EUROPE TAKE FIVE-POINT LEAD WITH ONLY SOLHEIM CUP SINGLES TO PLAY

 

NEWS RELEASE FROM THE LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR

 

It was a truly stunning afternoon in Colorado as Europe enjoyed a 4-0 clean sweep of the fourballs and surged into a 10 ½ - 5 ½ lead over the USA.

And the best was saved for last as Karine Icher holed a massive putt from off the green for a birdie at the 18th to join Beatriz Recari in a one hole win over Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel.

History beckons as Liselotte Neumann’s team need 3 ½ points to retain the Cup and four points to become the first European side to win on US soil, with 12 singles to go.

Take your pick of the European heroines. How about 17-year-old Charley Hull’s birdie at the 17th that helped her partner Jodi Ewart-Shadoff to a two hole win over Paula Creamer and Lexi Thompson?

“It was a really good match and the 17th was amazing,” said the fearless Hull. “I’ve never had a hole in one and thought it was going in.”

Or how about Caroline Hedwall? The Swede has played in every session and won all four matches. Another in the singles and she will become the first player to win five out of five. 
“This is such a great week and I’ve enjoyed playing in every match and it’s always fun to win,” said Hedwall, who was also a star of the win at Killeen Castle in Ireland two years ago. 

Then there was Carlota Ciganda. All square with Azahara Munoz playing the last against Angela Stanford and Gerina Piller, the Spaniard holed a ten foot birdie putt to put another blue point on the board.  

“I love winning and I love beating the Americans,” said Ciganda. “It was definitely a tough day but we won the point and that’s the most important thing.”
Munoz also played a huge role in the win and summed up the attitude the players need to take into the singles. 

“Everybody needs to win their point,” said the Spaniard. “If we get it done then it will be really good.” 

Icher and Recari finished as the sun was setting and it was a picturesque finale to a truly fantastic day.
“It was very important to win,” said Icher. “That one point could make all the difference tomorrow. It is such a tough last hole but it was a great putt.”
It is the third time that Europe has enjoyed a series clean sweep. It happened in the first session of foursomes at Loch Lomond in 2000 and in the Saturday fourballs at Interlachen in 2002.

In the morning foursomes, Anna Nordqvist produced the shot of the week with a hole in one at the short 17th and it was a very timely blow.

Nordqvist and Hedwall had just birdied the 16th to go one up on Morgan Pressel and Jessica Korda in the top match and the fourth ace of the Swede’s career clinched a magnificent 2 and 1 win. 
Another real key for the Europeans was a half point from Catriona Matthew and Caroline Masson. 
Behind all the way from the second against Brittany Lincicome and Lizette Salas, a great second by the German and an eight foot birdie putt from Matthew secured a vital share of the spoils.

NEUMANN'S DREAM TEAM

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” declared Captain Liselotte Neumann after Europe whitewashed the USA 4-0 in the Saturday fourballs to take a 10 ½ - 5 ½ lead into the singles.

Neumann’s storm troopers need 3 ½ points from the 12 singles to retain the Cup and four to win outright.

“The girls played their hearts out,” she continued. “It’s awesome and I’m so proud of them all. I could never imagine it would look like this going into the singles. But I think we did a pretty gutsy thing this afternoon.”

Rookies Charley Hull and Jodi Ewart-Shadoff led from the front, taking the top singles against Paula Creamer and Lexi Thompson.

“I had a good feeling about them,” explained the European skipper. “I just sent them out there to put some blue on the board.
“We’ll celebrate a little tonight but then focus on tomorrow. We need to go out and try and win every match.”
US Captain Meg Mallon gave credit to the Europeans. “They had  a magical day but it was shocking for us to lose all four fourballs,” she said. “But it can still be done. We just have to go out and win enough singles.”

Day Two Results

 
Foursomes (Europe first):

Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall beat Morgan Pressel and Jessica Korda 2 and 1

Azahara Munoz and Karine Icher lost to Stacy Lewis and Paula Creamer one hole
Catriona Matthew and Caroline Masson halved with Brittany Lincicome and Lizette Salas 
Suzann Pettersen and Beatriz Recari lost to Michelle Wie and Brittany Lang 2 and 1 
 
Europe 1 ½ USA 2 ½ 
 
Fourballs (Europe first):

Jodi Ewart-Shadoff and Charley Hull beat Paula Creamer and Lexi Thompson two holes 
Azahara Munoz and Carlota Ciganda beat Gerina Piller and Angela Stanford one hole

Caroline Hedwall and Caroline Masson beat Michelle Wie and Jessica Korda 2 and 1 
Beatriz Recari and Karine Icher beat Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel one hole     
 
