GAINESVILLE, Virginia: Alison Lee sparked a shirtless caddie celebration by spinning a wedge into the cup for eagle. Andrea Lee holed a bunker shot to set up Rose Zhang’s walk-off eagle one hole later. And Megan Khang paused for 10 seconds to let gravity help her out on a critical birdie putt.

The wait was worth it for the US, which maintained a four-point lead over Europe in the Solheim Cup on Saturday.

With top-ranked Nelly Korda getting an afternoon break after winning the leadoff point in three consecutive sessions of team matches, US captain Stacy Lewis watched her role players excel, and the Americans concluded a warm, breezy day at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club with a 10-6 advantage.

“They’re playing the way I expected them to play, so I’m not surprised at all,” Lewis said. “But at the same time, to do it on this stage and in these moments and to pull these shots off and to make the putts and to do it with the joy that they’re doing it with, it’s the coolest part to me.”

Europe, which has captured the Solheim Cup the last three times, won the last two matches to conclude a 4-4 day. But the team in royal blue and yellow will need its largest comeback in Sunday singles to make it a record four in a row. The US rallied from four points down to win in Germany in 2015.

The US needs 4 1/2 points from a dozen singles matches to win the cup, and Europe needs eight points to retain it. Captain Suzann Pettersen drew inspiration from the European Ryder Cup team’s rally from the same deficit to win at Medinah in 2012.

“I was on the opposite side in Germany, and I know what it feels like,” Pettersen said. “Everyone remembers Medinah. I mean, it’s a tough task.”

Lewis has relied on data to find the right combinations, whether keeping Korda and Allizen Corpuz together for alternate shot; sending rookie Lauren Coughlin out with three partners; or giving Zhang a comfortable pairing with Andrea Lee, her fellow Stanford Cardinal.

“I know their games backwards and forward, and it’s allowed me to create some really good pairings,” Lewis said.

Korda and Corpuz fell behind early against Carlota Ciganda and Emily Pedersen but turned it around on the back nine and got a break when Corpuz hit a worm-burner of a fairway wood into the par-5 14th hole that avoided the water and settled within 20 feet. Korda put her hands on her head in disbelief and Lewis gave Corpuz a shoulder rub in the fairway.

Korda holed the putt for eagle, her second in a row on a hole the US has dominated, and she and Corpuz became the first American duo to go 4-0 in foursomes after winning twice last year in Spain.

“The Americans have played unbelievable. I don’t know how many eagles they’ve had. It seems like they’ve had double figures,” Hall of Famer and European assistant captain Laura Davies said. “They’ve just played great golf. Out-putted us at the moment. Deep squad of players. We’ll never say never, but it is going to be very, very difficult to get the cup back.”

A day after transportation problems prevented most fans from getting to the golf course for the opening tee shots, a situation that LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan took responsibility for, the grandstands surrounding the first tee were full and fans lined the gallery ropes shortly after 7 a.m.

The only thing that kept them quiet was a slow start by the Americans, but it got loud once Korda started rolling.

In the first afternoon better-ball match, Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom were 2 down to Khang and Alison Lee when Nordqvist birdied the par-3 11th hole. Khang’s tying putt hung on the lip for 10 seconds before dropping, and she confirmed with a rules official that she had not waited too long for the ball to move.

Needing two putts to win the 14th, Khang made her 15-footer for eagle anyway, setting up the latest fist-pumping celebration for the Americans’ loudest cheerleader, who was next to the green in a cowboy hat when Corpuz hit her approach hours earlier.

Khang and Lee closed it out on the next hole for a 4-and-3 victory, Lee’s first in a Solheim Cup match since 2015. She gave the US an early lead with her wedge from 86 yards for an eagle 2 on the second hole, and the Americans’ caddies stripped from the waist up and chest-bumped to pay off a bet with Lee that they agreed to on the tee box.

“Literally holed out five minutes after that conversation. Great motivation,” Lee said.

Zhang and Andrea Lee never trailed in their 6-and-4 victory over Linn Grant and Celine Boutier. Zhang, the youngest US player at 21 who had a forgettable Solheim debut last year, joined Korda and Coughlin by winning all three of her matches.

Pettersen benched Leona Maguire, a valuable contributor in the last two Solheim Cups who has played poorly this year, for both sessions. Rookie Albane Valenzuela also sat out all day, while Charley Hull and Pedersen played four matches each.

Hull delivered. The excitable English player hit a 300-yard-plus drive on the par-4 18th to set up a wedge to tap-in range by Esther Henseleit for a 1-up victory in foursomes over Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho, then did it again as she and Georgia Hall beat Corpuz and Lilia Vu 2 up in better ball.

Lexi Thompson improved her record in alternate shot to 7-2-1 in what is likely her final Solheim Cup, teaming with the unbeaten Coughlin to make four birdies in six holes on the back nine and beat Maja Stark and Hall, 4 and 3.

Thompson and Ewing were beaten 2 and 1 by Ciganda and Pedersen in fourballs. Ewing has lost her last six Solheim Cup matches.

GAINESVILLE, Virginia: Nelly Korda danced at the urging of teammate Megan Khang as they walked off the first tee together at the Solheim Cup after a pep talk from former President Barack Obama. Then she let Khang raise her arms to pump up the crowd as they walked to the 12th green following another sterling shot from the world’s top-ranked player.

Korda has never won a Solheim Cup in three tries, but she put the US in a strong position to end that drought by winning the leadoff match of each session Friday while helping the Americans to a 6-2 lead over Europe at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

A Solheim Cup that began with an unforced error by organizers, who didn’t have enough shuttle buses to transport fans to the course in the early morning hours, concluded its first day with the largest single-day lead by either team.

The US also led 6-2 in the inaugural event in 1990, when the first eight matches were played over two days.

“We played opponents that are playing fantastic golf, that’s No. 1. Sometimes we almost invite them to play even better,” European captain Suzann Pettersen said. “At the same time, we have to face reality, and we have a massive job to do.”

In her better-ball match with Khang, Korda played 14 holes in 8 under and made two eagles on the back nine, the first after her 5-iron approach on the 480-yard, par-5 12th settled 2 feet away. Europe’s Georgia Hall conceded that putt, and Korda holed a 10-footer for eagle on No. 14 to close out a 6-and-4 victory over Hall and Leona Maguire.

A six-time winner on the LPGA Tour this year, including her second major championship, Korda came into the Solheim Cup with a 7-4-1 record. But Europe captured the trophy each time, winning in 2019 in Scotland and 2021 in Ohio before retaining the Cup last year with a draw in Spain. Neither side has captured the Cup four times in a row.

Korda can’t win it on her own — the US needs 14 1/2 points over three days — but she’s certainly a key figure for captain Stacy Lewis on a PGA Tour-tested course that favors power and appears to suit her eye. Korda won 16 holes in her matches, the most by one Solheim Cup player in a single day since 2015.

She knew she could play aggressively with the accurate Khang as her partner.

“When you have a teammate who’s so pure off the tee, you never have to worry. You just kind of send it,” Korda said. “So that was kind of the motto, is I was going to go first and send it.”

Lewis also got strong contributions from her two rookies, sending Lauren Coughlin and Sarah Schmelzel out for both sessions and watching them win three points. Coughlin and Rose Zhang beat Celine Boutier and Albane Valenzuela 3 and 2 in alternate shot, while Schmelzel and Lilia Vu topped Linn Grant and Carlota Ciganda by the same score. The rookies paired up for better ball and beat Emily Pedersen and Maja Stark 3 and 2.

“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,” said Coughlin, a two-time winner this summer.

Zhang, winless in her debut last year, went 2-0 on Friday. She teamed in the afternoon with Andrea Lee, whose approach on the 14th grazed the cup — just missing an albatross — to close a 5-and-4 win over Grant and Charley Hull.

“Things went according to plan today,” Lewis said.

Meanwhile, Pettersen got nothing from her best two players. Boutier, the top-ranked European at No. 10 in the world, was rested after her morning loss, and No. 12 Hull went 0-2.

The matches began quietly under overcast skies, with half-empty grandstands surrounding the first tee when Europe’s Esther Henseleit struck the opening tee shot at 7:05 a.m. Fans complained they were stuck for hours with no access to restrooms while waiting for bus rides to the sprawling property about 40 miles west of Washington, D.C., prompting an apology from the LPGA Tour.

Teamed with Allizen Corpuz in the opening alternate-shot match, Korda was steady on the back nine while German rookie and Olympic silver medalist Henseleit faltered. The Americans won the 14th and 15th holes with pars and then closed out Henseleit and Hull 3 and 2 when Korda hit her approach to 5 feet on the par-3 16th.

Korda and Corpuz became the first American duo to win three straight alternate-shot matches after they went 2-0 in the format last year.

The grandstands were full when the afternoon matches began, and the crowds tried in vain to urge on Lexi Thompson in what’s likely her final Solheim Cup as a player. Thompson and Alison Lee lost their better-ball match 6 and 5 to the Swedish duo of Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom, who wore matching bucket hats and had Sagstrom’s new husband, Jack Clarke, carrying Nordqvist’s bag.

Nordqvist, an assistant captain for Europe who is playing in her ninth Solheim Cup, made six birdies through 13 holes as the pair never trailed.

“I feel like I’ve been the wedding crasher lately. I crashed her wedding last week, and this week I’m crashing her and my caddie Jack’s honeymoon,” Nordqvist said. “We just had a lot of fun out there together.”