It was a truly stunning afternoon in Colorado as Europe enjoyed a 4-0 clean sweep of the fourballs and surged into a 10 \u00bd – 5 \u00bd lead over the USA.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
History beckons as Liselotte Neumann\u2019s team need 3 \u00bd points to retain the Cup and four points to become the first European side to win on US soil, with 12 singles to go.<\/p>\n
Take your pick of the European heroines. How about 17-year-old Charley Hull\u2019s birdie at the 17th that helped her partner Jodi Ewart-Shadoff to a two hole win over Paula Creamer and Lexi Thompson?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really good match and the 17th was amazing,\u201d said the fearless Hull. \u201cI\u2019ve never had a hole in one and thought it was going in.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is such a great week and I\u2019ve enjoyed playing in every match and it\u2019s always fun to win,\u201d said Hedwall, who was also a star of the win at Killeen Castle in Ireland two years ago. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love winning and I love beating the Americans,\u201d said Ciganda. \u201cIt was definitely a tough day but we won the point and that\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Munoz also played a huge role in the win and summed up the attitude the players need to take into the singles. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody needs to win their point,\u201d said the Spaniard. \u201cIf we get it done then it will be really good.\u201d <\/p>\n
Icher and Recari finished as the sun was setting and it was a picturesque finale to a truly fantastic day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very important to win,\u201d said Icher. \u201cThat one point could make all the difference tomorrow. It is such a tough last hole but it was a great putt.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s career clinched a magnificent 2 and 1 win. <\/p>\n
Another real key for the Europeans was a half point from Catriona Matthew and Caroline Masson. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
NEUMANN’S DREAM TEAM<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful feeling,\u201d declared Captain Liselotte Neumann after Europe whitewashed the USA 4-0 in the Saturday fourballs to take a 10 \u00bd – 5 \u00bd lead into the singles.<\/p>\n Neumann\u2019s storm troopers need 3 \u00bd points from the 12 singles to retain the Cup and four to win outright.<\/p>\n \u201cThe girls played their hearts out,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome and I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Rookies Charley Hull and Jodi Ewart-Shadoff led from the front, taking the top singles against Paula Creamer and Lexi Thompson.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a good feeling about them,\u201d explained the European skipper. \u201cI just sent them out there to put some blue on the board.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll celebrate a little tonight but then focus on tomorrow. We need to go out and try and win every match.\u201d<\/p>\n US Captain Meg Mallon gave credit to the Europeans. \u201cThey had a magical day but it was shocking for us to lose all four fourballs,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it can still be done. We just have to go out and win enough singles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was a truly stunning afternoon in Colorado as Europe enjoyed a 4-0 clean sweep of the fourballs and surged into a 10 \u00bd – 5 \u00bd 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfcircus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}