PARKER, Colo. — For nearly a half-hour, the Europeans joined rules officials in a hunt for a golf ball and a place to drop it while the Americans paced around impatiently, looking for answers that never quite came.

Fans that had been chanting “USA! USA!” started shouting “While we’re young! While we’re young!”

After that strange scene at the Solheim Cup played out Friday, Spanish rookie Carlota Ciganda dropped a 15-foot putt to halve the 15th hole in her match against Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson. It gave the Europeans the momentum for a win in that match, which spurred them to a 5-3 lead after a wacky Day 1 at Colorado Golf Club.

“Obviously, we were extremely happy with that,” European captain Liselotte Neumann said.

Ciganda’s victory with Suzann Pettersen was still being dissected well after sundown when rules officials, after looking at replays, conceded they had made the wrong call during that 25-minute-plus delay on the 15th hole. Nothing they could do about it after the fact, however, so the result stood.

Lewis, who spent the delay pacing, stretching, bending, trying to stay loose, was livid.

“I’m very frustrated by the situation,” she said. “I think there were a lot of things that went wrong within the ruling.”

As much as the ruling, she and captain Meg Mallon were frustrated with the amount of time it took.

When the Lewis foursome — the first out for Friday afternoon’s best-ball matches — reached the 15th tee box, they were nearly two holes ahead of the next group. By the time they putted out, there were three groups stacked up on the par-5 hole.