Morgan Pressel delivered the winning point with her 3-and-2 victory over Anna Nordqvist on Sunday, as the Americans won their third straight Solheim Cup with a 16-12 decision over Europe on Sunday.
After Nordqvist missed an 8-foot putt to keep the match alive, Pressel’s teammates, who had been watching at the side of the green, leaped up and started celebrating.
“This is so important to us,” Pressel said, wiping away tears. “It’s not about pride. It’s not about money. It’s about country. It’s about our teammates.”
PHOTO: AFP
The Americans were heavy favorites this week. They had some of the top players in the world while four of Europe’s players were ranked 125th or lower. Annika Sorenstam, Europe’s anchor the last decade, is no longer playing. And the US had won the last two Solheim Cups, and were unbeaten on US soil.
But Europe captain Alison Nicholas pulled out every trick she could this week to inspire her team, including video messages from Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal, whose “Spanish Armada” was regarded as the greatest partnership in Ryder Cup history.
Midway through Sunday afternoon, Europe was leading in six of the 12 matches.
Angela Stanford gave the Americans their first boost, beating Becky Brewerton 5 and 4 to give the US the first point of the day. Paula Creamer followed with a victory over Suzann Pettersen shortly after, and Michelle Wie rebounded to beat Helen Alfredsson 1 up.
Wie, whose 3-0-1 record was the best of any American this week, grabbed a US flag and held it aloft to cries of “Wheee!” from the crowd.
As the last three matches finished, there were shrieks of joy when the next American joined the party, and new rounds of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
When the last match was over, they ran around the 18th green hugging each other and waving American flags.
■WYNDHAM
AP, GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
Ryan Moore won with a birdie on the third hole of a sudden death playoff against Kevin Stadler on Sunday at the Wyndham Championship to capture his first title on the PGA Tour.
Moore, who vaulted up the leaderboard with five consecutive birdies on the back nine, had two chances to seal the victory after his approach on No. 18 landed in the middle of the green and rolled to 6 feet. He sank that putt for his first victory in his 112th event.
Stadler’s second shot on the third playoff hole skipped off the back of the green. He chipped within 20 feet, but his putt drifted to the low side of the cup.
That cleared the way for Moore to pick up US$918,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points for winning the final tournament before the playoffs start later this week.
■DUTCH OPEN
AP, ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS
England’s Simon Dyson came from six shots back at the start of the final round to clinch the KLM Open, beating Ireland’s Peter Lawrie and Sweden’s Peter Hedblom in a playoff on Sunday.
After claiming six birdies in his first 12 holes, Dyson carded a course record-equaling seven under 63 and then birdied the first extra hole for his second title at the Dutch Open.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier