Lexi Thompson has only made 11 starts this year on the LPGA Tour and she failed to make the weekend in eight of them.
But the 28-year-old has played in five previous Solheim Cups and her captain Stacy Lewis had the ultimate faith in her by sending her out in the morning foursomes, with Thompson hitting the opening shot of the competition.
Alongside Megan Zhang the Americans got the better of Swedish duo Maja Stark and Linn Grant as the visitors enjoyed a clean sweep of the morning matches.
What is even more revealing is that Thompson and Khang weren’t even down to be paired together until a last-minute switch by Lewis as Thompson was added to the foursomes set-up.
“I had a feeling yesterday (Thursday), she wasn’t in my line-up that I’ve had for a couple of weeks. The way that the last four days have gone, the way that she seems mentally I had a good feeling about it and Megan has been playing amazing obviously the last month or so,” Lewis told Sky Sports.
“I literally went to them with about three holes left in the practice round and said ‘hey, can you figure out some golf balls’ and fortunately they managed it and got the win.”
After the victory Thompson added that the pairing was ‘last minute’ though her partner had every confidence in the partnership.
“That was new but I think she knew that we would have no problem playing together and we had fun out there.”
Lewis also revealed on the day before the matches had started that the numbers coming from Thompson’s practice rounds had played a huge part in her leading off the visitors.
“You know, we started the week and I had a couple people, kind of within our team, between caddies and helpers, come up to me and just say, ‘You know, she’s hitting it really good.
“And then it’s kind of every day there’s been more and more people telling me this, and with the data and the analytics that’s we have, I actually have their Strokes Gained from the practice over the last two days and she’s off the charts right now.”
The Americans made the perfect start by winning the first three holes and, while the hosts got it back to all square with five holes to play, Thompson rolled in a…
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