Carlota Ciganda issued the warning before any journalist in the world finished writing the chronicle of the Saturday’s fourballs of this 19th edition of the Solheim Cup: “Medinah is coming”, said the Spaniard immediately after winning her point by 2y1 alongside the Dane Emily Pedersen against the American pair formed by Lexi Thompson and Ally Ewing.
At that moment, when the Navarrese was speaking and dictating sentence, the scoreboard reflected a terrifying 10-5 in favour of Stacy Lewis’s girls, but there was still a match left on the field, the fourth, in advantage for the Europeans, so it was logical that Carlota’s accounts were going to that 10-6 final with which the second day and the fourth session has indeed been closed and which, of course, was the one reflected on the scoreboard at this stage in the 2012 Ryder, in favour of the local team, the one with the stars and stripes, just like it is now in Gainesville…
Medinah is coming. She had hardly taken off her glove and the Navarrese was already pointing out the star to follow in this leaden grey firmament in which the continental team sails after the dispute of the first sixteen points. Suzann Pettersen’s girls are going to need something like a miracle, it’s true, one like the one in Medinah. Because, just like twelve years ago in that Ryder, it’s not just that the North American squad clearly dominates the scoreboard, it’s also that they have been scoring points with great authority and the majority of the American players show a sharper profile.
In the first two matches of the Saturday fourball session, the local superiority ended up being overwhelming, and all this without the participation of Nelly Korda and Lauren Coughlin, probably the two best players of the 24 present in the first three sessions of the Solheim, each with three points already added to the bag, whom Lewis left on the bench. Megan Khang and Alison Lee barely gave the Swedes Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom (victory of the Americans by 4y3) a chance, placed on the front line of the battle by Pettersen as the real European containment wall. And Rose Zhang and Andrea Lee simply swept away Linn Grant and Celine Boutier, with a final sprint from Zhang, who chained four birdies and an eagle to close the duel on hole 14 by a crushing 6y4.
However, just like in Medinah, the last two European pairs of Saturday’s fourballs held their own and kept their swords high. Battered, but high. Twelve years ago, in Olazábal’s Ryder, it was Sergio and Donald, first, who pulled out a hard-earned point against Tiger and Stricker, and then Rory and Poulter did the same against Dufner and Zach Johnson. This time, in the female version, it was first Ciganda and Pedersen who slightly opened the back door of hope and Hull and Hall who fully opened it, confirming on hole 18 of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club a victory by two up.
Did we say or write that Hull and Hall were opening the doors of the comeback wide open? Maybe that’s saying too much. Let’s not forget that Europe will need a miracle tomorrow.
But it was Carlota Ciganda, one of the protagonists, the Spaniard who this Saturday afternoon won her first point in this edition, who put the focus on that Sunday of wine and roses, who teleported 950 kilometres straight northwest and twelve years back in time, from the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club of 2024 to the Medinah Country Club of 2012, from Gainesville to Medinah, from Virginia to Illinois, to spice up a Solheim Cup that is currently governed with a firm hand, freshness and multiple resources by Stacy Lewis’s girls. It was Carlota who pointed out the direction, the core of inspiration, and not a senseless journalist, the enlightened one of the moment.
