Kuehn gets the clincher as U.S. dominates singles against GB&I to retain Curtis Cup

    The 41^st Curtis Cup, originally scheduled to be contested in June of 2020, turned out to be worth the wait for the United States.

   Captain Sarah Ingram’s U.S. team completed a comeback from a three-point deficit following the opening day of competition at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales with a dominant showing in Saturday’s singles matches on its way to a 12.5-7.5 victory over a really solid Great Britain & Ireland team.

   The U.S. rebounded from its tough opening day to get the match even at 6-6 following two sessions Friday. The U.S. was down in a couple of matches early Saturday, but ended up winning six and halving a seventh, losing just one match outright.

   It was only fitting that the point the U.S. needed to retain the Curtis Cup came from Wake Forest junior Rachel Kuehn of Asheville, N.C. and No. 23 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) as Kuehn edged Scotland’s Louise Duncan, winner of The Women’s Amateur Championship earlier this summer, 2-up.

   Kuehn’s mother, former Wake Forest standout Brenda Corrie Kuehn, earned the clinching point for the United States in its victory over GB&I in 1998 at the Minikahde Club in Minneapolis.

   “We all knew we only had to win four to retain, but that wasn’t our goal,” Kuehn told the United States Golf Association website. “Our goal was to go out and to win eight singles matches. The more we can win, the less pressure is on the girls coming in. Just one more point you can put up for your country, it’s a huge deal.

   “It was like, oh my God, we won. Again, the comeback we made, I’m so proud of our team. We really kept fighting.”

   Arkansas fifth-year player Brooke Matthews of Rogers, Ark. and No. 35 in the Women’s WAGR put the United States ahead for the first time when she finished off a 3 and 2 victory over Florida State sophomore Charlotte Heath a 19-year-old from England, and No. 49 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Rachel Heck, who captured the NCAA individual title as a freshman at Stanford in the spring and is No. 2 in the Women’s WAGR, then pulled out a 3 and 1 victory over Kuehn’s Wake Forest teammate, Lauren Walsh of Ireland and at No. 14, the highest-ranked player on the GB&I side.

   Kentucky junior Jensen Castle was in the first match of the day against the Junior Girls’ Amateur champion Hannah Darling, the 18-year-old English woman whose talent has been obvious all week. Darling, No. 25 in the Women’s WAGR, had Castle of West Columbia, S.C. 3-down with four holes to play.

   But Castle, displaying the grit that won her the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship earlier this month at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y. and earned her a spot on the U.S. team, battled back to pick up a half-point for the U.S. Not all halved matches are created equal, but this one had to be disheartening one for a GB&I team whose week had started with so much promise.

   Pretty memorable August of 2021 for the Castle kid, huh?

   Allisen Corpuz, the former Southern California standout from Kapolei, Hawaii and No. 9 in the Women’s WAGR, closed out a closer-than-it-looks 2 and 1 victory over her crosstown rival at UCLA, Annabel Wilson, to put another point on the board for the U.S. It capped a 3-0 week for Corpuz.

   That set the stage for Kuehn to finish off her win over Duncan and make sure the United States remained in possession of the Curtis Cup. It was the first U.S. win on foreign soil since 2008.

   Caley McGinty, who transferred from Kent State to Oklahoma State earlier this summer, picked up the lone full point for GB&I with a 4 and 3 victory over Duke senior Gina Kim, No. 17 in the Women’s WAGR. McGinty, a 20-year-old from England, is No. 53 in the Women’s WAGR.

   If things hadn’t gone so well earlier in the day for the U.S., Ingram knew she had a couple of studs at the back end of her lineup.

   Wake Forest fifth-year player Emilia Migliaccio, No. 15 in the Women’s WAGR, pulled out a 2-up victory over Florida junior Annabell Fuller, a 20-year-old English woman and No. 27 in the Women’s WAGR. Fuller was the only holdover from the last Curtis Cup Match, a 17-3 U.S. victory at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.

   The anchor for the U.S. was Rose Zhang, the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR from Irvine, Calif. Zhang’s 1-up victory over Emily Toy, winner of The Women’s Amateur Championship in 2019, gave Zhang a 4-0-1 record for the week.

   Zhang, who will join forces with Heck at Stanford in a couple of weeks, was everything you’d expect from the world’s No. 1 amateur. Winner of the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Girls’ Junior earlier this summer, Zhang was a steady force for the American women, despite being its youngest player.

   It was in December of 2019 when Ingram first gathered with a dozen potential members of the U.S. team at Loblolly in Hobe Sound, Fla. as preparation began for what was to be the 2020 Curtis Cup at Conwy. Little did any of us know that a storm in the form of the coronavirus was gathering. The pandemic would force the Curtis Cup Match, scheduled for June, to be postponed to 2021. It first was moved to September, but with the 2021 schedule crammed with events postponed from 2020, including a couple of little items like the Summer Olympics and the Ryder Cup, this last week of August was where it landed.

   Four members of that Loblolly dozen got their hands on the Curtis Cup Saturday, Corpuz, Migliaccio, Kim and Zhang.

   The Curtis Cup Match will return to its more traditional June time frame in 2022 and it will be held at my favorite golf course in the world, Merion Golf Club’s iconic East Course. Paid the East a visit a month ago to take in the final round of the Pennsylvania Amateur and was rewarded by watching Carlisle’s John Peters send an 8-iron from 193 yards away on the classic finishing hole into the cup for an eagle to win the tournament. Just another Merion moment.

   Migliaccio has stated her intention to remain an amateur, a decision she has said has freed her up to just play golf without the expectations of a pro career hanging over her head. Seems like the Stanford kids, Zhang and Heck, might be up for a chance to win a Curtis Cup on one of America’s great golf courses. Since the U.S. Women’s Amateur won’t be played until after next year’s Curtis Cup, Castle’s automatic selection as the champion might just get her on to the U.S. team again.

   The cast rolls over a lot in the two years between Curtis Cup Matches, but the pandemic has made it less than a year between the 41^st and 42^nd playings.

   And if you are, like me, a resident of this golf-rich region, mark down the dates, June 10 to 12 in 2022. A Curtis Cup Match will offer you the opportunity to see the future stars of the women’s game up close and also get a great look at Merion’s East Course with quite a few fewer fans than turned out for the 2013 U.S. Open. Let the countdown begin: It’s 286 days by my count.