GAINESVILLE -- Virginia State Golf Association manager of media and communications Chris Lang is on site this week at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club for the 19th playing of the Solheim Cup. Check throughout the day for nuggets, scenes, and news from on the ground at RTJ.
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The home page at LPGA.com features a 2-plus minute video with Virginia's own Lauren Coughlin, where she shares her thoughts of playing in the biggest event of her life just an hour from her home outside of Charlottesville. Coughlin is a former University of Virginia standout and is a three-time winner of the VSGA Women's Amateur Championship.
Friday morning foursomes
Coughlin won't have to wait long to start her first Solheim Cup. Coughlin will be paired with Rose Zhang in the 7:17 a.m. match, the second of the morning. They'll face off against Celine Boutier and Albane Valenzuela. Zhang did not play in foursomes in last year's Solheim Cup in Spain. U.S. captain Stacy Lewis, who is a golf analytics nut, said she looked to the stats in pairing Zhang and Coughlin together.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda will hit the opening tee shot for the U.S. in the 7:05 a.m. match. The full schedule for morning foursomes (alternate shot):
- 7:05 a.m. – Esther Henseleit/Charley Hull vs. Nelly Korda/Allisen Corpuz
- 7:17 a.m. – Celine Boutier/Albane Valenzuela vs. Rose Zhang/Lauren Coughlin
- 7:29 a.m. – Emily Pedersen/Maja Stark vs. Ally Ewing/Jennifer Kupcho
- 7:41 a.m. – Linn Grant/Carlota Ciganda vs. Lilia Vu/Sarah Schmelzel
Ewing and Kupcho played together at the Dow Championship, which is a partners event held in the middle of the LPGA Tour season that features both four ball and foursomes play. They finished second this year.
Pairings for afternoon four ball matches will be announced on Friday. Lewis noted that she didn't expect any of her 12 players to compete in all five sessions.
Party at the 1st
At Thursday's final practice rounds, players got a taste of what to expect on Friday morning when the action starts for real. Music pumped through loudspeakers at the first tee. Chants of U-S-A! erupted from the crowd. During a Solheim Cup media day in July, Solheim Cup veteran Lexi Thompson said she encourages the crowd to be as loud as possible at the first tee, to the point where spells of quiet can actually disrupt her focus.
Rose Zhang is competing in her second Solheim Cup for the U.S., and she said she took some lessons from last year's experience in Spain.
"Yeah, I'd say the first thing is actually understanding what it's like and going through it," Zhang said. "You have to really experience it to understand how to cope with that or find a tactic that works with you. I think the biggest thing is really just embracing that moment, especially on the first tee. You've got the adrenaline pumping, and every single person has that exact same feeling. Me personally, just simple breathing, just having fun, enjoying it really helps, I guess, cheer me up, liven me up, and get ready for the round that I'm going to play."
Karaoke kids
The U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team defeated Team Europe earlier this week at Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, and the players were in a celebratory mood. Captain Beth Daniel noted that her team spent just about every van ride from the hotel to the course singing. And after their resounding 18.5-5.5 victory--which included an incredible 10.5-1.5 win in Tuesday singles--the Americans were in a mood to celebrate.
"We had singing contests in the van every day with Team Europe coming back from the matches and the practice," U.S. team member Scarlett Schremmer said. "So that was how we opened our performance at the Junior Solheim Cup, so to end it off singing karaoke with Megan Khang especially, and all the girls -- and all the women on the real Solheim Cup team, it was kind of our way to close the book. I think we wore them out. They had to be on the tee the next morning at 8:00 a.m., and I think that was a tough wakeup call for them. It's OK. It was a lot of fun."
The winning American team gathered for a group press conference on Thursday before heading back out on course to watch practice rounds.
Hands-off policy
England's Charley Hull has surged in popularity on this side of the pond this year, thanks mostly to countless videos of her smoking a cigarette while swinging a golf club during practice rounds. Hull has an impressive social media following, including more than 625,000 followers on Instagram alone. But she doesn't spend a lot of time curating that feed.
"Truthfully, I don't have access to my Instagram," Hull said. "I stopped being on Instagram six months ago now. My agent posts everything for me. I don't log onto it. I don't do anything on it. I literally send her the photos I want to be posted and she'll post them for me. I feel like social media can be too time consuming. You can get too obsessed with it rather than just living in the real world. I think it's unbelievable how many followers I've gained. I think it's good because it helps promote the Tour and everything. Yeah, I didn't actually realize how many I have, but yeah, I just think it's pretty cool."
As for what makes her social account tick?
"Well, I'm just myself," she said. "I just -- I'm myself. If I like things, I like it for myself. If other people don't like it, well, it's not their life. I live my life the way I want to live it, not how anyone else wants me to live it. I think just literally just live like a normal person."