Korda Rally keeps USA four points ahead of Europe at Solheim Cup

Top seed Nelly Korda staged a comeback win and the USA held off a European comeback to take an 8-4 lead after foursome matches on Saturday morning at the Solheim Cup.

Korda, who has won the LPGA six times this season, and Allisen Corpuz took a decisive 1-up victory over Spain's Carlota Ciganda and Denmark's Emily Pedersen to share the first points at 2-2 ahead of four-ball matches on Saturday afternoon at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

“We have the number one in the world and it helps a lot when she plays well,” said US captain Stacy Lewis.

Korda and Corpuz became the first duo to win four Cup foursomes in a row after taking a perfect win in Spain last year and this week.

“Nelly played really solid all day,” Corpuz said. “Every time you play with Nelly, you feel like everything will turn out well eventually. You just have to be patient.”

Korda added: “She said I played great today, but so did she and we're a really good team.”

The Americans secured a four-point lead with a 3-1 win in foursomes and fourball on Friday, moving one step closer to their first Cup win since 2017. Defending champions Europe now need a comeback in fourball and the final 12 singles matches on Sunday to win the Cup for the fourth year in a row.

“It shows,” said Lewis. “This finish has given us some momentum again.”

Korda, who has never played in a U.S. Cup winning field, and Corpuz trailed on two of the first three holes but caught up on the back nine to improve their record to four wins and a tie in nine matches in which they trailed by two or more holes.

Korda sank a seven-foot birdie putt to win on hole 10, and a European bogey on hole 13 tied the match. Korda sank a 20-foot eagle putt with a right punch to win hole 14 for the first U.S. lead.

A US bogey on hole 15 again tied the match, but Pedersen missed a par putt and lost hole 17, and the final hole was halved.

Lauren Coughlin, who won her first LPGA titles at the Canadian Open in July and the Scottish Open in August, improved her record to 3-0 and matched the best U.S. rookie start with a never-behind 4&3 victory with Lexi Thompson over England's Georgia Hall and Sweden's Maja Stark.

“It was incredible,” said Coughlin. “It was fantastic and I enjoyed every minute.”

Europe reached a draw in the session as Sweden's Anna Nordqvist and France's Celine Boutier defeated second-placed Lilia Vu and Sarah Schmelzel 4&3. The US duo had started with five bogeys in a row and were 4-0 down, from which they could not recover.

“It's nice to see some blue on the board,” Nordqvist said. “We just have to keep doing our best.”

The other European victory was a 1-up thriller by Germany's Esther Henseleit and England's Charley Hull over Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho. Henseleit's approach shot landed just inches from the hole on the 18th and they took the final shot to win.

“Esther just completely stiffened it to half a foot, and I was grateful for that,” Hull said.

At the beginning, loud fans filled the stands at the first tee after more buses prevented a repeat of Friday's hours-long wait for spectators to get from the parking lots to the course.

js/ea