By Keely Levins
DES MOINES, Iowa — “I want it to be so loud that I can’t hear my caddie,” Danielle Kang said in her Solheim Cup press conference on Wednesday.

The statement got laughs from the media and her teammates, but Kang wasn’t kidding. Her shoulders must be sore from all of the times she lifted her arms in the air, coaxing cheers from the fans on Friday. On the first tee in the morning match, she wouldn’t address her tee shot, the first shot she’d ever hit in a Solheim Cup, until the fans were cheering loud enough. Once the crowd hit a volume she liked, she launched it down the center.

Kang is a Solheim Cup rookie, but she appears right at home.

It makes sense that she’s comfortable at her first Solheim Cup. First, she’s had success in match-play events: She won back-to-back U.S. Women’s Amateur titles in 2010 and 2011. But, more importantly, the event fits her personality. She’s competitive, energetic, has a good sense of humor and isn’t afraid to show emotion. If there’s one thing the crowds here like, it’s that. Her rounds were full of smiles, cheers and fist pumps.

And, coincidentally, big shots.

On the 18th hole of her morning alternate-shot match, Kang and her partner, Lizette Salas, were 1 up on Carlota Ciganda and Caroline Masson. Kang put her approach to the right side of the green on 18, leaving Salas with a difficult short-sided chip. Salas hit an impressive chip from the thick rough, leaving Kang with about five feet. Their opponents had already made par, so Kang needed to make the putt to win the match. Just like she pummeled her first drive down the middle, she found the center of the cup with the match-winning putt.

“I absolutely love this. It’s the most exciting tournament I’ve ever played in,” said Kang, who won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship this year, her first professional win. “I want to hear this roar. I want to hear everyone keep chanting. I love it.”

Salas felt just as good about having Kang on the team this year.

“I’ve been waiting six years for this,” said Salas. “We knew we’d be great at this. She picked me up when I was down. She didn’t play it like a rookie. She played it like a major champion.”

In the afternoon, Kang was paired with her good friend Michelle Wie for four-ball. Heading into the 16th hole, the pair were one-up on Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Madelene Sagstrom. Having watched the other three players in the group make par, Kang stood over a breaking, downhill birdie putt of about six feet. She took her time, and threw down another fist pump as it rolled in. It was her sixth birdie of the match. The match ended on the next hole when Shadoff, Sagstrom and Wie all made par, and Kang’s birdie putt was conceded.

After a few brief interviews on the 17th green, Kang sat down for the first time on Friday, still smiling, to watch her teammates come in.

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Editor’s Note: The USA historically swept the Friday afternoon fourballs to take a 5 ½ – 2½ lead over Europe.

By Keely Levins
The Europeans won the morning, winning two matches, halving one and losing one. It was a bit of a surprise, as the Americans came into the event as the favourites. But no matter how strong a group of individuals is in stroke play, there’s no way to predict how they will fare in the difficult team match play formats of the Solheim Cup. Friday morning was foursomes, also known as alternate shot. In the afternoon, it was four-ball. And four-ball suited the Americans much better.

No European team led a match at any time in the afternoon.

The first match to finish was Lizette Salas and Angel Yin, who defeated Carlota Ciganda and Emily Pedersen, 6 and 5, to become the second four-ball team to win by that wide a margin in Solheim Cup history. Salas was dominant, making five birdies on the front nine. Her weekend is off to an impressive start; in the morning, Salas was part of the only alternate-shot match to win a point for the Americans.

Danielle Kang continued to revel in her first Solheim Cup experience, partnering with Michelle Wie to defeat Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Madelene Sagstrom, 2 and 1.

The two Brittanys, Lang and Lincicome, had eight birdies and an eagle between them to beat Caroline Masson and Florentyna Parker, 3 and 2.

The final match of the day, meanwhile, was the tightest.

Gerina Piller and Stacy Lewis, who lost their morning match, were 1 up through 16 holes against Charley Hull and impressive rookie Georgia Hall. Both Piller and Lewis put it close on the par-3 17th. Hull’s birdie putt almost fell, but she and her partner had to settle for pars. Lewis was able to make her birdie putt to win, 2 and 1.

For the first time in the history of the Solheim Cup, Team USA swept a session.

