ANDALUCIA, Spain — The 2023 Solheim Cup officially begins tomorrow, September 22 and the long-awaited Friday foursome matchups are finally here. With both 12-player teams full of LPGA Tour superstars and Solheim Cup stalwarts, there are sure to be plenty of fireworks and drama on display this week at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, and the first session of foursomes matches definitely won’t disappoint that regard.

Take a look at who will face off on Friday morning at the 18th Solheim Cup.

Match 1, 8:10 a.m. – Lexi Thompson/Megan Khang vs. Linn Grant/Maja Stark

The first match of the day features two Solheim Cup veterans facing off two rookies as Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang will go up against the Swedish duo of Maja Stark and Linn Grant at 8:10 a.m. local time. Thompson is by and far the most experienced of the U.S. team, having played in five Solheim Cups before this week in Spain. She has a 6-6-7 record in the biennial team competition, earning 9.5 total points for the Americans in her Solheim Cup career. Captain Stacy Lewis lauded the form that Thompson has shown this week in Spain in the press conference announcing the matches and considering that she has earned 3.5 total points in the foursomes format, this seems to be a great call by Lewis if she wants to get her team on the board early.

Khang is making her third Solheim Cup appearance, having played in both the 2019 and 2021 editions of the event, and has a 1-3-2 record, something she’s looking to improve upon in Spain. The 25-year-old has played in three foursomes matches in the Solheim Cup, only managing to earn a half point for the Americans in those previous instances, and is a bit shorter off the tee, ranking 82nd in average driving distance (257.59 yards) compared to Thompson who is tied for 14th at 269.12 yards. But she has plenty of upside when you look at her approach game – Khang ranks fourth in stroked gained approach (+1.03) on the LPGA Tour – and her upbeat personality and can-do-it attitude that blended with Thompson’s ferocity and competitiveness should make for a winning combination.

Few players at this year’s Solheim Cup are better friends than Maja Stark and Linn Grant. After each earned a place on their first European Solheim Cup team, Captain Suzann Pettersen said the pair started badgering her to play together. So, she took a chance on the rookies, one that seems like it could pay off in spades especially considering the two have plenty of experience playing alongside one another.

The pair represented Sweden in the 2017 Junior Solheim Cup, played in four consecutive European Ladies’ Team Championships from 2018 to 2021 and were members of the International team at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Cup. However, Stark does have a leg up on Grant when it comes to playing in a team match-play competition as a professional, having teed it up in the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown earlier this season. The duo have two LPGA Tour titles and 11 LET victories between them and are definitely two of the more experienced rookies when it comes to playing for their country’s colors.

Match 2, 8:22 a.m. – Danielle Kang/Andrea Lee vs. Celine Boutier/Georgia Hall

Match 2 will see major champion Danielle Kang and LPGA Tour winner Andrea Lee take on 2023 Amundi Evian winner Celine Boutier and 2018 AIG Women’s Open champion Georgia Hall at 8:22 a.m. Kang has been a member of three U.S. teams, including the victorious 2017 squad that won the Cup at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in Iowa. She has earned five points in her previous appearances with a 5-7-0 record and has remained pretty consistent throughout the three formats, earning two points in both foursomes and fourball and one point in the singles sessions. She is a six-time LPGA Tour winner, most recently winning the 2022 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.

Lee is another of the U.S. rookies who has an incredible amount of team match-play experience. The California native was a two-time Junior Solheim Cup participant, a two-time U.S. Curtis Cup team member, a member of the 2014 U.S. Junior Ryder Cup team and a 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup competitor. And while many of the automatic qualifiers were locked in well before the August 28 cut-off date, Lee played her way onto the U.S. team in the final event of the Qualifying Period, finishing T13 at the CPKC Women’s Open to move inside the top seven in the U.S. Solheim Cup Point Standings, earning her spot by just a single point. It was an impressive performance and a good indicator of just how hard Lee will fight to put points on the board and help her team win its first Solheim Cup since 2017.

Few have played better this season than Boutier. The 29-year-old became the winningest French player in LPGA Tour history in March after defeating her foursomes partner in a playoff at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain. She went on to become the first player from France to win The Amundi Evian Championship, beating defending champion Brooke Henderson by a whopping six shots at Evian Resort Golf Club. Boutier then won again the very next week at the FREED Group Women’s Scottish Open, becoming the first player since Jin Young Ko in 2021 to win in back-to-back starts on the LPGA Tour. The Frenchwoman is playing in her third Solheim Cup this week, an event that she’s found success at before, going undefeated in 2019 with a 4-0-0 record and earning 5.5 total career points for the European team.

While Hall has cooled a bit in recent months, the major champion has still had an excellent 2023 LPGA Tour season. She finished in the top 10 in four of her first six starts of the year, two of which were back-to-back runner-ups at the LPGA Drive On Championship and DIO Implant LA Open, and has earned three additional top 15s in recent months. When it comes to the Solheim Cup, Hall knows what it’s like to win on home soil having been a member of the 2017, 2019 and 2021 European teams, and is a player that Kang and Lee will have to go up on quick if they want to have a shot at beating her in foursomes. The Englishwoman has an 8-5-0 overall record and boasts an impressive 5-1-0 in the foursomes format, arguably the most challenging facet of Solheim Cup competition.

