The United States built on their strong opening session with a 3-1 afternoon fourballs scoreline to tighten their early grip on the Solheim Cup.
It was a similar scoreline for both teams and the US have a 6-2 lead over the Europeans at the end of the first day.
Having sat out the morning session, Leona Maguire was brought back into the European side but the woman who’s been the brightest spark for Europe in each of the last two Solheim Cups was a pale shadow of herself as she and Georgia Hall were soundly beaten 6&4 by Nelly Korda and Megan Khang.
The rookie pairing of Coughlin and Schmelzel defeated Denmark’s Pedersen and Sweden’s Stark by 3&2.
It was an emphatic finish to the afternoon for Andrea Lee and Zhang who both made eagles on the 14th to secure a 5&4 victory over Sweden’s Grant and England’s Hull.
Europe’s second point of the day came through the all-Swedish partnership of Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagström.
The Swedish duo, who were playing together for the first time in the Solheim Cup, dominated their match against Lexi Thompson and Alison Lee.
Sagström and Nordqvist won six holes on the trot from the eighth through to 13 to record a 6&5 victory.
“I think getting to play with Madelene, one of my really good friends, it was fun,” said Nordqvist. “I feel like I’ve been the wedding crasher lately.
“I crashed her wedding last week, and this week I’m crashing her and my caddie Jack’s honeymoon. We just had a lot of fun out there together.
“We just have to keep putting our best foot forward. I believe in my team, and we have a really good game plan for the week.
“Obviously, the U.S. came out really strong today, which we really expected, but there’s a lot of golf left. You’ve just got to keep doing your best. One or two putts can make a whole lot of difference out here.”
Sagström added: “[Suzann] thought we were a strong team together, and obviously so today. We played really good. Today all we needed to do was go out and try to get a point for Europe.
“She believed in us to play together, which was a first for us. I said on the range, I’m so excited to play with you. This is going to be so much fun.
“It was just a great day, Anna played super well. In the beginning, I was a little bit everywhere, but that works in four-ball. Then I scrapped it out on the back nine and helped her out a bit.”
This is the largest lead that any side has had in the Solheim Cup after the opening day since its current format was introduced but European captain Suzann Pettersen refused to be too downbeat, however, and still feels that there is plenty of time for Europe to turn things around despite the enormity of the task.
“Well, I guess we have a massive job ahead of us,” she said. “We faced quite a big challenge last year. We’ve done it before. We can do it again.
“It’s going to take a massive effort, but I know we can do it.
“Today’s play, it’s kind of all history now. So all I would say, I think we gave it a good effort. I think the Americans played great. They really did. I feel like they kind of had all the putts rolling their way.
“I just don’t feel like we’ve had any momentum, but it’s not to blame. The Americans played great. We have a massive job to do ahead of us.
“Everything’s possible. Last year was kind of a good example of it. It took a lot out of us to get the job done from where we started, but I’m definitely — I mean, there’s so many points left to play for.”
Saturday morning’s foursomes pairings will again see Maguire on the sidelines. Once again, US captain Stacy Lewis has put Nelly Korda out in the opening match and she reprises her partnership with Allisen Corpuz and they’ll face Carlota Ciganda and Emily Pedersen who secured a point in this format in the same session at Finca Cortesin last year.
The Esther Henseleit and Charley Hull partnership is the only one that remains unchanged from Friday’s opening session, and they are selected in math number two against Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho who also played together on Friday.
In fact, Lexi Thompson’s inclusion in place of Rose Zhang is the only alteration barring the order for Stacy Lewis, and she teams up with Lauren Coughlin to face Maja Stark and Georgia Hall, with Anna Nordqvist and Celine Boutier playing Lilia Vu and Sarah Schmelzel in the anchor match.
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