Important events
Esther Henseleit shoots the ball with a sharp wedge from far into the goal line. It’s awarded for par. That leaves Allisen Corpuz with a putt for an opening birdie. Corpuz races it three feet past, but it’s awarded generously for half. A slight look of fear on Corpuz’s face washes over with relief. There’s a good chance a putt of that length won’t be awarded Sunday afternoon.
Korda/Corpuz A/S Henseleit/ Hull (1)
Charley Hull is not happy with her first shot of the week, a thin 5-iron that skids over the green and stops in the right corner. It’s not that far from the pin, but Henseleit will chip. But from the sand, Nelly Korda holds the green to the back right, and the hosts will be looking at a birdie from about 15 feet. Back on the tee, Rose Zhang and Lauren Coughlin, and Céline Boutier and Albane Valenzuela, appear for work. More chaos. There’s a great atmosphere at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.
The first foursomes match takes place on the first tee! European pair Esther Henseleit and Charley Hull are introduced first. Warm applause for rookie Henseleit, a big roar for Hull. Then there is a real RUMULT when world number one Nelly Korda is announced. The cheering for Allisen Corpuz is also not insignificant. Henseleit hits the first shot of her Solheim Cup career – and the first shot of this year’s matches – by hitting one down the fairway. Corpuz makes a slightly nervous attempt into a fairway bunker. We’re up and running, folks. This is it!
A reminder of the size
For those who feel like taking a step back this weekend, but don’t always follow the best sport in the world, we usually cut and paste the following explanation. Hey, if it’s worth reading once, it’s worth reading a dozen times. Here we go…
The Solheim Cup is a match play event. Each match is worth one point. There are 28 points available over the three days, so the first team to reach 14.5 points wins the cup. Should the score be tied at 14 points apiece, Europe retains the trophy as the current holder.
Matchplay explained for those new to the dark world of golf: In regular championships, such as the Evian or the British Open, tournaments are judged using the stroke-play system. The player who takes the fewest strokes in all four rounds of a championship wins. All strokes count and are added up for a cumulative total. So if Nelly Korda hits 63-63-63-63 and Georgia Hall hits 87-87-87-87 next year at Dinah Shore (Chevron Championship-speak for hipsters), Nelly will have taken 252 strokes and beat Georgia by 96. (Good luck betting big on this exact outcome.)
In any case, in match play, each player or team wins a hole for each hole they outperform their opponents. So if Nelly takes five on the 1st, but Georgia only needs three, Georgia goes 1up. If Georgia wins the next hole, she’s 2up. If the pair split the same number of strokes on the 3rd, the hole is halved and Georgia remains 2up. It doesn’t matter if Nelly took 13 on her way to losing the 2nd, by the way; kind of like the unwritten rule of visiting wallet-sewer-interface-venue Las Vegas, what happens on one hole, stays on one hole. There’s no domino effect.
Suppose Hall wins the first nine holes of our fantasy tournament. With nine holes played and nine remaining, she is 9up. At most, Nelly can tie; Hall cannot lose. This is known as a dormie. (And more specifically, in this slightly ridiculous example, as a dormie nine.) If Nelly wins the next nine holes, the match ends in a tie, and each team gets half a point added to their total. But if Georgia wins the 10th hole, she is 10up with eight holes to go. She has won 10&8. If the 10th hole is halved, Georgia is 9up with eight holes to go. She has won 9&8. Similarly, Nelly can be said to have lost 9&8. Europe would add one point to their total. I’ve probably made this sound a lot more complicated than it needs to be, but there it is.
There are three types of competitions: foursomes (teams of two players use one ball and take turns taking shots); fourballs (teams of two players each play one ball and take the best score, known as the better ball); and singles (this is when things get pretty wild and everyone on two continents starts doing the shallow breathing and holding their chests). And these matches are arranged in a schedule like this:
Today: four matches in the morning with foursomes; four matches in the afternoon with fourballs.
Tomorrow: four matches in the morning with foursomes; four matches in the afternoon with fourballs.
Sunday: 12 singles matches.
Preamble
Since this happened five years ago…
…and then three years ago…
…and we haven’t even gone around the sun since this happened…
…there is really no need to waste unnecessary energy making this a big deal. And yet we still can, because look at the opening match, with the world number one and the most in-form player of the European team! “It’s nice to see Charley [Hull] “She doesn’t like to sit around and wait,” says Europa captain Suzann Pettersen, and you can be pretty sure Nelly Korda has a similar mentality. So this is happening from the get-go. Leona Maguire, Georgia Hall, Megan Khang and swan song legend Lexi Thompson are also waiting in the wings, among many others. This is going to be a blast. Here we go, ladies and gentlemen. It’s on!
12.05 BST: Nelly Korda / Allisen Corpuz v Esther Henseleit / Charley Hull
12.17pm BST: Rose Zhang / Lauren Coughlin vs Céline Boutier / Albane Valenzuela
12:29 BST: Ally Ewing / Jennifer Kupcho vs. Emily Kristine Pedersen / Maja Stark
12.41 BST: Lilia Vu vs Sarah Schmelzel vs Linn Grant / Carlota Ciganda
