/p>\n
Captain: Angela Stanford \u2014\u00a0For golf fans, second-guessing is second nature, but Stanford made it easier than usual by sticking with a recently ailing \u2014 and clearly out-of-form \u2014 Angela Yin, when she could have gone with alternate, Lilia Vu. Stanford then gave doubters even more ammunition by showing little faith in Yin, playing her just once in the first two days. Would Vu have made a difference? We\u2019ll never know. But it\u2019s fair to ask the question, anyway. Stanford also critiqued herself after the loss for not selling her players, who left many putts shorts, on the slowness of the greens. \u201cI\u2019m a little frustrated with myself that I didn\u2019t drive that point home,\u201d she said. Grade: C<\/p>\n
TEAM EUROPE\u2018S GRADES<\/p>\n
C\u00e9line Boutier (0-4-0) \u2014\u00a0It was a subpar showing for the Solheim Cup veteran but as they say in her home country, c\u2019est la vie. Her lone win of the week came via the team\u2019s, which is the one win that really counts. Grade: C-<\/p>\n
Carlota Ciganda (1-1-1) \u2014\u00a0Ciganda wasn\u2019t always on her A game, except when it really mattered. Unflinching in key moments, particularly with her putter, she beat Saturday\u2019s hero, Jennifer Kupcho, handily in singles and proved herself once more to have the nerves and toughness of Seve. Grade: B+<\/p>\n
Linn Grant (3-1-0) \u2014 How Swede it was! After going undefeated in partner play alongside countrywoman Maja Stark, Grant \u2014 who went 0-4 two years ago \u2014\u00a0kept it up on her own, overwhelming Angel Yin in singles as part of an early blue European wave. Grade: A<\/p>\n
Esther Henseleit (2-1-0) \u2014 After going 4 up in Sunday singles, Henseleit fell in stunning fashion to a hard-charging Alison Lee. But when she looks at her record and the team results, that ought to ease the sting. Grade: B<\/p>\n
Charley Hull (1-3-1) \u2014 Match-play records can be deceptive, and Hull\u2019s performance was a case in point. Winless in four tries with partner Lottie Woad, she blamed red-hot opponents and a cold putter for results that she felt did not reflect the quality of her play. Fair enough. But her week still would have counted as a disappointment if not for the crucial role she played on Sunday, overwhelming Megan Khang as she set the pace for Europe in the lead singles match. Grade: B<\/p>\n
Nanna Koerstz Madsen (1-2-0) \u2014\u00a0Team Europe\u2019s best putter lost her first two matches, but all is forgiven \u2014 and forgotten \u2014 with her clutch win in singles over Allisen Corpuz.\u00a0Grade: B-<\/p>\n
Leona Maguire (2-1-1)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Though she suffered a rare loss in Sunday singles, Maguire was mostly up to her usual mischief, claiming two other matches to become the fastest player to reach 10 career wins in the history of the Solheim Cup. Grade: B+<\/p>\n
Nastasia Nadaud (3-1-0) \u2014\u00a0The youngest player in the competition, the 21-year-old captain\u2019s pick announced herself quickly with strong play in foursomes. On Sunday, she proved that it was no fluke, toppling Andrea Lee 3 and 2.\u00a0Grade: A-<\/p>\n
Julia L\u00f3pez Ram\u00edrez (1-0-1) \u2014\u00a0A Solheim Cup rookie and a captain\u2019s pick, L\u00f3pez Ram\u00edrez played just once over the first two days. But on Sunday she showed a steeliness in match play that seems to run in Spanish blood, beating Yealimi Noh 3 and 2.\u00a0Grade: A-<\/p>\n
Mimi Rhodes (2-1-0) \u2014\u00a0The Solheim Cup rookie drew a tough card on Sunday against World No. 1 Nelly Korda. But she was spotless in her other matches, in a showing that suggests she\u2019ll be back in Cups to come. Grade: B+<\/p>\n
Maja Stark (3-1-0) \u2014\u00a0As one half of a dynamic Swedish duo, Stark won three partner matches. Her lone loss came in singles again Lindy Duncan. By then, though, the Cup was already in the bag for Europe. Grade: A<\/p>\n
Lottie Woad (1-3-1) \u2014\u00a0Like Charley Hull, her sidekick in partner play, Woad had an unimpressive week on paper, earning a scant half point in her first four matches. But also like Hull, she hit the ball better than her record shows, and she came up big on Sunday, outlasting a plucky Auston Kim 2&1. Grade: B-<\/p>\n
Captain: Anna Nordqvist \u2014\u00a0Yes, the players have to hit the shots. But the captain sets the tone, and Nordqvist\u2019s steady, upbeat presence was apparent all week. It sure stood out on Saturday, after Jennifer Kupcho had rocked the Europeans with a shocking comeback win. Unfazed, Nordqvist gathered her squad in a locked-arm circle, providing a pep talk that seemed to carry over to the decisive day. Throw in the fact that three of her four captain\u2019s picks won their Sunday matches \u2014 the only loss came against World No. 1 Nelly Korda \u2014 and you could say that Nordqvist made the right moves in ways that mattered most. Grade: A<\/p>\n
This article originated on Golf.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just because there\u2019s no \u201ci\u201d in team doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t rate the individuals on a roster. That…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,13801,81984,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-771352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-leona-maguire","tag-solheim-cup","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}