American duo Danielle Kang and Austin Ernst faced Team Europe’s Georgia Hall and Madelene Sagstrom in the first match of Sunday morning’s foursomes. It was the European pair who started the brightest and found form with the putter rolling in early birdies to go 2 up after the opening two holes.
However, Team USA soon began to turn the day around winning holes four, six and seven to put themselves 1 up.
But Europe hadn’t given up the fight and won two holes of their own, with Hall’s long birdie putt on 10 putting them back into the lead.
With the crowd behind them, Team USA regained the momentum with Kang’s long putt on 13 to tie the match they won the next hole to move 1 up with four to play. And it was Team USA who held onto their advantage all the way down to 18 to claim their first point of the day.
“It was huge to get that point. We tried to get the crowd jacked up on pretty much every green, so that way everybody else could kind of hear those cheers,” said Ernst. “Then we started hearing more cheers from everybody else.
“It was exciting. I’m really happy to put a point up there for both of us. We worked really hard for that point,” added Kang. “She had some great shots into the green and I’m really happy for how we played. It was a tough match and we took them to 18, but we know that we can play better.”