Jennifer Kupcho He put a hand to his ear towards the stands, then raised a finger to his lips to further close the gallery.
The silence that had fallen over the crowd was in stark contrast to the pyrotechnics that Kupcho had just provided on a tight Saturday at the Solheim Cup. Paired with Lindy Duncan and in a hole with two to play, Kupcho birdied 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 lead in four balls on the afternoon and brought the level of competition into Sunday’s singles, with the teams tied 8-8.
“I don’t know, going to the green, honestly, like, I just thought, like, OK, during all these practice rounds, I’m just going to get up and hit,” Kupcho said. “So, yeah, I really didn’t read it. I was, like, okay, we’re going to run it, make sure we get it there, but what the hell it went. It was crazy.”
In the match game, you have learned to expect the unexpected, and on Saturday at Bernard Golf in Holland it provided an unusual dose of it. The Americans needed a jolt after dropping out of the morning foursomes session, and the afternoon went almost immediately, although it was in favor of the Europeans.
In the top meet, Sweden’s Maja Stark blew 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 his last eight Solheim Cup matches and Coughlin’s first career defeat in the event.
The Swedes are unbeaten at 3-0-0 for the week, providing a much-needed bright spot for a European side that has been surprisingly short of their top pairing on paper, Lottie Woad and Charley Hull, who were beaten 6 and 5 in Saturday’s morning session and lost again in the afternoon, going down 1 to Yealimi Not and Auston Kim. Woad and Hull, the 7 and 8 players in the world, have now played four matches and earned only half a point.
No. 1 of the world. Nelly Korda sat out the afternoon session, a surprise to some.
But the biggest shocker came from Kupcho.
With gentle winds, but a full-throated crowd, the atmosphere around the anchor match was tense, and Kupcho was its own focus. He first cleared the gallery on the 10th, then drained a birdie to tie the hole.
It was a cheeky 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 changed on the short par-3 15th, where the two Europeans found the water, allowing Kupcho and Duncan to trim the deficit to one.
Yet, even after that break, no one could foresee what would come next.
Boutier made his close approach on 17, and with Europe 1-up, he 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 is not done. On the 18th, after Duncan and Ciganda missed birdie attempts, Kupcho poured in another.
“Yeah, it was amazing,” Kupcho said. “I think we just did our job and, yes, I’m here singing. My team won’t shut up now, but…” She laughed. “Yes, I’m here to sing and it gets a little annoying at some points, but you just have to settle there, and I think we did this amazing today.”
Importance matters, and Americans have it now.
“It was huge,” said US captain Angela Stanford. “I mean, that absolutely turned our tide. And I thought, OK, if we get out of there at 7-9, we still have a chance. And then I thought, OK, 7.5 to 8.5, that’s better. But that’s it, that was it, that turned the tide.”
Everything will be resolved on Sunday.
Eight points for each. Twelve games to decide the Cup.