Match 3, 8:34 a.m. – Nelly Korda/Allisen Corpuz vs. Leona Maguire/Anna Nordqvist

Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz are set to face two Solheim Cup superstars in Leona Maguire and Anna Nordqvist in the third match of Friday’s morning session. Korda is making her third Solheim Cup appearance after a strong 2023 LPGA Tour season that’s seen her earn seven top-10 results, including a solo third at The Chevron Championship in April. The 25-year-old has earned a total of 5.5 points for the U.S. team with a 5-2-1 record, excelling in both the foursomes and singles sessions in which she has earned two points each. Considering she’s never been a part of a winning squad, Korda is sure to be as hungry as ever to bring the Cup back home to the States.

Corpuz is making her Solheim Cup debut at Finca Cortesin, but it isn’t the first time she’s represented the Stars and Stripes. The Hawaii native was a member of the 2021 Curtis Cup team, going 3-0-0 to help propel the United States to victory that year, and is a two-time Arnold Palmer Cup participant. She became a Rolex First-Time Winner this year as well as a first-time major champion with her victory at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links in July and backed that up with a runner-up finish the very next week at the Dana Open, which was enough for the 25-year-old to mathematically clinch a spot on the U.S. team.

Maguire was the hero of the 2021 Solheim Cup, going 4-0-1 in her rookie campaign to lift the Euros to their second consecutive victory at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Since that momentous occasion, the Irishwoman has recorded her first two LPGA Tour victories, becoming a Rolex First-Time Winner at the 2022 LPGA Drive On Championship at Crown Colony and grabbing another win at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give earlier this season. Of the 4.5 points she earned for the Blue and Yellow in 2021, the most came in the foursomes sessions as Maguire went 2-0-0 alongside her playing partner Mel Reid, one of the most dynamic duos of the week in the Buckeye State.

Nordqvist is the first-ever playing vice captain for the European team after earning a spot via her position in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. She’s played in the most Solheim Cups of anyone on either side this year, teeing it up seven times previously for the Blue and Yellow, and boasts a stellar 14-10-3 record that has seen her win an impressive 15.5 points for the European team over the years. Captain Pettersen had selected Nordqvist as a vice captain long before she locked in her spot on the 2023 squad, but as the most veteran player on the European side, it has looked like a natural fit so far for the Swede, even with balancing all of the extra responsibilities that come with being both a competitor and a vice captain in the Solheim Cup.

Match 4, 8:46 a.m. – Ally Ewing/Cheyenne Knight vs. Charley Hull/Emily Kristine Pedersen

Mississippi and Texas will be well-represented when Ally Ewing and Cheyenne Knight take the tee on Friday morning to begin their battle with Solheim Cup stalwart Charley Hull and Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen at 8:46 a.m. Then playing as Ally McDonald, Ewing made her Solheim Cup debut in 2019 after being tapped to replace her now-captain Stacy Lewis who was forced to withdraw with a back injury, then again qualifying for the U.S. team in 2021. She has a 2-5-1 record, earning the most points in the fourball sessions, and will need to lead her rookie partner well as the pair look to challenge a pair of Solheim Cup veterans.

Knight is one of five rookies on this year’s U.S. team, and unlike the rest of her counterparts, this will be the first time she’s ever teed it up for the Red, White and Blue. But the University of Alabama alum has plenty of LPGA Tour experience to rely on in what could be considered the biggest moment of her professional golf career. She has two Tour titles on resume, winning the 2019 Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America as a rookie and capturing the 2023 Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in July alongside her playing partner Elizabeth Szokol. And she knows how to deal with the nerves that come with being in contention, even though they may not be exactly the same as what she’ll feel on the first tee on Friday.

Hull is synonymous with the Solheim Cup, playing in five previous editions of the event and winning 12.5 points for Team Europe with an 11-5-3 record. She holds the record for the youngest person ever to compete on the European side, playing in her first Solheim Cup in 2013 at 17 years old, and went undefeated in 2019 with a 2-0-2 record. She has four runner-up finishes on the LPGA Tour this season, most recently falling in a playoff to Minjee Lee at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G, and couldn’t wait to get to Spain to not only show off that good form but also help Europe get another Solheim Cup victory.

Pedersen was selected as a captain’s pick by Pettersen, and the Denmark native has been a model of consistency in her previous two Solheim Cup appearances. She’s earned one point for the Euros in each of the three formats and recorded four total losses during her tenure, a 3-4-0 record she will look to improve upon over the weekend at Finca Cortesin, starting Friday alongside Hull.

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Your Friday morning foursomes pairings for the Solheim Cup 🏆

Who will take the early lead in Spain?#SolheimCup2023 pic.twitter.com/0wnrH8G0Y6
— LPGA (@LPGA) September 21, 2023

Featured Matches: 2023 Solheim Cup

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