World No. 1 Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz will lead the United States into action against Europe when the Solheim Cup starts Friday at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, Netherlands.
Korda and Corpuz will look to repeat their past success in the morning foursomes session against England’s Charley Hull and Lottie Woad.
The Korda-Corpuz pairing went 2-0 in foursomes (alternate shot) at both the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Solheim Cup, making it an easy decision for U.S. captain Angela Stanford.
“I feel like if I didn’t put those two out, I would be questioned,” Stanford said Thursday. “I feel like the whole world knew that they were coming.”
Solheim Cup rookie Woad and the veteran Hull are ranked Nos. 7 and 8 in the world, respectively.
“You can’t wait to play her soon enough,” Europe captain Anna Nordqvist said of Hull. “I mean, as soon as she gets here, she’s ready to tee it up on the Friday.
“So obviously, her and Lottie, they’ve got to play quite a bit on tour this year, so I think they were both very excited to be paired with each other.”
For her career, Korda is 6-2 in foursomes while Hull is 6-3-1. Hull was 6 and 4 in a singles rout in 2024.
“I would be worried if it weren’t these two players,” Stanford said. “Look, we can talk about Nelly, and we can talk about her being the No. 1 player in the world, but don’t sleep on Allisen. Allisen, I’ve called her the backbone of our team. She’s pretty tough. Yeah, so that dynamic, there’s a lot of good things going on in that pairing that, you know, they just complement each other really well.”
Those four are scheduled to start at 1:40 a.m. ET. The rest of the foursomes lineup:
–1:52 a.m.: Allison Lee and Lauren Coughlin (US) vs. Nanna Koerstz Madsen and Celine Boutier (EUR)
–2:04 a.m.: Andrea Lee and Lindy Duncan (US) vs. Esther Henseleit and Leona Maguire (EUR)
–2:16 a.m.: Rose Zhang and Jennifer Kupcho (US) vs. Maja Stark and Linn Grant (EUR)
Stanford said her pairings were based on the golf course.
“Most of ours, we’ve — it’s just been about how we’ve played the golf course and how our players fit the golf course,” she said. “I think with Nelly and Allisen’s history, they seem to have a nice rapport about ’em, so felt like they have earned the right to go out first here this year.”
Nordqvist said the available talent at her disposal made it hard to go wrong.
“I mean, there’s 12 great players on both teams and you can really probably pair anyone with anyone, really, and it’s going to be a great match,” she said. “It’s obviously a very hard choice, like, who you’re sitting out and who you’re playing.”
The teams will compete in four four-ball (better ball) matches in Friday’s second session.
The U.S. is the defending champion after winning 15 1/2 to 12 1/2 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va. The Americans haven’t won on European soil since 2015 in Germany.
