Colorado native Jennifer Kupcho’s win drought at Solheim Cup extended as she and partner Ally Ewing rally but can’t overcome big early deficit in foursomes; they’ll team up again Saturday morning; Americans lead 6-2 after day 1
By Gary Baines – 9/13/2024
The way Jennifer Kupcho started her Solheim Cup career may have made her think, What’s so difficult about this?
That was 2021, and the Colorado native won her first two matches against the Europeans. But little did she know then that she’d go winless in her next six sessions representing the U.S. at the Solheim Cup.
Kupcho and partner Ally Ewing bounced back from a nightmarish start — they were 4 down after five holes on Friday morning in Gainesville, Va. — to push the match to the 18th hole. But the Americans still fell, 2 up, to Europeans Emily Pedersen and Maja Stark in the foursomes/alternate-shot format.
That left Kupcho, a graduate of Jefferson Academy, with a 2-4-2 overall record in three Solheim Cup appearances.
The Americans as a team won three of four matches in both the morning foursomes and the afternoon four-ball — the latter session in which Kupcho didn’t play — to earn a 6-2 lead after the opening day of the matches. The U.S. is trying to win the Solheim Cup for the first time since 2017 as Europe prevailed in 2019 and ’21 and retained the Cup with a tie last year.
Kupcho and Ewing had a history of excelling as a team as they finished runner-up earlier this summer at the Dow Championship LPGA Tour team event and shined during the two foursomes sessions at that tournament.
But that didn’t faze Pedersen and Stark, who broke out of the gate quickly and built a 4-up lead after fiveholes, going par, birdie, par, birdie to win four consecutive holes (2-5). The Americans were 2 over par after those five.
“We knew we were hitting the shots we wanted to hit and it just wasn’t going our way,” Kupcho said. “So we just kept doing that and it got us to the last hole here.”
Indeed, Kupcho and Ewing settled in after the first five and rallied to get back in the match, eventually winning holes 14 and 15 (birdie, then par) to narrow the Europeans’ lead to 1 up. But the Euros held on, securing the victory with a conceded birdie on 18.
The Americans finished even par in the match, while Pedersen and Stark checked in at 2 under.
Meanwhile, former Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open champion Lauren Coughlin went 2-0 on day 1, winning with Rose Zhang (foursomes) and Sarah Schmelzel (four-ball).
Kupcho and Ewing will have a chance to get into the win column when they pair up again on Saturday morning for a foursomes match — starting at 5:17 a.m. (MT) — with Europeans Charley Hull and Esther Henseleit. Saturday TV cover runs 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. (MT) on the Golf Channel, then 1-4 p.m. on NBC.
Kupcho is looking to be on the winning team at the Solheim Cup for the first time in her three appearances.
For all the results from the Solheim Cup, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com