It was just about this time last year when U.S. Curtis Cup team captain Sarah Ingram gathered with a group of 12 top amateur players for a practice session at Loblolly Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla. as the first step in the process that would ultimately determine the eight-player team that would take on Great Britain & Ireland in June of 2020 at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales.
Then, of course, 2020 happened, or more specifically the coronavirus pandemic happened. The 2020 Curtis Cup Match was postponed until 2021 and, with the Walker Cup already scheduled for May at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., rescheduled for early September.
The 2021 calendar has become a little crowded, particularly with several international events from 2020, including the Olympics, being postponed by the pandemic. The United States Golf Association and The Royal & Ancient realized that the Curtis Cup Match was too close to the Solheim Cup, which will conclude at The Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio on Labor Day, Sept. 6 and moved the Curtis Cup to late August. It is now scheduled to tee off Aug. 26 at Conwy.
Not sure if Ingram, a three-time winner of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, got a chance to hang out at Champions Golf Club in Houston last week for that most rarest of birds, a December U.S. Women’s Open, but if she had, she would have had a chance to watch five of the 12 players who were at Loblolly a year ago teeing it up at the game’s highest level.
Only one of those five, Texas senior Kaitlyn Papp, survived the cut, but she was truly one of the stars at Champions, playing in the final group in Saturday’s third round after a sparkling 3-under-par 68 in her second round over Champions’ Cypress Creek Course.
Papp, a home girl from Austin who teamed with current Texas teammate and fellow Texan Hailee Cooper to capture the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2016 at the Streamsong Resort’s Blue Course in central Florida, birdied the final hole as weather forced a Monday windup – 2020 just won’t quit – to finish with a 3-over 287 total. She ended up in a tie for ninth place and was the low amateur, displaying the kind of grit for which Texas golfers are known.
But therein lies the problem with an August Curtis Cup. Papp, No. 19 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), proved at Champions that she’s ready to compete at the professional level and it is doubtful she’ll be willing to delay the start of her pro career until nearly September. In addition to her strong U.S. Open showing, Papp won a Women’s All Pro Tour event, the Atchafalaya Championship at Patterson, La., by eight shots last month against a field of Symetra Tour pros.
It's the dilemma often faced by the U.S. Walker Cup captain as that event, normally played in early September, is not real attractive to college players whose only goal is getting to the PGA Tour as soon as possible.
I’m guessing Papp’s energy will be devoted to the spring portion of her senior season when Texas will hope to make amends for the 2019 season when Papp led the Longhorns, ranked No. 2 by Golfstat, to match play in the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. only to be upset by Auburn in the quarterfinals. Assuming, of course, that the NCAA Championship isn’t cancelled by the pandemic for a second straight spring.
The second-highest ranked American in the Women’s WAGR, Wake Forest senior Emilia Migliaccio, is pretty much in the same boat. She led the Demon Deacons to the Final Match at The Blessings before they fell to Atlantic Coast Conference rival Duke. The ACC did not allow its golfers to compete this fall and Migliaccio, No. 6 in the Women’s WAGR, shoed a little rust at Champions as she missed the cut by six shots with rounds of 74 and 77 for a 151 total.
Migliaccio of Cary, N.C. has been one of America’s top amateur players for a couple of years now, but unless she really has her heart set on wearing the Red, White & Blue in a Curtis Cup, it would seem unlikely Ingram can count on her to be part of the U.S. team.
One of the junior players with whom Ingram got a chance to bond a year ago at Loblolly, Rose Zhang of Irvine, Calif., has rocketed to the top of the Women’s WAGR since then.
Migliaccio certainly needs no introduction to Zhang. The pair teamed with 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad and former Stanford standout Brandon Wu to strike gold for the U.S. in the mixed team event in the 2019 Pan-American Games in Lima, Peru.
Zhang, who edged Southern California senior Gabriela Ruffels in 38 holes in a thrilling U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md. in August, missed the cut by a shot at Champions with a pair of 73s and a 4-over 146 total.
Zhang plans to join the powerful Stanford program at the end of next summer and seems, at least for now, content to at least start her college career. Zhang indicated at Champions that she thinks she’ll know when it’s time to turn pro. She might turn out to be one of Ingram’s leading ladies.
Two other players from the Loblolly contingent made the field at Champions, Vanderbilt junior Auston Kim of St. Augustine, Fla. and No. 30 in the Women’s WAGR and Southern California post-grad Allisen Corpuz of Honolulu, Hawaii and No. 26 in the Women’s WAGR.
