Kuehn gets U.S. off to a good start as it battles GB&I to 3-3 draw on opening day of Curtis Cup at Sunningdale

 

   Meghan Stasi had been along with the United States Curtis Cup team in 2021 at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales and in 2022 at Merion Golf Club’s iconic East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township.

   Former Wake Forest standout Rachel Kuehn was on both of those winning U.S. sides and was back for a third time for the Red, White & Blue when the 43^rd Curtis Cup Match teed off Friday morning at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.

   Who better to set the tone for the U.S. in the first match of the day, an alternate-shot fourball match, than Kuehn, No. 10 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR)? Americans are notoriously shaky in a fourball format of which they are mostly unfamiliar.

   Many players might be intimidated in an opening match on foreign soil, but Stasi sensed, correctly, that in Kuehn she had a player completely in her element in such a cauldron.

   Kuehn teamed with Melanie Green, a South Florida graduate and No. 32 in the Women’s WAGR, to dust the sister act of Mimi Rhodes, a teammate of Kuehn’s at Wake Forest, and Arizona State redshirt sophomore Patience Rhodes, 6 and 4.

   By the end of the day, a very talented Great Britain & Ireland team had battled the U.S. to a 3-3 draw, perhaps, in retrospect, making that Curtis Cup opening win even more significant.

   It was probably a smart call by Stasi, too, to pair Green with Kuehn. A very good player at USF, Green wasn’t really on anybody’s Curtis Cup radar until she defeated Lorna McClymont, a 23-year-old Scot, at Portmarnock Golf Club outside of Dublin in July to become the first American to capture the Royal & Ancient’s Women’s Amateur Championship since Kelli Kuehne in 1996.

   Stasi then paired her two most highly-ranked players, UCLA junior Zoe Campos, No. 4 in the Women’s WAGR, and Jasmine Koo, No. 6 in the Women’s WAGR, to take on a couple of Irish women in LSU senior Aine Donegan and Arizona State junior Beth Coulter.

   It looked like the U.S. might be on its way to grabbing a 2-0 lead when Campos and Koo won the 16^th hole to go 1-up with two holes to play. But Donegan, who played so well in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at the Pebble Beach Golf Links, and Coulter battled back to take the 18^th and salvage a valuable half-point.

   Stasi sent out Southern California junior Catherine Park, No. 7 in the Women’s WAGR, with Asterisk Talley, just 15 but among hottest amateur players in the world and No. 39 in the Women’s WAGR, against Florida State junior Lottie Woad, the No. 1 amateur player in the world, and Miami graduate Sara Byrne, No. 49 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Park and Talley, the runnerup to Rianne Malixi in both the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur this summer, raced out to a 3-up lead after nine holes only to see Woad and Byrne win five of the next six holes and take a 2-up lead with three holes to go.

   But Park and Talley dug in, picking up wins at the 17^th and 18^th holes to pull out a half-point for the U.S. in the roller-coaster ride of a match. It capped a successful 2-1 foursome session for the Americans.

   Byrne, again paired with Woad in the afternoon fourballs, delivered probably the biggest moments of the day in their match with the formidable duo of Park and Campos.

   Moments after draining a 35-foot birdie putt on the 16^th hole to give GB&I a 1-up lead, Byrne, an Irish woman, saw her chip-in from 15 yards away find the bottom of the cup to give GB&I a full point with a stunning 2 and 1 victory.

   Earlier in the fourball session, South Carolina senior Hannah Darling, at No. 30 in the Women’s WAGR the highest-ranked GB&I player not named Lottie Woad, and Donegan gave GB&I its first full point with a hard-fought 1-up decision over the Auburn pair of Anna Davis, No. 16 in the Women’s WAGR, and Megan Schofill, the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion at Bel-Air Country Club and No. 24 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Went all the way to England and a Southeastern Conference Championship broke out.

   Darling, like her American counterpart Kuehn, is making her third appearance in the Curtis Cup. She is talented and experienced.

   Stasi, however, picked up an easy point for the American side as her two youngest players, Koo, who will join Park at Southern Cal for her freshman season when she returns to the States, and the amazing Talley, seemingly oblivious to the pressure of a Curtis Cup on foreign soil, rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Mimi Rhodes and McClymont, the R&A Women’s Amateur Championship runnerup.

   “I thought both teams played extremely well,” Stasi, a 10-time winner of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship, told the R&A website. “It was really a good start for us in the morning. We had a couple of all-square matches that we came back and fought for.

   “I think they’re going to learn a lot from today. It’s a long day out there for most of them. I think they’re going to learn a little bit more about each other’s games and just take that into (Saturday).”

   Saturday will feature another session each of foursome and fourball matches with eight singles matches scheduled for Sunday’s windup.

   Looked like The Golf Channel broadcast the afternoon session beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern time Friday. I’m guessing TGC will do the same Saturday morning.