“We want the history on Sunday night,” said U.S. Captain Juli Inkster after the completion of the afternoon session. “We have a lot of work ahead of us. I know Annika is going to fire her team up.”

Her team is on the same page, echoing the sentiment that anything can happen in the Solheim Cup and that the only option is to keep the pressure on as they move into Saturday.

“We just have to do the same thing we did today,” said Wie. “Just go out there and not think big picture but just win point by point, shot by shot, hole by hole. I think when you look too far into the future, you look too big picture,I think that’s when things can get lost.”

The Saturday morning matches will be alternate shot.

7:10 a.m. – Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Caroline Masson (EUR) v. Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson (USA)
7:22 a.m. – Mel Reid and Emily Pedersen (EUR) v. Paula Creamer and Austin Ernst (USA)
7:34 a.m. – Anna Nordqvist and Georgia Hall (EUR) v. Stacy Lewis and Gerina Piller (USA)
7:46 a.m. – Catriona Matthew and Karine Icher (EUR) v. Michelle Wie and Danielle Kang (USA)

Related: Danielle Kang was built for the Solheim Cup

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8:10 Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson vs Mel Reid and Charley Hull

8:22 Danielle Kang and Lizette Salas vs Carlota Ciganda and Caroline Masson

8:34 Paula Creamer and Austin Ernst vs Anna Nordqvist and Georgia Hall

8:46 Stacy Lewis and Gerina Piller vs Karine Icher and Catriona Matthew

The Kerr-Thompson pairing is very strong. Kerr is playing in her ninth Solheim Cup, and has been having an impressive and consistent season. She has a win along with five other top-five finishes in LPGA events this season. Thompson, who is playing in her third Solheim Cup, has also won this season and is currently ranked No. 2 in the world.

Related: Heavily-favoured U.S. team staying humble, fused at Solheim Cup

Though the 2017 resumes of Hull and Reid don’t match the feats of Thompson and Kerr, the two are good at the Solheim Cup. This is Hull’s third time playing, and her record is 6-2-0. This is also Reid’s third Solheim Cup appearance. She’s gone 4-3-1 in the last two.

If Hull and Reid were to win, it would certainly be considered an upset. But while good results in stroke play are important and can instill confidence, there’s no way to calculate how that’s going to translate into match play.

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Nevertheless, the Americans have no feeling of ease the afternoon before the matches start.

Stuart Franklin

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against,” said Stacy Lewis, who’s playing in her fourth Solheim Cup. “Catriona is just as tough of a player as Suzann is. I don’t care what rankings or anything say. That’s the hardest part about match play – rankings don’t matter.”

The sentiment is echoed by U.S. Captain Juli Inkster. She gave her team hardhats at the beginning of the week, a symbol to show them that they’re here to work.

Related: Suzann Pettersen withdraws from Solheim Cup

“A lot of times rookies come out here and play great,” said Lewis. “So there’s so many unknowns in this event that you just have to go out there and do your thing.”

There’s a certain confidence and expectation that comes with defending, but when the U.S. won the last match-up two years ago, it was 14.5 to 13.5. A win is a win, but that one point was the closest margin in Solheim Cup history. That victory only occurred after a Herculean effort on Sunday from the U.S. team, where they won 8.5 of a possible 12 points. Two years before that in 2013, Europe won handily, 18-10. They also won in 2011, but it was a much closer contest: 15-13.

While it’s always endearing to hear the favorite come in with a resounding underdog mentality, in this case it might be smart. Because it is the Solheim Cup, and history has proven that indeed anything can happen.

The post Heavily-favoured U.S. staying humble, focused ahead of Solheim Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Take a look at the Nike FI Flex shoes ($100) Michelle will wear this week at Des Moines Golf and Country Club:

You can buy the Nike FI Flex shoes here ($100)

And here are the Solheim-edition Blazers Nike made for Michelle:

You can buy the Nike Blazers here ($113)

Lexi Thompson’s Puma Golf shoes are just as patriotic:

The Puma Golf shoes Lexi will wear on Friday

Lexi’s Saturday kicks

The shoes Lexi will wear on Sunday

And don’t be surprised if you see these Team USA competitors paint their faces, jazz up their nails and dye their hair using red, white and blue. We’ve already gotten a preview of Michelle’s braids:

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A post shared by Michelle Wie (@themichellewie) on Aug 12, 2017 at 1:13pm PDT

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Her replacement has not yet been announced.

