Solheim Cup: Europe, so masterful in the morning, were awful in the afternoon and ended the first day of the Solheim Cup with an advantage of only one point, 4½-3½, over the United States.
They had won the opening series of foursomes by three and a half to a half, but the fourball series was frittered away, with poor performances even from their accepted stars, Laura Davies and Annika Sorenstam. The latter, with a wedge to the last green and needing to get it close to salvage a half, could only hit it to 20 feet and with that went her partner Carin Koch's record of never losing in the women's Ryder Cup equivalent. Only the pregnant Patricia Meunier-Lebouc and Suzann Pettersen managed a win, with five birdies and no bogies against Angela Stanford and Meg Mallon.
The US captain Patty Sheahan gambled with her opening afternoon pairing, putting the acknowledged "brat pack" of Kelli Kuehne and Christie Kerr together. Kerr was actually labelled "a brat" by Catrin Nilsmark, now the European captain, before the start of the last Solheim Cup, and neither Kerr nor Kuehne hold back when it comes to expressing opinions. Both players can be brilliant or awful, and yesterday they exhibited the first option, with seven birdies between the fourth and 13th holes. It gave them complete control over Davies and Catriona Matthew and provided the US with their first full point of the match.
Davies is the only European to have played in all seven Solheim Cups and is the leading points scorer with 16 points from 30 matches. But at 40 next month she is not the power she was, literally, for many players now hit it as far as she does, and with more control.
A half-point from the day's play was a poor return for someone so long regarded as the European leader on the course.
A brilliant start in the morning foursomes not only could, but should have earned a better end product. Any self-respecting team would settle for a three-point advantage from the first series, but it should have been a whitewash, given that the Americans Beth Daniel and Kelly Robbins were five over par after 18 holes in the top match. But Davies and Koch were four over themselves and could only halve a match that even half-decent golf would have won easily.
Davies was uncharacteristically uptight throughout the morning. She shouted at photographers five times and while there were some who were unfamiliar with the etiquette of the game, it is usually counter-productive for a player to get upset at any distraction since it often leads to a break in concentration.
Certainly Davies was far from her best and when the home pairing were presented with a final chance to win, on the last green, it was the Englishwoman who made the mistake that led to the half.
