If you thought the United States was going up against some kind of pushover when it traveled to Caernarvonshire, Wales for the 41st Curtis Cup Match to take on Great Britain & Ireland, one look at the results of last week’s AIG Women’s Open Championship at Carnoustie would quickly put an end to that notion.
Three of GB&I’s players, Louise Duncan, a 21-year-old from Scotland, Lauren Walsh, a 20-year-old from Ireland, and Annabell Fuller, a 19-year-old from England, all made the 36-hole cut in an LPGA major championship.
Duncan, who captured The Women’s Amateur Championship this summer, ended up grabbing low-amateur honors, finishing in a tie for ninth place. Duncan’s performance enabled her to rise 102 spots in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) to No. 341. Walsh, who helped Wake Forest reach the NCAA Championship as a sophomore in the spring, finished in a tie for 42nd place. Fuller, a junior at Florida, finished in a tie for 61st place. At No. 14 in the Women’s WAGR, Walsh is the highest-ranked member of the GB&I team. Fuller is No. 27.
The last time the United States went across the pond to contest a Curtis Cup Match was five years ago when a talented, but young group of Americans ran into a GB&I team that featured a couple of Annika Award winners in Leona Maguire and Bronte Law and Charlotte Thomas, who was fresh off leading Washington to a surprising NCAA crown, and had the full-throated support of Maguire’s fellow Irish men and women at the Dun Loughaire Golf Club in suburban Dublin. GB&I took the Cup that year by an 11.5-8.5 margin.
To use an analogy popular among American football commentators, the U.S. team got punched in the mouth in Thursday’s first two sessions of Curtis Cup play at Conwy Golf Club, falling behind 4.5-1.5.
Trust me, the Americans knew what they were getting into. Rachel Kuehn and Emilia Migliaccio are teammates of Lauren Walsh at Wake Forest.
The United States began the process of digging out from its Day One hole when captain Sarah Ingram sent out her big guns, Rose Zhang, No. 1 in the Women’s WAGR, and Rachel Heck, No. 2 in the Women’s WAGR, in a foursome match against Duncan and the Girls’ Amateur Championship winner Hannah Darling, the 18-year-old who has risen to No. 25 in the Women’s WAGR.
Zhang and Heck, who will be teammates at Stanford beginning next week, claimed a 3 and 2 victory.
By the end of the long day, a four-ball victory by Zhang and Allisen Corpuz, the former Southern California standout who is No. 9 in the Women’s WAGR, over Caley McGinty, a 20-year-old from England who transferred from Kent State to Oklahoma State this summer, and Emily Toy, a 23-year-old from England, the United States had battled all the way back to square the overall score at 6-6.
Wake Forest teammates Kuehn, No. 23 in the Women’s WAGR, and Migliaccio, No. 15 in the Women’s WAGR, got another point on the board in the morning foursomes with a 3 and 2 victory over Fuller and Charlotte Heath, who helped Florida State capture the team crown in the NCAA Columbus Regional as a freshman in the spring and is No. 48 in the Women’s WAGR.
It looked like the United States was going to get a sweep of the morning foursomes, but recently crowned U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Jensen Castle, a junior at Kentucky, got a little too aggressive with a birdie try on the 18th hole and Brooke Matthews, a fifth-year player at Arkansas, couldn’t get the nine-foot comebacker for par to fall.
That enabled the pair of McGinty, No. 51 in the Women’s WAGR, and Toy to salvage a half-point with a bogey. As a result, GB&I took a 5-4 lead into the afternoon four-ball matches.
Castle teamed with Kuehn for a 3 and 2 victory over Walsh and Duncan, but Fuller and Darling, who have proven to be a strong pair for GB&I captain Elaine Ratcliffe, earned a 4 and 3 decision over the pair of Heck and Duke senior Gina Kim, No. 17 in the Women’s WAGR.
Corpuz went off in the final four-ball match, though, as she ripped off four birdies in a stretch of five holes, beginning with the third hole, as she and Zhang got out to an early 3-up lead over McGinty and Toy. GB&I never went away, though, and Corpuz had to drop a bomb of a putt from off the green to shut the door in a 3 and 2 victory.
Going into the Saturday singles, which get under way at 5 a.m. Eastern time, the Curtis Cup is very much up for grabs.
The eight singles matches will begin with Castle taking on Darling, both of whom have been involved in a lot of big matches this summer.
Ingram is saving two of her big guns for the last two matches as Migliaccio will take on Fuller in the next-to-last match with Zhang, the best amateur player in the world, in the anchor spot against Toy, winner of The Women’s Amateur Championship in 2019 at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland.
It is going to be a fascinating finish.
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