Lexi Thompson and Cristie Kerr earned a point for the US to trail Europe 8-5 in the Solheim Cup before the other four-ball matches were suspended on Saturday due to bad light.
The US duo defeated Spanish pair Carlota Ciganda and Azahara Munoz three and two to reduce the Europeans’ lead after a good morning for the home team.
“We knew where we stood going into the afternoon. It didn’t really change our mindset,” Thompson said. “We knew we made a good team with the matches that we’ve played together. We just went out and played aggressive.”
The US held a slight advantage in the three remaining four-ball matches, which were to be resumed yesterday morning at Golf Club St Leon-Rot.
Rookie Alison Lee and Brittany Lincicome were one up after 15 holes against England’s Charley Hull and Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, who missed a birdie to match Lee on the last hole played before darkness intervened.
Stacy Lewis rediscovered her form as she and Gerina Piller were one up over Germany’s Caroline Masson and Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall after 16 holes played.
Catriona Matthew of Scotland gave the Europeans reason to celebrate when she birdied the 15th hole to leave her and Karine Icher of France one up against the US’ Brittany Lang and Lizette Salas with three holes to play.
“At least we have a little bit of red on the board. I haven’t seen much of that the last few days, but we need to finish. We need to buckle down and get those last two holes,” US captain Juli Inkster said.
Earlier on Saturday, Hull and Pettersen recovered from four down to win one up against Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel, as Europe took a commanding 8-4 lead from the morning’s foursome matches.
Creamer and Pressel were four up and comfortable after the 11th hole of their foursome match, but the European pair birdied the next and finished with four straight birdies to give the home team all the momentum going into the afternoon’s four-ball matches.
“I was just buzzing,” Hull said.
The 19-year-old from England swatted away an insect and almost holed an ace on the 15th, where Pettersen started the four-birdie run.
“I told Charley, let’s throw darts at the pins, stay aggressive,” Pettersen said. “This one was a robbery.”
Home favorite Sandra Gal and Matthew then defeated Lincicome and Angela Stanford one up to deal the US another blow.
Melissa Reid of England played a big part in the early European dominance on her 28th birthday.
Reid rejoined partner Ciganda to storm to a four and three win over Lee and Michelle Wie in their foursome match, which had also been suspended on Friday due to bad light.
In the other carried-over four-ball match, Piller and Lang pulled level with German pair Gal and Caroline Masson, who had been one up through 15 holes, to halve another point.
Lewis and Piller provided the US with their only full point from the morning thanks to a five and four victory over Swedish duo Anna Nordqvist and Hedwall.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB