Team USA avoids furious World Team rally to retain Handa Cup

MANATEE -- The roar was loud.

The shot yielded an even more deafening result.

It left Team USA in prime position to retain the ISPS Handa Cup, and an injury to the player that hit it.

Danielle Ammaccapane's hole-out from 105 yards with a pitching wedge on the 18th at Palm-Aire Country Club's Champions Course on Saturday led to Team USA keeping the Handa Cup with a 26-22 victory over the World.

Ammaccapane celebrated by jumping up and down, but injured her right knee in the process.

"When I came down, it kind of just displaced itself," she said. " It just kind of moved. And then I put some pressure on it, and it felt like it wasn't stable. I would not have been able to finish. That was the shot of the tournament."

Her opponent, Peru's Jenny Lidback, had never lost a match in that fashion before.

It was a capper to a strong finish from Ammaccapane, who birdied four of her final five holes to secure a vital win for Team USA.

And she did it in style after launching her tee shot into a fairway bunker on No. 18. That forced Ammaccapane to chip out, which set the stage for her 105-yard approach over the water guarding the green.

Ammaccapane said she knew she had to get it up and down just to tie Lidback, and her thought process was to hit it close.

"When I hit it, it was on the flag the whole, entire way," she said. "I thought, 'This is going to be a tap-in.' I just knew it, the way I hit it and everything. It just went in. It was unbelievable."

Word spread back to captain Nancy Lopez, whose team had built a 16-8 advantage after Friday's action but had the lead trimmed to four when Ammaccapane mounted a charge.

"I'm not nervous playing, but watching is really tough," Lopez said.

Lidback held a three-shot lead over Ammaccapane through 13 holes. That's when Ammaccapane cut into the deficit with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 14-15, before evening the match with a par on the 17th hole after Lidback bogeyed.

Then the final-hole fireworks occurred.

"I expected her to hit it close and make her four, but not to go in," Lidback said. "Weird things happen in sports and in golf. Any professional level, weird things happen. It's a heartbreak."

That match didn't clinch the Handa Cup, but it steered momentum firmly onto the American side. Michelle Redman, playing in the group right behind Ammaccapane and Lidback, tucked her approach on No. 18 to within a couple feet to seal the World Team's fate.

"I knew we needed my points," Redman said.

World Team captain Sally Little loaded her singles lineup with heavy hitters in the early groups. England's Trish Johnson (6-under), Sweden's Helen Alfredsson (4-under) and Scotland's Catriona Matthew (7-under) lit up Palm-Aire en route to the World securing three of the first four singles matches. In Alfredsson's case, she converted a birdie on the final hole to outlast American Barb Mucha by two shots.

"They stepped up to the plate," Little said.

The event, which raised $10,000 for the Special Operations Wounded Warrior Foundation, also saw Juli Inkster, Beth Daniel and Christa Johnson rattle off singles victories for Team USA.

Inkster's round, a 5-under par tally to defeat England's Laura Davies, capped a crushing effort at Palm-Aire following Friday's performance where she went 12-under par over the two nines in the best ball and modified alternate shot formats with partner Pat Hurst.

Next year's Handa Cup venue has yet to be decided, but Little said she'd like to come back to the area after the solid crowd support for two days.

"This is the most representative of people-wise, spectator-wise, support from your press that we've had a Handa Cup," Little said. "So if we carry it on and have it back in Sarasota, we could really build a nice following again. It reminds me when we played at Bent Tree. Sarasota was a very big supporter of the LPGA."

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Team USA avoids furious World Team rally to retain Handa Cup ."