GAINESVILLE, VIRGINIA | U.S. captain Stacy Lewis said all last week how analytics shaped her decision-making at the Solheim Cup. She crunched all sorts of numbers, but there was one she stressed: winning half-points.
Her message came through loud and clear. Andrea Lee, Lauren Coughlin and Lilia Vu, who were in the sixth, eighth and ninth spots, respectively, in Sunday’s singles lineup, all halved their matches to help the Americans capture the cup for the first time since a victory in Iowa in 2017.
“This has been seven years in the making,” Lewis said after her team’s 15½-12½ victory at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club about 35 miles west of Washington, D.C.
They reached the magic number of 14½ when Lilia Vu sank a 1½-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th to halve her match with Switzerland’s Albane Valenzuela.
“I’m just so proud of them,” Lewis said.
It wasn’t easy for the Americans, despite leading 10-6 going into the final round. Allisen Corpuz, who went 3-1, earned the 13th point for the hosts when she closed out a 4-and-3 win over Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist just before 1 p.m. Eastern time. It was another 90 minutes before Vu, the second-ranked player in the world, sank the deciding putt. She won the final two holes after being 2-down with two holes left.
“That was the longest hour-and-a-half of my life,” Lewis said. “I’m not going to lie.”
Europe was trying to win or retain the cup for an unprecedented fourth consecutive time. It also was trying to match the largest comeback in singles history, which the U.S. pulled off in 2015. There were 12 captains, vice captains or players on this year’s teams who were in Germany nine years ago.
“We fell short, but we gave it a good go,” European captain Suzann Pettersen said. “We made a run for it. I’m very proud of the girls. They showed character. We had a shot. You look at the final scores, it doesn’t really relate to how close it really was.”
Coughlin finished her first Solheim Cup with a record of 3-0-1, earning 3½ points. That ties the American rookie record, shared by Paula Creamer (3-1-1) in 2005, Michelle Wie in 2009 (3-0-1) and Nelly Korda in 2019 (3-0-1).
Lee, who went 2-0-1, was 2-down after the 13th, but won the 14th and 16th holes against Germany’s Esther Henseleit for point No. 13½.
Coughlin, who grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia, played golf at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and still lives just 90 minutes down the road, had a chance for a fairytale ending to her sensational season. She had visited the course four times before this week and practiced just such a scenario with her caddie.
“He put a putt down [on No. 18] and he said, ‘This is to win the Solheim Cup,’ and I made it,” she said of one of the trips here.
Sunday’s putt from about 15 feet and a different part of the green stopped inches short. However, it was enough to halve the hole and the match for another crucial half-point, giving the U.S. its 14th point.
“Half-points matter,” Lewis said.
It’s been quite a year for Coughlin, who won her first two LPGA Tour events at the age of 31.
“I think it will be hard to top this one,” she said of her Solheim Cup debut, adding she hopes it’s not her only appearance in the competition.
She overcame a 3-down deficit after 10 holes by winning Nos. 11, 12 and 14.
“I think she did OK,” Lewis said understatedly. “I knew she would. That’s why I put her in the position I did.”
The Americans’ victory came on a day when top-ranked Korda suffered her worst loss in four Solheim Cup appearances. England’s Charley Hull, ranked 12th in the world, dominated from the start in a 6-and-4 victory in the first match of the day. Hull won seven of the 14 holes they played, including three consecutive starting on No. 6, and shot 7-under. Korda, who was 3-0 in the first two days, won just one hole, with a birdie at the par-5 fifth, and shot just 1-under.
Rose Zhang, ranked No. 9 in the world, finished the week 4-0-0, and Megan Khang went 3-0-0. It is just the second time a pair of Americans went 3-0-0 or better in one Solheim Cup. In 1994, Dottie Pepper and Brandie Burton finished 3-0-0.
Zhang also became the first U.S. player since current vice-captain Morgan Pressel in 2011 to win four matches in a single Solheim Cup. Pepper, in 1998, is the only other American to win four in one year.
Hull was the only European player to win three matches this week, going 3-2. Five players won two matches, but Ireland’s Leona Maguire won just one of her two matches, her singles competition against Ally Ewing.
Lewis’ motto since last year’s 14-14 tie in Spain prompted the slogan “Unfinished Business.” The Americans had been eager ever since to get another chance.
“The job was to get the cup, and we finished the job,” she said as the Americans improved to 11-7-1 in the biennial series.
Pettersen said now it’s the Europeans who are already looking ahead to the next event, in 2026 in the Netherlands.
“We’re going to be equally as hungry [as the U.S. team was this year],” she said.
Bob Flynn