Golf

Leona Maguire and Georgia Hall suffer fourball defeat as Europe go 6-2 down at Solheim Cup

USA storm ahead with three wins from four in opening day’s fourball matches

Leona Maguire lines up her putt on the first green during the Friday fourball matches at the Solheim Cup. (Photograph: Gregory Shamus/Getty
Fri Sept 13 2024 - 22:38

Ireland’s Leona Maguire and her Europe team-mate Georgia Hall lost the opening fourball match at the 2024 Solheim Cup after their round ended 6&4 in favour of their opponents, Team USA’s Nelly Korda and Megan Khang.

Having missed out on a call up for Friday’s foursomes at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia, Maguire was in action in the first of the afternoon fourball matchups at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia.

Team Europe went into the afternoon session with ground to make up after the morning’s foursomes ended 3-1 in favour of the hosts.

As she did earlier in the day, Korda led the charge for USA, shooting herself and Khang 3 up after the 6th hole.

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It wasn’t until the 9th that Maguire and Hall managed to claw one back for Europe, bring their opponents back to 4 up, Khang having claimed the 8th hole.

The Cavan golfer extended the match by winning the 13th, however Korda shot back to win the 14th to put the US pair 6 up, ending the round.

It was another difficult session for Europe, winning just one of the four fourball matches.

Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom earned a 6&5 win over Alison Lee and Lexi Thompson for Suzann Pettersen’s team, but Emily Pedersen and Maja Stark’s round with Lauren Coughlin and Sarah Schmelzel ended 3&2 to the hosts, and Linn Grant and Charley Hull were bested 5&4 by Andrea Lee and Rose Zhang to end the day 6-2 to Team USA.

Play continues on Saturday, again starting with four foursomes matches in the morning before the afternoon’s four fourball matches, for which the players are yet to be announced.