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A post shared by Jessica Korda (@thejessicakorda) on Aug 7, 2017 at 1:49pm PDT

Korda has been playing with tape on her left forearm throughout this season, but the injury flared up at the Ricoh Women’s British Open. The condition was serious enough to cause Korda to withdraw after the first round of the Ricoh Women’s British Open. Though apparently hoping for a speedy recovery, the start of the Solheim Cup on Aug. 18 was not ample enough time to recover.

Inkster was traveling back to the States at the time of Korda’s post and was unavailable for comment, and the LPGA had not released any information about a replacement.

No announcement has been made by either the LPGA or Inkster on who Korda’s replacement will be, though the captains agreed to put a name in an envelope in the event of a withdrawal and are obligated to add that women to the team.

Among those players Inkster has said she was watching: Korda’s younger sister, Nelly, an LPGA rookie.

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At a press conference following the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns, non-playing U.S. skipper Juli Inkster added two captain’s picks—18-year-old LPGA rookie Angel Yin and 25-year-old Austin Ernst—to her 10 automatic qualifiers (see below). Europe’s Annika Sorenstam also named her four wild-cards—Anna Nordqvist, Emily Pedersen, Caroline Masson and Madelene Sagstrom—to complete her side.

Both captains made it clear how difficult it had been to arrive at their respective conclusions. Inkster omitted the likes of former U.S. Women’s Open champion Paula Creamer, as well as six-time Cup veteran Angela Stanford and five-time player Morgan Pressel.

“This has been a really tough day,” said Inkster, herself a nine-time Solheim participant. “I don’t know if there’s ever been so many people in the running for two captain’s picks. I could have gone a lot of different ways. But in the end I went with my gut, and who I thought deserved a chance to play. I hope it turns out OK. That’s all I can say.”

Noticeably absent from the European squad will be Catriona Matthew, who was looking to make her ninth appearance in European colors. The Scot will still make the trip to Iowa, however, as one of Sorenstam’s assistant captains.

“It is always hard to say ‘no’ to someone who lives for the Solheim Cup,” said Sorenstam of Matthew. “She was involved in the plans and knew the players we were talking about and that made it a bit awkward at times. But she has been strong and mature, and I am happy to have her on the team either way.”

UNITED STATES TEAM
Points List
Lexi Thompson, 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 3-2-2 record
Stacy Lewis, 4th appearance (2011, ’13, ’15), 4-7-1
Gerina Piller, 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 3-2-2
Cristie Kerr, 9th appearance (2002, ’03, ’05, ’07, ’09, ’11, ’13, ’15), 15-14-5
Jessica Korda, 2nd appearance (2013), 1-2-1
Danielle Kang, 1st appearance
Michelle Wie, 5th appearance (2009, ’11, ’13, ’15), 7-7-1
Brittany Lang, 5th appearance (2009, ’11, ’13, ’15), 5-6-3
Rolex Ranking
Brittany Lincicome, 6th appearance (2007, ’09, ’11, ’13, ’15), 5-11-2 Lizette Salas, 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 1-3-2
Captain’s Picks
Austin Ernst, 1st appearance Angel Yin, 1st appearance

EUROPEAN TEAM
Points List
Georgia Hall (England), 1st appearance
Florentyna Parker (England), 1st appearance
Mel Reid (England), 3rd appearance (2011, ’15), 4-3-1
Jodi Ewart-Shadoff (England), 2nd appearance (2013), 2-1-0
Rolex Ranking
Carlota Ciganda (Spain), 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 4-1-2
Suzann Pettersen (Norway), 9th appearance (2002, ’03, ’05, ’07, ’09, ’11, ’13, ’15), 16-11-6
Charley Hull (England), 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 6-2-0
Karine Icher (France), 4th appearance (2002, ’13, ’15), 5-4-1
Captain’s Picks
Caroline Masson (Germany), 3rd appearance (2013, ’15), 2-3-2
Anna Nordqvist (Sweden), 5th appearance (2009, ’11, ’13, ’15), 8-7-1
Emily Pedersen (Denmark), 1st appearance
Madelene Sagstrom (Sweden), 1st appearance

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