Solheim Cup: Mallon not happy with Ciganda drop
The main talking point on the opening day of the Solheim Cup was Carlota Ciganda’s penalty drop at the 15th.
The Spaniard and Suzann Pettersen looked poised to go one down against Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson after both Europeans hit into a hazard.
Pettersen played on and was soon out of it, Ciganda was then told, incorrectly, that she could go back on a line as far as she wanted. She should have dropped on either side of the hazard.
And this came after a second opinion from an LPGA rules official and a wait of 25 minutes.
What also irritated the Americans was the use of a range finder to determine where to take the drop, which the hosts felt gave Europe an advantage.
Ciganda went back 40 yards (instead of two club lengths), knocked it to 20 feet and, of course, holed the putt. Thompson and Lewis both missed birdie putts and Europe went on to win the match at the 18th.
The momentum of the Americans had been lost, the matches behind, where Angela Stanford and Gerina Piller were making a comeback, were also affected.
Stacy Lewis, who is very adept at the rules, was quite angry about what was happening and I don’t blame her – Mallon US skipper Meg Mallon said afterwards: “The thing I’m most unhappy about is that it took, I think it took about 25 minutes for this to happen. And from our perspective the momentum, which was coming in our favour at that point in time, obviously had stopped. Stacy Lewis, who is very adept at the rules, was quite angry about what was happening and I don’t blame her.
“People make mistakes in rulings, that’s not my issue. We have four matches out there and we have officials with every group, and it shouldn’t take that long for something like that to happen.”