Kim missed the cut by four shots, adding a 74 to her opening-round 75 for a 149 total. Corpuz opened with a 78 and added a 76 to land at 154.
Kim fell in the opening round of match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Woodmont to Duke freshman and former Archmere Academy standout Phoebe Brinker. Corpuz took up the NCAA on its offer of a fifth year of eligibility for those who lost the second half of the 2019-2020 campaign to the pandemic, but she would have to stretch her amateur career for a few more months to commit to a Curtis Cup appearance.
At least one of the players who was a senior when the Curtis Cup hopefuls arrived at Loblolly, Furman’s Natalie Srinvassen of Spartanburg, S.C., has turned pro since the college season came to a sudden end in the middle of March.
Mariel Galdiano of Pearl City, Hawaii, a veteran of both the U.S. loss in 2016 at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club in suburban Dublin and the resounding U.S. victory at Quaker Ridge Golf Club, the Donald Ross classic in Scarsdale, N.Y., in 2018 was a senior at UCLA and does not appear on the Bruins’ roster for 2020-’21, so I’m not sure what her status is.
Louisville’s Lauren Hartlage of Elizabethtown, Ky. and No. 70 in the Women’s WAGR is another senior, who, like Corpuz at Southern Cal, is taking a fifth year with the Cardinals, but it would seem unlikely she would extend her amateur career another few months. Hartlage failed to survive a 15-woman playoff for the final six match-play berths in August at Woodmont.
Duke junior Gina Kim of Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 55 in the Women’s WAGR was on fire in the spring of 2019 when she helped the Blue Devils capture the NCAA crown at The Blessings and followed it up by claiming low-amateur honors in the U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston.
Not sure why that high finish did not earn Kim a trip to Champions. She fell in 19 holes in the opening round of the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Woodmont. Still, I would imagine Kim would rate a long look for the U.S. team if she’s planning to return for her senior season at Duke.
Ohio State junior Aneka Seumanutafa of Emmitsburg, Md. and No. 44 in the Women’s WAGR was also among the Curtis Cup hopefuls at Loblolly. Like Duke’s Kim, Seumanutafa lost in the opening round of match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur not far from home in Rockville, Md.
The Big Ten, the ACC and the Pac-12 were all sidelined for the entire fall portion of the wraparound 2020-’21 season, so there have been very few competitive opportunities for players like Duke’s Kim and Seumanutafa, among others. Ingram will be a keen observer of the college scene should the players get back on the course this spring.
Another top junior player, Alexa Pano of Lake Worth, Fla. and No. 62 in the Women’s WAGR, was also invited to Loblolly. Pano, a veteran competitor despite being just 16, finally got back on the golf course in some American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) events last summer. She didn’t seem particularly sharp in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Woodmont, finishing two shots out of the playoff to get into match play.
Pano did seem to find her groove a little in last month’s Rolex Tournament of Champions, AJGA’s signature event, as she finished in a tie for fifth, 12 shots behind Zhang, the runaway winner. Pano seems to always take advantage of the competitive opportunities offered in January by the Orange Blossom circuit of amateur events for women in Florida.
Pano captured the Ione D. Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship, a match-play event played at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the last two years and three times in the last four years. She also reached the final of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in 2018 at foggy Poppy Hills on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula before falling to Yealimi Noh, who contended in the U.S. Women’s Open at Champions before faltering in the final round.
The match-play prowess Pano has displayed is a nice thing to have on the resume for a U.S. Curtis Cup team candidate.
Rounding out the Loblolly Dozen was mid-amateur Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Va., winner of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship. Like Louisville’s Hartlage, Greenlief couldn’t make her way out of the 15-for-six playoff for the match-play bracket in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Woodmont.
But the 30-year-old Greenlief won the Amateur Golf Alliance Women’s Amateur, an event for mid-ams, at the Dye Reserve Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. in October and it sounds like she’s hoping she’ll still be considered for the U.S. Curtis Cup team.
Not that Ingram doesn’t still have a deep talent pool from which to choose for the rescheduled 2021 Curtis Cup Match.
Auburn’s Megan Schofill, a freshman from Monticello, Fla., has risen to No. 25 in the Women’s WAGR. Schofill gave Migliaccio all she wanted before falling in an epic 22-hole match in the round of 16 in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Woodmont.
Migliaccio’s Wake Forest teammate, Rachel Kuehn, a sophomore from Asheville, N.C., won the North & South Women’s Amateur Championship at the Pinehurst Resort and also reached the round of 16 at Woodmont before falling. Kuehn is No. 40 in the Women’s WAGR.
