After a thrilling Saturday performance where she picked up a maximum two points alongside two different playing partners, Leona Maguire is back on the roster again for the Sunday morning foursomes at Inverness Golf Club, this time alongside Mel Reid who she played foursomes with on Saturday morning.
Reid was impressed with the performance of Maguire on day one and no doubt Captain Matthews will be looking for another dominant performance from the pair.
“Honestly I could not be more impressed with this girl here. I said to her, we hadn’t really spoken before this week, that’s kind of what Solheim is about,” said Reid.
“This girl honestly, she’s some player, and just really, really proud of the way she handled herself and she’s a very, very impressive girl, so it was an honour honestly to play with her in the first match.”
For her part, Maguire was imperious all day. Firstly alongside Reid in the morning as they took on the American dream team, the Korda sisters, where Maguire took hitting the team’s opening tee shot in her stride, played superbly all morning before calmly holing the winning putt for her team on the 18th.
Then in the afternoon she was paired with Georgia Hall and after a long birdie putt at the first from Hall, the European pair quickly went 2up on the second hole thanks to a birdie from Maguire. The United States refused to go down without a fight though and after two consecutive birdies by Noh on 6 and 7, the Americans went 1up through the turn. Hall tied it again with a birdie at 10, a margin that remained until she made yet another crucial birdie at 15 to regain the lead 1up. Hall and Maguire sealed the 1-up victory on 18 when Hall struck her approach to 8 feet and Noh and Altomare failed to birdie.
“It was good fun. I think we played better the back nine and managed to hit some good shots in, so obviously very pleased to get a point,” said Hall.
While Maguire commented; “We played some great golf today and we knew they would, so it was a case of staying patient, hanging in there. We fought back and we were 1 down at the turn. We knew we had to stay patient. Georgia made some nice birdies right when we needed it, and yeah, it was nice to get that win in the end over two really good golfers.”
SUNDAY FOURSOMES PAIRINGS
- Georgia Hall / Madelene Sagstrom (EUR) vs. Danielle Kang / Austin Ernst (USA)
- Charley Hull / Emily K. Pedersen (EUR) vs. Lexi Thompson / Brittany Altomare (USA)
- Mel Reid / Leona Maguire (EUR) vs. Nelly Korda / Ally Ewing (USA)
- Anna Nordqvist / Matilda Castren (EUR) vs. Lizette Salas / Jennifer Kupcho (USA)
THAT KORDA INCIDENT
A lot has already been said about the controversial incident involving Jessica Korda / Ally Ewing in their match against Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Madelene Sagstrom, and the official ruling statement has come through as follows;
OFFICIAL RULING STATEMENT: Rule 13.3b states that “if the opponent in match play deliberately lifts or moves the player’s ball overhanging the hole before the waiting time has ended, the player’s ball is treated as holed with the previous stroke, and there is no penalty to the opponent under Rule 11.2b.” The chief referee, match referee, observer and TV observer all deemed that Nelly Korda’s third shot on No. 13 was overhanging the hole and was picked up by her opponent before the waiting time had ended. Therefore, her third stroke was treated as holed.
WHAT HAPPENED:
Korda reached the par 5 13th in two and lined up a 27-foot eagle putt. The read, the roll, was all perfect, so much so that she fell to her knees as the ball sat hole-side (which was deemed ‘overhanging’ by the official). Sagstrom scooped up Korda’s ball to concede the birdie, quicker than the allotted waiting time which is the reasonable time it takes the player to get to the ball plus 10 seconds. This was a point of emphasis during the pre-tournament rules meeting on Wednesday. LPGA Tour Rules official Missy Jones stepped in to share the breach of the regulation and that Korda’s previous stroke was deemed to be holed.
“Obviously, I wasn’t following the rules about leaving the ball for 10 seconds. But I do believe in integrity and honour of the game of golf and I would never pick up a putt that had a chance to go in,” an understandably upset Sagstrom said. “I personally don’t agree with the decision about the ball being on the edge but I didn’t follow the 10-second rule, so it sucks right now because I feel like I let my team down.”
For her part Korda added; “It was definitely awkward, and you don’t want to win a hole like that. I got off the green, we were kind of talking and Missy already came up to us and was like, ‘I’m calling it in, I want to check it out.’ We didn’t even have a say, honestly. We told ourselves to focus on golf and finish it off.”
In truth the decision was one of those where if it’s given against you then you will feel aggrieved and if it’s given for you then you will be delighted. That said it doesn’t sit well in the spirit of golf and you can’t help but feel sorry for Sagstrom as her integrity, which is beyond reproach, has been called into question by the rules official’s decision. That’s not right, shouldn’t happen and if the Solheim Cup gets decided by a decision like that it will be a travesty which overshadows what is a wonderful tournament.
Leave a comment