In the end, Great Britain & Ireland just refused to lose.
It had been eight years since GB&I last had the Curtis Cup in its possession. The United States probably had more talent on home soil at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. in its runaway victory in 2018.
They were some pretty talented groups the U.S. threw at GB&I in the 2021 edition at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales and again in 2022 at Merion Golf Club’s iconic East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township, the normally biennial competition compressed into just 10 months by the coronavirus pandemic.
This time, though, the teams seemed pretty evenly matched in both talent and experience. Playing at home always seems to matter and that was no different in the 43rd Curtis Cup Match as GB&I held on for 10.5-9.5 victory Sunday at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.
The weather was spectacular, the predominately pro-GB&I crowds were enthusiastic and the golf was tremendous. GB&I, under captain Catriona Matthew, twice a winning European captain in Solheim Cup competition, was really, really determined.
GB&I might have won this thing when a pair on convincing fourball wins Saturday afternoon enabled it to take a 7-5 lead into the Sunday singles.
The U.S., under captain Meghan Stasi, the South Jersey legend and 10-time winner of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship, threw some haymakers Sunday.
Stasi sent out 15-year-old wunderkind Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla, Calif. in the first match of the day to face Lottie Woad, the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). The kid shrugged and made five birdies and an eagle and took down Woad, an English woman and a junior at Florida State, with a stunning 3 and 2 decision.
Pressure? What pressure.
It’s the kind of defeat that often shakes up a home team that comes into the singles with a lead.
But Sara Byrne, the feisty Irish woman who had teamed with Woad in all four partner matches, winning outright once and getting halves in the other three, restored order for GB&I with a solid 3 and 2 victory over Southern California junior Catherine Park, No. 7 in the Women’s WAGR.
Maybe you were unfamiliar with Byrne before this weekend, but she finished in fourth place in the Atlantic Coast Conference individual chase at Porters Neck Country Club in Wilmington, N.C. to cap her senior season at Miami in the spring.
Byrne might very well have been GB&I’s best player over the weekend.
It’s easy to forget sometimes that Anna Davis, the talented left-hander from Spring Valley, Calif. is just 18-years old, but the Auburn sophomore delivered a huge point for the U.S. with a 3 and 2 victory over Hannah Darling, the South Carolina senior who was playing in her third Curtis Cup for GB&I.
The Rhodes sisters, 20-year-old Patience, a redshirt sophomore at Arizona State, and her big sister Mimi, a 22-year-old and a member of Wake Forest’s 2023 national championship team, came up big in the middle of Matthew’s Sunday lineup.
Patience Rhodes, used in only two of the four partners matches the first two days, delivered a 6 and 5 victory over UCLA senior Zoe Campos, No. 4 in the Women’s WAGR.
Mimi Rhodes found herself staring at a 3-down deficit after seven holes in her match with Melanie Green, the first American to win the Royal & Ancient’s Women’s Amateur Championship since Kelli Kuehne did it in 1996.
But Mimi Rhodes showed the kind of grit and determination that GB&I had displayed all weekend. Wins at the eighth, 11th, 13th and 14th holes turned that 3-down hole into a 1-up advantage. Mimi Rhodes carried that edge to the 18th tee, assuring GB&I a half a point. GB&I needed 10-and-a-half points to take the Cup away from the Americans and Mimi Rhodes accounted for that final half a point.
It was Lorna McClymont, a 23-year-old Scot, who had lost to Green in the final of the Women’s Amateur Championship at Portmarnock Golf Club outside Dublin in July.
At Sunningdale, though, it was McClymont, playing in the next-to-last match of the day, who put up probably the biggest point of the day for GB&I with a 3 and 2 victory over Megan Schofill, the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles.
The match was even through eight holes when McClymont went off, making birdies at the ninth, 10th, 11th and 13th holes, good for wins on three of those holes to go 3-up with five holes to play.
“I’m really proud of them,” Stasi told the R&A website about her U.S. team. “We had a lot of new players, so to represent the USA for the first time in a Curtis Cup, it’s pretty amazing what they accomplished.
“Honestly, I think just every match from day one, we just had a few missed putts here and there. (GB&I) had some absolutely incredible up-and-downs and they made a few longer putts. I think that was really about it. I think we were strong and they were just slightly stronger on a few shots here and there.”
Stasi had put Rachel Kuehn, like Darling for GB&I, playing in her third Curtis Cup Match, in the anchor spot, but Kuehn’s 3 and 2 victory over Aine Donegan ultimately didn’t matter.
Yes, it’s winning or losing that matters. But what really matters at a Curtis Cup is just being there.
Rachel Kuehn had been part of two winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams at Conwy and again at Merion. She was a teammate of Mimi Rhodes on that Wake Forest team that won the program’s first national title in the spring of 2023.
But she wanted to be at Sunningdale for one last shot at a Curtis Cup. And Kuehn and her American teammates were better for being there, win, lose or draw.
It will be interesting to see if Talley wants to remain an amateur long enough to give it another shot when the 44th Curtis Cup Match is played in her home state at Bel-Air in Los Angeles in June of 2026.
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