The U.S. celebrating its Solheim Cup victory Sunday.
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Lilia Vu hasn’t had the season she needed. Battling a again damage, she was unable to defend the primary of her two main titles from a yr in the past, the Chevron Championship.
However the World No. 2 got here again and received, claiming an LPGA title in June.
On the Solheim Cup on Sunday, Vu confirmed extra resolve.
Going through a 2-down deficit with two holes to play towards Albane Valenzuela, Vu birdied the seventeenth, then knocked her method at 18 to just some toes, successful the ultimate two holes to tie her match — incomes a halve that couldn’t have been extra essential.
That ended up being the clinching half level for the Individuals’ first Solheim Cup victory since 2017. Coming into the day with a four-point lead, the U.S. ended up with a closer-than-expected win of 15.5 to 12.5.
The U.S. victory got here barely later than anticipated after Charley Hull of England delivered probably the most sudden rout of the occasion. Within the first match of Sunday singles, Hull dominated World No. 1 Nelly Korda, by no means trailing in a 6-and-4 romp.
Whereas Hull did her job, there was a small wave of pink that got here afterward.
Within the second match, Megan Khang capped off her second-consecutive undefeated Solheim Cup with a lopsided victory of her personal over Emily Pedersen, who like Hull, was tied for the very best report for Staff Europe this week, going 2-2-0. Khang made 4 birdies and an eagle in simply 12 holes on her technique to a 6-and-5 win.
Whereas Georgia Corridor took care of Alison lee 4 and three within the third match, issues began setting shortly for an American win.
First, Rose Zhang, already 5 up in her match, knocked her second shot on the par-5 14th onto the center of the inexperienced with a 5-wood, after which watched as her ball swung round a slope and rolled by the outlet, stopping just some toes beneath it. Her opponent, Carlota Ciganda, the hero of final yr’s Cup retention for the Europeans in her dwelling nation of Spain, additionally hit the inexperienced in two however conceded the match, 6 and 4, when her eagle putt by no means scared the outlet.
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Moments later, Allisen Corpuz, who herself made a protracted birdie putt at 14 to safe a half level, closed out Anna Nordqvist on the following gap 4 and three to get the U.S. to 13 factors — tantalizingly near victory.
However that’s the place the run of pink halted for a second. Of the seven remaining matches, Lexi Thompson was the one American main and the remainder had been both tied or with slim European leads. At one level, 5 of these remaining seven matches had been tied.
The following factors wouldn’t go on the board for greater than an hour, when Andrea Lee birdied the sixteenth to tie her match with Esther Henseleit and floor out a half-point with a four-footer for par on the final.
However within the subsequent tied match that got here to 18, Thompson, who misplaced her lead when Celine Boutier birdied the fifteenth gap, misplaced the total level to Boutier when the Frenchwoman knocked her method on the final to simply 5 toes and made the putt to present the Europeans hope.
It nonetheless left the U.S. with 14 factors, only a half level from clinching victory, which means the stage was set for Lauren Coughlin — who has been having fun with her greatest season of her skilled profession — to earn the clincher in her dwelling state.
Coughlin had a birdie putt on 18, however after her opponent, Maja Stark, ran her birdie putt 10 toes previous, Coughlin didn’t get the would-be clinching putt to the outlet. Stark then buried the comebacker to protect any European likelihood on the win once more.
On the similar time, Leona Maguire closed out Ally Ewing 4 and three, however that also meant the Europeans wanted to comb all of the remaining matches to retain the Cup and are available out with their second straight tie.
The following match to come back to the 18th gap, although, was Vu and Valenzuela, by which Vu lastly stifled the European comeback effort.
The final two matches on the course ended shortly thereafter with American Jennifer Kupcho defeating Linn Grant 2 and 1, and Grant’s fellow Swede Madelene Sagstrom beating American Sarah Schmelzel 1 up.
Sunday’s singles session turned out to be an anomaly in comparison with the remainder of the matches. After simply 4 matches reached the 18th gap Friday and Saturday — none ending in a draw — 5 of the 12 matches reached the ultimate gap Sunday, leading to three ties.
