CROMVOIRT, Netherlands — Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz are 5-0 as a Solheim Cup foursomes pairing after beating Charley Hull and Lottie Woad 4 and 3 in Friday’s opening match. No pairing had won five straight matches in the event’s history.
In the second match at Bernardus Golf, Alison Lee and Lauren Coughlin beat Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Céline Boutier 3 and 2. Europe won the last two matches to split the opening foursomes 2-2.
U.S. captain Angela Stanford sent Korda and Corpuz out first in her debut as captain. Stanford grew up in Saginaw, was a four-time All-American at TCU, and is a member of the TCU Athletics Hall of Fame.
In 2015, Stanford clinched the last American Solheim Cup win in Europe by beating Suzann Pettersen 2 and 1 in singles at St. Leon-Rot in Germany. On Thursday, she said she would have been questioned if she had not sent Korda and Corpuz out first, Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine reported.
“I would be worried if it weren’t these two players,” Stanford said. “Look, we can talk about Nelly, and we can talk about her being the No. 1 player in the world, but don’t sleep on Allisen. Allisen, I’ve called her the backbone of our team. She’s pretty tough. So that dynamic, there’s a lot of good things going on in that pairing that they just complement each other really well.”
Nelly Korda, Allisen Corpuz Beat Charley Hull, Lottie Woad In Opening Match
Woad made a 15-foot birdie putt on the first hole to put Europe 1 up. After that, Hull and Woad won only one more hole, according to the AP. On the par-4 seventh, Corpuz made a 10-foot birdie putt that put the Americans 2 up, Golfmagic reported. The match ended on the 15th green.
Korda moved to 11-5-1 in Solheim Cup play and 7-2 in foursomes. She is ranked No. 1 in the world and won the Chevron Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open this season. Woad, a Solheim Cup rookie, entered the week as Europe’s top-ranked player at No. 7.
Hull dropped to 6-4-1 in foursomes. Two years ago, she and Esther Henseleit lost to Korda and Corpuz 3 and 2 in the opening match in Virginia. Hull beat Korda 6 and 4 in singles that Sunday. Her record against Korda in any format is now 2-2-1.
Korda and Corpuz first paired in Spain in 2023 and went 2-0 in foursomes. They went 2-0 again in Virginia in 2024, when the U.S. won 15½-12½. Corpuz won the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach for her first LPGA Tour title. On Thursday, she said she and Korda are both calm and make a good energy match, according to GOLF.com.
“I always make the joke to Nelly,” Corpuz said Friday. “It’s so nice to be 30 yards ahead of where I would be on my own drive. It just makes the hole so much easier.”
Leona Maguire, Esther Henseleit Win On 18th Hole As Europe Splits Session
Maja Stark and Linn Grant went 4 up through seven holes against Rose Zhang and Jennifer Kupcho and won 3 and 2. Stark and Grant went 1-1 as a foursomes pair in 2023 and were Europe’s only pairing Friday morning with previous experience together, Golf Channel reported. European captain Anna Nordqvist said Thursday that Koerstz Madsen and Boutier had wanted to play the LPGA’s team event together this year.
“Maja and Linn, they played so much amateur golf together and they’re really good friends, so they know each other really well, so I think that was another pairing that felt really natural,” Nordqvist said.
Coughlin also beat Boutier in the opening session two years ago. She and Zhang beat Boutier and Albane Valenzuela 3 and 2 in Virginia.
In the only match to go past the 16th hole, Henseleit and Leona Maguire never trailed and beat Andrea Lee and Lindy Duncan 2 up on the 18th hole. Maguire is 9-3-1 in Solheim Cup play. That is the best record of any European player with at least five matches, according to the AP. Duncan, a 35-year-old rookie and one of Stanford’s three captain’s picks, made her Solheim Cup debut in the match.
About 3,000 spectators filled the horseshoe-shaped grandstand around the first tee, where Duncan took video on her phone, the AP reported. Stanford danced onto the tee after coming out of the tunnel. Stark and Grant swayed to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.” Before Maguire hit her first shot, fans chanted “We’ve got Maguire, USA is terrified!” Nordqvist, a nine-time Solheim Cup player, called the captaincy the honor of her life at Thursday’s opening ceremony, Golf Monthly reported.
“They’re living the dream,” Nordqvist said of her players, “and as a golfer it doesn’t get better than this.”
The afternoon four-balls began at 6:05 a.m. CT, when Yealimi Noh and Angel Yin went off against Hull and Woad. Megan Khang and Alison Lee went off at 6:20 a.m. CT against Koerstz Madsen and Boutier. Corpuz and Auston Kim went off at 6:35 a.m. CT against Mimi Rhodes and Nastasia Nadaud, and Korda and Coughlin went off at 6:50 a.m. CT against Carlota Ciganda and Julia López Ramírez.
Both captains played all four players who sat out the morning session. Nordqvist sat Stark, Grant, Henseleit, and Maguire for the afternoon.
The United States, which leads the series 11-7-1, needs 14 of the 28 points to retain the Cup. Europe needs 14½ to win it back. Saturday’s foursomes begin at 12:40 a.m. CT, and Golf Channel’s coverage runs from 12:30 a.m. to noon CT.
