Pat Hurst and Catriona Matthew reveal their pairings for the morning foursomes, as the 17th Solheim Cup gets underway on Saturday.
Solheim Cup – Day 1 Foursomes Pairings Revealed
12:35PM (BST): Anna Nordqvist/Matilda Castren (EUR) vs. Danielle Kang/Austin Ernst (USA)
12:47PM: Celine Boutier/Georgia Hall (EUR) vs. Ally Ewing/Megan Khang (USA)
12:59PM: Mel Reid/Leona Maguire (EUR) vs. Nelly Korda/Jessica Korda (USA)
13:11PM: Charley Hull/Emily K. Pedersen (EUR) vs. Lexi Thompson/Brittany Altomare (USA)
Related: Team Europe
Related: Team USA
Match 1
Women’s Open champion, Anna Nordqvist, will get proceedings underway alongside Finnish golfer Matilda Castren.
Nordqvist, who is making her seventh appearance at the event, will be partnered with rookie, Castren, who won her first LPGA event this year and then went on to win on the Ladies European Tour to earn Tour status and qualify for Solheim consideration.
Nordqvist claimed her third Major earlier this year. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Danielle Kang, who will be making her third appearance, and Austin Ernst, who will be making her second, have both been part of Solheim Cup sides, but have never been paired together.
The duo do have some experience of this course though; last year, Kang won the Drive On Championship which was played at Inverness Club.
Match 2
Match 2 sees arguably team Europe’s most dangerous pairing, with Celine Boutier and Georgia Hall recording a perfect 3-0 record in 2019 (with two wins in foursomes).
Captain Catriona Matthew said on Friday, “That was an obvious one, that we were going to certainly try out and put out again, this time.” Hall is 4-0 in her Solheim career in this format. Boutier is making her second appearance.
Boutier and Hall were flawless in 2019. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
The American pairing sees Ally Ewing and Megan Khang paired together. This may come as a slight shock considering the duo were both part of the ’19 squad, with Ewing going 0-1 in foursomes and Khang 0-2.
Match 3
Mel Reid, who is making her fourth appearance in this event, partners debutant Leona Maguire, who is the first player from Ireland to represent Team Europe in the Solheim Cup.
Maguire has featured in a few Junior Solheim Cups, with Reid holding a 2-2-1 record in Solheim Cup foursomes.
Their opponents will be America’s strongest pairing, with the Korda sisters (Nelly & Jessica) teaming up for the second consecutive year after forming a formidable partnership in 2019.
The Korda’s dismantled their opponents in 2019. (Photo by Andrew Redington/WME IMG/WME IMG via Getty Images)
At Gleneagles, the pair won their foursomes matches 6&4 and 6&5, with the sisters looking to replicate that at the Inverness Club.
Match 4
The final match sees Charley Hull paired with her fourth different foursomes partner, Emily Kristine Pedersen.
Hull, who is making her fifth appearance, has a great record in the foursomes, winning four and losing just one. Pedersen, on the other hand, is making her second appearance, and lost 5&3 in the 2017 foursomes; she was paired with Mel Reid that day.
The last American pair sees Lexi Thompson make her fifth appearance, with Brittany Altomare making her second Solheim Cup appearance.
Thompson makes her fifth appearance. (Photo by Bruce White/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Paired together at Gleneagles in 2019, the duo lost 2&1 to Hull and Boutier. However, Thompson does have a 2-1-1 record in this format.
With the pairings decided, Europe will feature two of their rookies, with team USA not featuring any of their three just yet.
So what did the captains have to say? Well, Matthew said this about the pairings: “I think a lot of thought goes into it. Myself and my vice captains, we bounced ideas off each other, asked the players their opinions, and I think between the four of us, we all agreed 100 percent that this was our best looking line-up for the first morning.”
Team America’s captain, Hurst, said: “We feel very confident with who we’re putting out right now, so there’s going to be some great matches.”
This article Solheim Cup – Day 1 Foursomes Pairings Revealed appeared first on Golf Monthly.