Europe leads US 5-3 at Solheim Cup

PARKER, Colorado: Europe took an important step toward winning the Solheim Cup on American soil for the first time, taking a 5-3 lead after Friday's opening day.
This is the largest lead that defending champion Europe has had on a Friday since 5-3 at Crooked Stick in 2005. The Americans came back to win that time, and still have never lost the cup on home soil.
In a pivotal fourballs match, Carlota Ciganda of Spain salvaged an unlikely par from a hazard on the par-5 15th hole and kept her and Suzann Pettersen from falling behind. Pettersen won the next hole with a birdie, sending them from 2 down at the turn to a 1-up victory.
Stacy Lewis, on the losing end in that match, had a heated discussion with an official over the use of a laser to determine the right drop. At one point, Lewis threw her hands in the air.
The laser was used to make sure Ciganda's options would be equal distance from the hole.
"Part of the problem we had with it was the rules official lasered the flag and made it public information. So he gave them a number," Lewis said.
That was a moot point, however, when Ciganda eventually dropped from an entirely different spot. She hit her fourth shot just off the green, and holed a 15-foot putt just as it looked like the Americans would take the lead.
"The explanation was about as bad as the ruling," Lewis said. "I don't think it was correct. It took way too long. It killed the momentum of our match. It killed the momentum of the matches behind us, and it's just not what you want the rules officials to ever do."
Lewis, coming off a Women's British Open title, lost both her matches. She struggled with the pace of lightning-fast greens on the front nine as she and Lizette Salas fell too far behind to catch up in morning foursomes. In the fourballs, Lewis played with another U.S. rookie, Lexi Thompson, who twice squandered good birdie chances.
Pettersen and Carolina Hedwall led the European charge by winning both their matches. Pettersen, playing in her seventh Solheim Cup, drilled a fairway metal into 20 feet on the 16th hole that set up Beatriz Recari for the eagle putt to take charge in a foursomes match. In the afternoon, it was Pettersen's 7-foot birdie putt on the 16th — after Thompson three-putted for par — that gave Europe the lead.
Hedwall was part of what European captain Liselotte Neumann called her "Swedish Vikings" to lead off the warm, sunny opening session south of Denver. Hedwall and Anna Nordqvist finished the front nine with two birdies to build a 3-up lead, and they never let Lewis and Salas any closer.
America's Angela Stanford lost both her matches — with Brittany Lang in the morning and with rookie Gerina Piller in the afternoon.
U.S. captain Meg Mallon was scrutinized for selecting an out-of-sorts Michelle Wie as a captain's pick, but Wie's superb short game combined with Cristie Kerr making big putts as they disposed of Catriona Matthew and 17-year-old Charley Hull, 2 and 1, in the final match. The Americans picked up another point in the afternoon through Lang and Lincicome, with Lang holing a bunker shot on the 14th hole to give her side control of the match.
In the morning, the lone American point came from Morgan Pressel and Jessica Korda, a 20-year-old rookie who vomited on the opening hole, perhaps through nerves or the banana she was eating at the time.