Europe 4 USA 0
Overall: Europe 10 ½ USA 5 ½  
 

Day Three Pairings (local times)

 

Singles: (Europe first)

12:40    Anna Nordqvist v Stacy Lewis

12:50    Charley Hull v Paula Creamer

13:00    Azahara Munoz v Brittany Lang

13:10    Carlota Ciganda v Morgan Pressel
13:20    Caroline Hedwall v Michelle Wie
13:30    Catriona Matthew v Gerina Piller

13:40    Suzann Pettersen v Lizette Salas

13:50    Giulia Sergas v Jessica Korda

14:00    Caroline Masson v Lexi Thompson

14:10    Jodi Ewart-Shadoff v Brittany Lincicome

14:20    Beatriz Recari v Angela Stanford

14:30    Karine Icher v Cristie Kerr 

 

 

PRESS CONFERENCE
  THE MODERATOR:  Delighted to have with us European team captain Liselotte Neumann.  Obviously a fantastic afternoon, a clean sweep in the four‑ball.
CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Yeah, I know.  Of course it was just a wonderful afternoon to walk away with those four points.  We could only have dreamt about that.
            And I'm just extremely happy and just extremely proud of how they all handled them self and how good they played.
            So just very happy.
 

Q.  Meg Mallon, the US captain, said she was in shock.  How would you describe your emotion?
CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Just happy.
            (Laughter.)
 
Q.  When ‑‑ would you have settled given the way the afternoon had gone, would you have been okay if that last match had ended in a halve and how much of a boost was it when that putt dropped into the cup?

CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Oh, yeah, that was just absolutely amazing.  With Cristie hitting such a great shot up there.  I mean I think that, I mean obviously getting away with the four points in the afternoon, it was just over our expectations.  I think I would have been pretty happy with a tie in the afternoon.

 

Q.  The last match or for the whole afternoon?

CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Talking about the afternoon matches.  I mean if we would have come away with a tie, like a 2‑2 in the afternoon matches I think that would have been a pretty good goal for us, since I rested all our experienced players.  We wanted to rest them for the sink he will matches, so I mean to come out with 4‑0 in the afternoon was just over our expectations.

 

Q.  Did Suzann ask to be sit down?

CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Suzann sat, Anna sat and Catriona Matthew sat out.

 

Q.  Did Suzann ask?

NEUMANN:  And Suzann.  Yeah, she was sitting out.

 

Q.  Did she ask to be sitting out?

  NEUMANN:  Yeah.  But most of them were, I mean, most of them were like, if you really need us, yeah, we can go, but, yeah, we'll, we would prefer to sit out and rest for tomorrow.  Both Anna and Catriona and everybody.  So I just figured that I it just feels like it's really important to keep some energy for single matches.  So that's what we wanted to do.  It's a big day tomorrow, it's 12 points out there, so it's not over yet.

 

Q.  Can you talk about the gutsy pairing of putting two rookies together and how did it just come to you like that that was a good idea?

NEUMANN:  No.  I had that dreamt up from the beginning since I picked Charley at the British, actually.  I already then chatted with Jodi and was kind of checking how good of a friends are you, could you imagine playing with her in a best ball.  And they were like, yeah, we're good friends, I can totally see playing with Charley.  And that actually came down to one of the captain's picks that was already in the works way back in the British when I did my picks.  I don't know, it's just, I just had this gut feeling and I went with it.

 

Q.  It worked.  So how many gut feelings did you have about tomorrow?

  NEUMANN:

            (Laughter.)  I got some good ones.
 
Q.  Talk about tomorrow.  Your lineup and your setting.
NEUMANN:  Yeah, you obviously have seen it, right, so, yeah, you know what it is.

            I think that Anna has been in that first position before and we just figured, we call her numero uno now, since she had her hole‑in‑one, so we figure we'll put her in the first spot.

            And I like playing Charley early.  She's, she did so well today going out in that first pairing and I don't know, she just has that about her.  She just kind of pops around.  And she asked me the other day, Lotta, when am I going to get nervous?  And I was like, I don't know, now?
            (Laughter.)  So I mean she's, you know, she was so cute today.  She's just like, this is like the best day of my life today when she played so well.  So we're like, we're sending her out early, she's got good energy, she's playing well.

            Azahara, Carlota, the Spanish connection there.  We'll keep them close together.  And they both wanted to go early, so it feels good.

            Then Caroline Hedwall has played so well, she's won all her matches so far.  She feels like she's in a good spot there, covered up with Catriona Matthew and Suzann Pettersen, just a really lot of strength in those three matches there.

