The United States secured its fifth victory at the Ping Junior Solheim – a prelude to the professional tournament taking place this week – by defeating the European team 13-11 at the St. Leon-Rot Golf Club in Germany. Victories by National Team members Maria Parra and Ana Peláez in the individual events were not enough to overcome the deficit.

This day of singles matches began with a clear 7.5-4.5 lead for the United States after the three foursomes matches that had been left unfinished on Monday were completed. Given this situation, Iben Tinning's team had to come out attacking in every match.

Despite that aggressive approach, the first two matches went to the foreign players, Sierra Brooks and Angel Yin. From that point on, European victories followed one after another; six in total. María Parra defeated Nelly Korda 1up, and Ana Peláez beat Hailee Cooper 4&2.

Valencian golfer Marta Pérez fared worse, falling to the capable Megan Khang (5/4). Despite the defeat, the experience is extremely positive for all three golfers from the Blume National School.

With this result, Europe still has two titles in its trophy cabinet, those of 2003 and 2007, compared to the five of the United States (2002, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015), which has taken a considerable lead in this particular race.

Europe struggled on the first day

The first day of play concluded with a dangerous situation for the European team, who found themselves with an adverse score of 5-4 with three foursomes still to be finished… and all three in clear favor of the North American team.

Things didn't start well for the Spanish golfers, who lost their fourball matches in the morning, although Europe didn't finish the session with a defeat (3-3). Marta Pérez and María Parra lost their match against Megan Khang and Mariel Galdiano 3/2, while Ana Peláez and the French player Agathe Laisne fell to Hannah O'Sullivan and Nelly Korda by the same score.

In the afternoon, the foursomes resulted in two losses and one win for Europe. The Spanish players were not involved in any of those losses, as their matches were still pending. These matches resumed on Tuesday with two wins for the United States and one draw, which was secured by María Parra and Marta Pérez.

This eighth edition of the Ping Junior Solheim Cup, one of the most prestigious continental team tournaments in the world, featured a European team made up of the aforementioned Spanish players, Norwegian Sandra Nordaas, French Agathe Laisne and Danish Puk Lyng Thomson, who earned their place on the team by occupying the Top 6 of the PING Junior Solheim Cup European Ranking; and German Leonie Harm, Austrian Emma Spitz, Irish Olivia Mehaffey, Swedish Elin Esborn, Swiss Albane Valenzuela –champion of the 2015 Copa de SM La Reina–, and also French Mathilda Cappeliez, who were the choices of captain Iben Tinning.

This powerful European team faced an American squad that, like its rival, boasts almost all of its players in the world's Top 100 and was led by Sierra Brooks and Hannah O'Sullivan, world numbers 2 and 3, respectively. Alongside them were Angel Yin, Hailee Cooper, Nelly Korda, Mariel Galdiano, Mika Liu, Megan Khang, Kristen Gillman, Kaitlyn Papp, Haley Moore, and Andrea Lee.

Strong Spanish presence at the Ping Junior Solheim Cup

The presence of Spanish players in the Ping Junior Solheim Cup has been a constant since 2002.

Thus, in 2002 up to seven Spanish women played – Azahara Muñoz, Carmen Alonso, María Recasens, Elisa Serramiá, Inés Díaz-Negrete, María Hernández and Emma Cabrera – while in 2003 five played: Azahara Muñoz, María Hernández, Adriana Zwanck, Belén Mozo and Emma Cabrera.

Subsequently, in 2005, five other Spanish women defended the colors of the European team – Azahara Muñoz, Belén Mozo, Beatriz Recari, Carlota Ciganda and Marta Silva – while in 2007 two did so, Carlota Ciganda and Marta Silva, a number that was repeated in 2009 – Ana Fernández de Mesa and Anna Arrese – and that was limited to the presence of Luna Sobrón in 2011 and Harang Lee in 2013.

The Ping Junior Solheim Cup has been held since 2002, and since then, players who have gone on to become successful professionals have participated in the event, such as Paula Creamer, Anna Nordqvist, Morgan Pressel, Brittany Lincicome, and Melissa Reid.

RESULTS

First day

Fourballs

Europe, 3 – United States, 3

Foursomes

Europe, 1.5 – United States, 4.5

Individuals

Europe, 6.5 – United States, 5.5

TOTAL

Europe, 11 – United States, 13

See the full results below, in the Related Links section.