Rachel Heck, the one-time junior standout from Memphis, Tenn., is flying under the radar with the pandemic keeping her out of competition for the fall of her freshman season at Stanford.
But Heck, No. 101 in the Women’s WAGR, flashed her considerable talent in claiming medalist honors by two shots in qualifying for match play at Woodmont and then gave Zhang, her future Stanford teammate, a fight before Zhang pulled out a 1-up decision in another marquee round-of-16 matchup at Woodmont.
And don’t forget about another future Stanford prospect, Megha Ganne, the pride of Holmdel, N.J. who is still a couple of years away from joining the Cardinal in the summer of 2022.
Ganne, No. 87 in the Women’s WAGR, reached the semifinals of the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. Ganne dropped a 1-up decision to China’s Lei Ye, winner of the 2019 U.S. Girls’ Junior at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wis., in the opening round of match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Woodmont.
The last time the U.S. played an away game in the Curtis Cup, in Dun Laoghaire in 2016, captain Robin Burke had an exceedingly young team. Monica Vaughn, who would lead Arizona State to an NCAA crown a year later as a senior at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill., was the elder stateswoman on that team, although the junior stars of the day were all high on the Women’s WAGR.
Every Curtis Cup and Walker Cup has a distinctive cycle it falls in. It was a supremely talented U.S. team that avenged the loss at Dun Laoghaire with a convincing victory in 2018 at Quaker Ridge. And this Curtis Cup cycle will clearly be affected by the pandemic that befell the globe in 2020.
The R&A recently released a list of 17 players who are under consideration for the Great Britain & Ireland team for the Curtis Cup Match.
Three players on that list were among the 24 amateurs who teed it up in the U.S. Women’s Open at Champions, led by Vaughn’s teammate on that 2017 national championship Arizona State team, Northern Ireland’s Olivia Mehaffey, another player who took up the NCAA on its offer for an extra year of college eligibility.
Mehaffey, No. 18 in the Women’s WAGR, rallied with a 72 in the second round at Champions after opening with a 77, her 149 total missing the cut by four shots. Mehaffey is a veteran of GB&I’s victory at Dun Laoghaire in 2016 and its loss to the Americans at Quaker Ridge. She was probably GB&I’s best player at Quaker Ridge.
Lily May Humphreys is a spot behind Mehaffey in the Women’s WAGR at No. 19. She was a wide-eyed 16-year-old at Quaker Ridge. Humphreys followed up an opening-round 75 with an 81 for a 156 total at Champions.
Emily Toy, who defeated Ruffels’ Southern Cal teammate Amelia Garvey of New Zealand to capture the R&A’s Women’s Amateur Championship in 2019 at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland, struggled at Champions with rounds of 88 and 82 for a 170 total. Toy is just inside the Women’s WAGR top 100 at No. 97.
Despite being No. 43 in the Women’s WAGR, Allison Fuller might be GB&I’s best player. Like Humphreys, Fuller was a 16-year-old phenom on GB&I’s 2018 team at Quaker Ridge. Fuller popped up on the Florida women’s golf team in January and made an immediate impact for the Gators before the pandemic shut things down. Fuller was not in the U.S. Women’s Open field at Champions.
Fuller reached the final of last summer's Women's Amateur Championship at West Lancashire, taking Stanford junior Aline Krauter of Germany to the 18th hole before falling, 1-up.
By the way, big props to Champions for staging a U.S. Women’s Open in December. Four years ago, the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship had been scheduled to be held at Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, Fla. in October before a close encounter with Hurricane Irma left the course unplayable.
Champions, which had been doused by feet of rain by Hurricane Harvey earlier in 2017, stepped up and staged the rescheduled U.S. Women’s Mid-Am on short notice in November.
So I’m sure when the pandemic led the USGA to ask Champions to reschedule its U.S. Women’s Open from June to two weeks before Christmas, the membership at the club shrugged its collective shoulders and said, “Sure, no problem.” I will join the chorus of golf fans who were thrilled to watch major championship golf on a Monday in December.
I know the USGA doesn’t want to make a habit out of it, but in 2020 you take your major championships when you can get them.
The next Curtis Cup on American soil is scheduled to be close to home for me in 2022 at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course, a course I walked at least a thousand times as a looper in the 1970s. Just hoping the golf calendar can get back on schedule by then because, personally, I can’t wait.
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