US team: The World No. 2 came back and won, which was a lot like what she did on Sunday at the Solheim Cup.
With two holes to play and two holes to go, Vu birdied the 17th and then hit her approach to the 18th hole to within a few feet. She won the last two holes to tie the match, which couldn’t have been more important.
That was the half-point that won the Americans their first Solheim Cup since 2017 and gave them 14.5 points for the week. The Americans had a four-point lead going into the day, but their win of 15.5 to 12.5 was closer than predicted.
It’s possible that the U.S. win came a little later than expected, since Charley Hull gave the most shocking loss of the whole event. World No. 1 Nelly Korda was no match for Hull in the first singles match on Sunday. Hull never trailed and won 6–4.
A small wave of red came after Hull finished her work.
Megan Khang beat Emily Pedersen easily in the second match, making it her second straight Solheim Cup without a loss. Pedersen, like Hull, had the best record for Team Europe this week, going 2-2-0. Khang beat everyone by a score of 6–5 after only 12 holes. She made four birdies and an eagle.
In the third match, Georgia Hall beat Alison Lee 4–3. Things were quickly getting ready for an American win.
First, Rose Zhang, who was already 5 up in her match, hit her second shot on the par-5 14th right in the middle of the green with a 5-wood. She then watched as her ball went around a hill and stopped just below the hole. Carlota Ciganda, her opponent, also hit the green in two. She was the star of last year’s Cup win for Europe in her home country. However, she lost the match 6–4 because her eagle putt never got close to the hole.
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Soon after, Allisen Corpuz made a long birdie putt at 14 to get a half point. She then beat Anna Nordqvist on the next hole, 4 and 3, to bring the U.S. to 13 points. Almost won but not quite
That’s where the run of red stopped for a while, though. Lexi Thompson was the only American in first place in the final seven matches. The other six were either tied or had very small European leads. Things were getting close, and at one point, five of the last seven games were tied.
It was more than an hour before anyone scored again. That was when Andrea Lee birdied the 16th to tie her match with Esther Henseleit and made a four-footer for par at the last to get the half-point.
But in the next match that went all the way to 18, Thompson lost the lead when Celine Boutier birdied the 15th hole. Boutier then won the match by a full point when she hit her last-hole approach to just five feet and made the putt to give the Europeans hope.
Even so, the U.S. still had 14 points, just one half point away from winning. This meant that Lauren Coughlin, who had the best season of her professional career so far, could win it in her home state.
Maja Stark made a birdie putt 10 feet ahead of Coughlin’s on 18, but Coughlin missed the putt that would have won the Solheim Cup. After the return, Stark stopped the ball to keep any chance for Europe to win again.
At the same time, Leona Maguire beat Ally Ewing 4–3, but the Europeans still had to win all of their remaining games to keep the Cup and secure their second straight tie.
The next match to the 18th hole, though, was between Vu and Valenzuela. Vu finally stopped the Europeans’ return attempt.
Soon after, the last two matches on the course finished. Jennifer Kupcho of the USA beat Linn Grant of Europe 2–1, and Sagstrom, a Swede who is also friends with Grant, beat Sarah Schmelzel of the USA 1–0.
The singles match on Sunday was different from the other matches. On Friday and Saturday, only four matches made it to the 18th hole, and none of them ended in a tie. On Sunday, five of the 12 matches made it to the last hole, and three of them ended in ties.