            Giulia sat out this afternoon, so she will have some good energy tomorrow.  Caroline has played well.  Jodi played well.  And then coming down to the last matches in case it will come that far then putting Karine Icher in the end there she just really stepped up to the plate today and making that putt it just feels like a perfect finish there for us, so looking at the paper on our lineup, it looks really good, I think.

 

Q.  Carlota Ciganda was so solid this afternoon and obviously there's a reason why she won the money title last year.  She struggled so much yesterday, was that an aberration of the way she plays?

CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  She struggled yesterday and up to just about an hour before we decided who was going to play this afternoon I wasn't even quite sure we were going to play her, actually.  But her coach/teacher is here and Annika, they actually went up on the driving range about 10, 10:30 today and had a little bit of a session and just worked on her setup and her tempo and the ball position.  And they just figured out a couple little things that just made a difference I think.  And after that session.  I think they were up there for about 30 minutes and Annika called in and said, she's ready to go.  So that's when we put her in.  So, and she did really, really well.

 

Q.  There was an incident on the 7th over conceding a putt, when Paula had a meaningless putt to give Lexi a read.  Which I'm sure you're aware of.  But Meg had said that Annika had been the one to recommend that they concede and there was a discussion about assistants giving advice.  Do you have any thoughts on that?

NEUMANN:  I think Annika just sort of felt like this is sort of what you do in the game.  You give someone a putt that was short enough.  And I think putting out, Charley and Jodi, I think they weren't quite sure, should we give this putt to them or not.  And I think that it sounded like someone had turned around and said what do we do?  And she said, yeah, you give the putt.  It's like don't make them putt the short little putt or something.

            I wasn't there, so I'm not a hundred percent sure how it all worked out, but I guess she was sort of you know that's something you do, you give them the putt.  So I guess that's what happened.

 

Q.  How do you keep your team from celebrating too early?

NEUMANN:  I don't know.  I don't know where they are right now.  They're on the bus back going crazy probably.  No, but no, it's obviously a long ways to go, so just kidding.  They are going back to the hotel now and obviously having some dinner and Annika and Karin is with them and as soon as we're done here we'll head back and I think we just really just got to realize that stranger things have happened.  We watched the Ryder Cup last year, I have been part of the team back in '96 when it didn't go so well.  I think that there's been other times too.  

So I think now is the time to just really sit down and for everybody just to really look at their own match and everybody's got to go out and try to win their point tomorrow and don't spend a whole lot of time looking at that board and thinking that my teammate will get the point, so they need to go out and just focus on their game tomorrow and keep doing what they have been doing, just hitting the fairways and greens and just putting some pressure on the U.S. team.

Q.  How meaningful would it be to be the first captain of a European victory in America?

NEUMANN:  You know, it would just be amazing feeling.  I know when I took on this job, I think I said it before, and it was our goal, it's obviously my dream, to be able to win this cup over here for the first time.  So to make some history it will be amazing.

Q.  Lotta, try and sum up that day for me if you will.

NEUMANN:  It's a wonderful feeling.  These girls played their hearts out.  It's awesome, it was a fantastic afternoon.  I'm so proud of them. 

Q.  You've always been positive about your chances here, but did you ever envision this sort of score line?

  NEUMANN:  No, but you can only hope and wish.  But, no, you're right, I couldn't imagine that it was going to look like this coming into the singles.

But I think that we did a pretty gutsy thing today, this afternoon, resting some of the girls, because I knew how important the singles were going to be tomorrow.  And sitting out Catriona and Anna and Suzann, and I knew they really needed to be rested for the singles.  But to think these girls were just going to step up to the plate like this and take all the matches in the afternoon?  It's unbelievable.

 

Q.  You sent out two rookies in the first match.  You basically gave them the job of getting the momentum.  Could you believe how well they played?

NEUMANN:  I saw that pairing when I picked Charley back in the British.  I just had a feeling about them.  I just wanted to play them and they didn't figure yesterday being the two, but after they played yesterday, they got a match in there and they were the perfect one to just send out there in the morning.  They were rested, they had time to practice and I just wanted them to go out there and put some blue only the board.

Q.  There's still work to do.  What will your message be to your team tonight?

  NEUMANN:  Well, obviously now we're just going to celebrate a little bit here, but then obviously starting up for tomorrow we'll have to go back and just really focus in on the matches.  Like you said, stranger things have happened.  So we just really got to focus back and just try to do the same thing tomorrow.  Go out and win every match.

Q.  Does this situation affect your singles (order) at all?

NEUMANN:  It might.  We haven't really talked about it.  Coming in with a big lead like this, we might need to discuss it some more though.