Charlottesville’s Coughlin goes 2-0 in opening round of Solheim Cup play

By Jerry Ratcliffe

At age 31, Charlottesville’s Lauren Coughlin is a Solheim Cup rookie, but she sure didn’t play like one in Friday’s opening rounds of the three-day competition at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville.

Coughlin and her two different partners (in the morning and afternoon rounds) went 2-0 en route to helping the U.S. team take a 6-2 lead over the visiting Europeans.

Teaming with Rose Zhang for the morning round, Coughlin and Zhang beat Celine Boutier and Albane Valenzuela 3-and-2 in alternate-shot competition, then came back in the afternoon with new partner Sarah Schmelzel and defeated Emily Pedersen and Maja Stark 3-and-2 in four-ball.

Coughlin, who was an ACC Champion at Virginia, will have yet another new partner on Saturday morning when she is paired with Lexi Thompson to face Europe’s Stark and Georgia Hall (7:39 a.m. tee time). Saturday’s afternoon matches and pairings will not be announced until later Saturday morning.

Coughlin, who lives only 65 miles from the course, had tons of crowd support at the event. She wasn’t surprised that she and Schmelzel, also a rookie, performed well under international pressure.

“I don’t think, at least to me, it was a surprise that we played really well, because we’ve been doing it all year,” Coughlin said after the day-long competition.

In the afternoon match, she and Schmelzel drew first blood on the seventh hole when Schmelzel posted a birdie to go 1-up, followed by a Coughlin birdie on the eighth hole for a 2-up lead. Pedersen birdied No. 9, but Schmelzel got it back with a birdie at 10.

Couglin closed out the match, the last of the day, on the par-3, 16th hole when she drained a birdie putt more than 15 feet to win 3-and-2.

Final match of the day ending on a high note for U.S.A. 🇺🇸@LCisHOOSgolfin with the clutch birdie to claim Match 7 pic.twitter.com/4qnMw1SG7t

— LPGA (@LPGA) September 13, 2024