{"id":845765,"date":"2026-09-12T23:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T23:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/845765\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T23:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T23:48:14","slug":"fault-in-europes-stars-lottie-woad-charley-hull-fall-again-as-u-s-ties-up-solheim-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/845765\/","title":{"rendered":"Fault in Europe’s stars? Lottie Woad, Charley Hull fall again as U.S. ties up Solheim Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

CROMVOIRT, Netherlands \u2013 When Lottie Woad\u2019s birdie try came a few revolutions short of falling at the last, ensuring Europe\u2019s superstar pairing the wrong kind of Solheim Cup history on Saturday evening at Bernardus Golf, European captain Anna Nordqvist whispered into her radio to inform the rest of the team of the disappointing news:<\/p>\n

Woad and partner Charley Hull had lost, again.<\/p>\n

In fact, of the 43 competitors to ever play all four team sessions in a single edition, Woad and Hull are the first two not to earn a full point. That they went 0-3-1 together made it especially shocking.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t matter who wins the points,\u201d Woad said. \u201cI would happily lose my matches if we win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forty minutes later, that task became noticeably tougher.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Kupcho closed with two heroic birdie makes, including a 90-footer on the penultimate hole, to flip the anchor match for the Americans, who took the session 3-1 and drew level with the home team, 8-8, heading into Sunday singles.<\/p>\n

Considering its dominance in the closing format (25 points better than the Europeans since the event\u2019s inception), the U.S. now has significant momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you go up against their best, you continue to play well and put points up, it\u2019s big,\u201d said U.S. captain Angela Stanford.<\/p>\n

Nordqvist, meanwhile, faces at least one significant question: Will her commitment to \u201ctrusting the process\u201d cost Europe this Solheim Cup?<\/p>\n

In shades of legendary hockey coach Herb Brooks, Nordqvist kept the message consistent for her winless top-10 duo at Saturday\u2019s lunch break.<\/p>\n

Again!<\/p>\n

She was refusing to bench them or break them up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was Plan A,\u201d Woad, Europe\u2019s top talent at seventh in the world rankings, said of her playing four times alongside the eighth-ranked Hull.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Solheim<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the Saturday afternoon fourballs played out at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

And to be fair, neither Woad nor Hull, aside from their occasionally uncooperative putters, struggled. They teamed to shoot 18 under in 64 holes.<\/p>\n

Their opponents were a combined 31 under, with Yealimi Noh and Andrea Lee accounting for nearly a third of that (10 under) on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t really fault each of our games,\u201d Hull said. \u201cJust couldn\u2019t buy a putt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Woad: \u201cEveryone\u2019s played amazing when we\u2019ve played them. So, yeah, it\u2019s just match play, isn\u2019t it? You can play bad and win and play well and lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Nordqvist\u2019s steadfast plan, or so she maintains, produced little success.<\/p>\n

Sure, the European skipper rode the heatwave from the scorching Swedish pair of Maja Stark and Linn Grant, who improved to 3-0 and earned their first fourball point together. But she also broke up 2-0 rookie duo Natasia Nadaud and Mimi Rhodes, sitting Rhodes and pairing Nadaud with Leona Maguire, also 2-0 but in foursomes, and handed veteran Carlota Ciganda her 11th different Solheim partner while choosing to shelve the long-hitting Julia Lopez Ramirez for a third time in four sessions.<\/p>\n

In a way it seemed as if Nordqvist had entrusted Stanford to do her pairings for her.<\/p>\n

Stanford didn\u2019t repeat any fourball partnerships either, though her decisions were more out of necessity. Angel Yin clearly has not been 100% as she sat both Saturday sessions, world No. 1 Nelly Korda historically never goes all five frames (and she was 1-1-1 anyway), and Alison Lee, despite being the only 3-0 player on either side, was visibly exhausted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve had a good plan all week, sticking to it,\u201d Nordqvist said. “… I had a good idea what I was going to do. There wasn\u2019t really much switching in my mind going on. I feel like we had a lot of good players.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no big decisions on Sunday aside from the order of play.<\/p>\n

Hull will lead off against Megan Khang.<\/p>\n

Woad draws rookie Auston Kim in the eighth of 12 matches.<\/p>\n

Despite hanging level so far, it\u2019s unlikely Europe can win the 20th Solheim Cup if neither win their match. It may even require of its stars two points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of it is just for them to keep doing what they have been doing,\u201d Nordqvist said. \u201cWe\u2019re playing the best players in the world from both teams, so it\u2019s going to be some tough matches, going to be a lot of good golf not being rewarded. That\u2019s just golf. We see in match play it\u2019s such a fine line by making a putt when you need it the most, getting the momentum, getting a good bounce. So I think they\u2019re doing everything they can, or, everything right, but they just haven\u2019t really holed those momentum putts this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I have full trust and confidence in them and … I\u2019m looking forward to see them play tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunday at Bernardus Golf means it\u2019s finally time for singles matches at the Solheim Cup! Here\u2019s who will be going head-to-head on Day 3 in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CROMVOIRT, Netherlands \u2013 When Lottie Woad\u2019s birdie try came a few revolutions short of falling at the last,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-845765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}