Home favourite Carlota Ciganda played a starring role as Europe retained the Solheim Cup after a thrilling 14-14 draw with the United States, the first in the biennial contest’s history.
Trailing 4-0 after the opening foursomes, Suzann Pettersen’s side rallied magnificently at Finca Cortesin and it fittingly fell to Spanish star Ciganda to ensure the trophy would remain in Europe with her fourth win from four matches.
With Ciganda pegged back to all square on the 15th against Nelly Korda, the United States were briefly on course for an outright win due to the status of the remaining matches.
However, Ciganda then hit a stunning approach to the 16th to set up a winning birdie and, after Maja Stark had beaten US Open champion Allisen Corpuz to make it 13-13, repeated the feat on the 17th to ensure Europe would at least retain the trophy.
The moment of a lifetime for Carlota Ciganda 🏆🇪🇸#SolheimCup2023 pic.twitter.com/w77BzvVqYu
— LPGA (@LPGA) September 24, 2023
Emily Pedersen still had an outside chance to halve her match with Lexi Thompson and secure outright victory, but Thompson calmly holed from 10 feet for par on the 17th to close out a 2&1 win.
“I’m so happy just to do this for Suzann, for Spain, I’m just so proud,” Ciganda told Sky Sports.
“When I saw Suzann on 16 she told me a couple of things and I was like, ‘I’m just going to do this for her’, because I love her and she deserves this. I love my team, I love Europe, I love Spain, I love Solheim Cups.
“It’s been a great week and I’m just so happy to be here right now.”
