Solheim Saturday Preview

Today's word for Team Europe - desperate.  Down 4.5 to 3.5.  Their best player and team combo went 0-2 yesterday.  Their player who was so impressive yesterday morning got taken down in the evening by a pairing that kept getting horrible iron shots from one of the best match-players of all time.  Their biggest name played so terribly in the morning she had to be benched for foursomes.  Their player with the incredible career Solheim match record couldn't make a single putt.  If not for Maria Hjorth, Helen Alfredsson, the oft-maligned Gwladys Nocera and two of their rookies, Europe would be worse than desperate this morning.

To attain the 10-6 lead I predicted they would need to have a chance on Sunday, Team Europe needs to earn 6.5 of the possible 8 points today.  5.5 would give them a 9-7 lead but even that seems a lot to ask.

This morning's four-ball pairings look like this:

Captain Nicholas is keeping the victorious Alfredsson/Elosegui together, pairing Matthew with Luna (who is in action for the first time), giving Nordqvist to Pettersen to hopefully jump-start her star, and joining Hjorth and Nocera (who played reasonably well and very well yesterday, respectively).  Conspicuous by their absences are Gustafson, Brewerton (probably to rest both for foursomes), Moodie (to practice putting, I assume) and Davies (to practice everything, I assume - sorry, that was impossible to not type).

With the lead, Captain Daniel's choice to give Creamer the morning off does not surprise me at all.  Beth said yesterday nobody will play five times and I'd much rather have Paula available for foursomes.  Stanford and Lang are the only Americans getting their third start this morning - both having lost in yesterday's foursomes, it makes sense to plan on resting them this afternoon.  What surprises me is that Team Brittany isn't together like they were Friday morning and that Natalie Gulbis isn't playing.  Pairing Wie with Kim is a natural and since they both played so well yesterday, it's good for the U.S. that they are leading off against the only European team that won in four-ball on Friday.

If Europe doesn't gain ground this morning, I would put their chances of winning at less than 20-1.