Jennifer Kupcho cupped a hand to her ear toward the grandstands, then raised a finger to her lips to shush the gallery further.
The quiet that fell over the crowd stood in stark contrast to the pyrotechnics Kupcho had just provided on a taut Saturday at the Solheim Cup. Paired with Lindy Duncan and down a hole with two to play, Kupcho birdied both 17 and 18, completing a remarkable comeback and stealing a point from Céline Boutier and Carlota Ciganda.
The win gave the Americans a 3-1 edge in the afternoon fourballs and brought the competition level heading into Sunday singles, with the teams tied 8-8.
“I don’t know, walking up to the green, honestly, like, I just thought, like, OK, during all these practice rounds, I’d just get up and whack it,” Kupcho said. “So, yeah, really didn’t read it. I was, like, all right, we’ll just give it a run, make sure we get it there, but what the heck it went in. That was insane.”
In match play, you’re taught to expect the unexpected, and Saturday at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands provided an unusual dose of it. The Americans were in need of a jolt after dropping the morning foursomes session, and the afternoon got off to one almost immediately, though it was in favor of the Europeans.
In the lead match, Sweden’s Maja Stark jarred her approach for eagle, and she and Linn Grant rode that fast start to a win over American stalwarts Megan Khang and Allisen Coughlin. The loss was Khang’s first in her last eight Solheim Cup matches and Coughlin’s first career defeat in the event.
The Swedes remained unbeaten at 3-0-0 for the week, providing a badly needed bright spot for a European side that has gotten surprisingly little from its top pairing on paper, Lottie Woad and Charley Hull, who were drubbed 6 and 5 in Saturday’s morning session and lost again the afternoon, falling 1 down to Yealimi Not and Auston Kim. Woad and Hull, the 7th- and 8th-ranked players in the world, have now played four matches and earned just a half point.
World No. 1. Nelly Korda sat out the afternoon session, a surprise to some.
But the biggest shocker came from Kupcho.
With the winds docile but the crowd in full throat, the atmosphere around the anchor match was tense, and Kupcho was her fiery self. She first shushed the gallery on the 10th, after draining a birdie to tie the hole.
It was a brash move, given the timing. At that point in the match, the Americans were two down, and coming back against Boutier and Ciganda seemed like a tall order.
But the texture of the match shifted on the short par-3, where both Europeans found the water, allowing Kupcho and Duncan to win the hole and cut the deficit to one.
Still, even after that break, no one could have foreseen what came next.
Boutier put her approach tight on 17, and with Europe 1-up, had a birdie putt that would have sealed the match.
Instead, Kupcho dropped a bomb, a 91-footer from behind the green. When Boutier’s attempt went begging, the match was square.
Kupcho wasn’t done. On 18, after Duncan and Ciganda both missed birdie attempts, Kupcho poured in another.
“Yeah, it was amazing,” Kupcho said. “I think we just did our job and, yeah, they’re out there chanting. My team won’t shut up now, but …” She laughed. “Yeah, they’re out there chanting and it gets a bit annoying at some points, but you just kind of hang in there, and I think we did that amazing today.”
Momentum matters, and the Americans now have it.
“That was huge,” American captain Angela Stanford said. “I mean, that absolutely turned our tide. And I thought, OK, if we get out of here at 7-9, we still have a chance. And then I thought, OK, 7.5 to 8.5, that’s better. But this is, that was, that turned the tide.”
It will all be settled Sunday.
Eight points apiece. Twelve matches to decide the Cup.
