PARKER, Colo. - Europe showed Sunday it can win the Solheim Cup anywhere.
Caroline Hedwall became the first player in Solheim Cup history to win all five of her matches, holing a 4-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for a 1-up victory that assured the Europeans of retaining the cup. Moments later, Catriona Matthew finished off a rally to halve her match against Gerina Piller. That gave Europe 141â„2 points for its first win on American soil since this event in 1990.
And it wasn't even close.
Charley Hull, the 17-year-old teenager and the youngest player in Solheim Cup history, capped off her amazing week by demolishing Paula Creamer in a match that set the tone for Europe. Carlota Ciganda of Spain handed Morgan Pressel her first loss in singles in four appearances to go 3-0 for the week.
Not even a one-hour delay due to lightning in the area could damper this European celebration. Suzann Pettersen was lining up her putt on the 16th hole when she heard the cheers from the 18th, got the news and began pumping her first.
Europe still trails 8-5 in the competition, but this was the first time it has won back-to-back.
"It's a fantastic feeling right now," European captain Liselotte Neumann said. "I'm so proud of them. They played such good golf this week. They just played tremendous golf."
Matthew holed the winning putt, but the Europeans really won Saturday afternoon when they swept the fourballs matches to build a 101â„2-51â„2 lead, matching the largest margin going into Sunday.
Raucous cheering on the first tee raised American hopes of the greatest comeback in Solheim Cup history.
Once they got on the golf course, it was a hopeless cause.
U.S. captain Meg Mallon stacked some of her best players at the top of the lineup with hopes of filling the leaderboard with red scores and building momentum. Europe was ahead early four of the opening five matches.
Brittany Lang delivered a point, though she had a tussle with Azahara Munoz until winning on the 17th.
Stacy Lewis, in the opening singles match, didn't take her first lead against Anna Nordqvist until driving the green on the par-4 14th for a birdie. But the closing stretch belonged to Europe, as it had all week. Lewis missed an 8-foot birdie on the 16th for a chance to go 2 up, and the Swede found more magic on the 17th. One day after her hole-in-one, she holed a 20-foot birdie putt to square the match, and Lewis had to make a 7-foot par to get a half-point.
Ciganda, the Spanish rookie who couldn't break 80 in her opening fourballs match, finished with five straight birdies to pull away from Pressel.