U.S. will go into Sunday singles in Curtis Cup facing a 7-5 deficit against GB&I at Sunningdale

 

   With Scotland’s Hannah Darling, a senior at South Carolina, putting her considerable talent on display in a pair of match wins Saturday, homestanding Great Britain and Ireland grabbed a 7-5 lead over the United States going into the final day of the 43^rd Curtis Cup Match at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.

   In the morning, the 21-year-old Darling, playing in the Curtis Cup Match for a third time in her outstanding amateur career, teamed with LSU senior Aine Donegan, a 22-year-old Irish woman, to pull out a 1-up victory over Auburn teammates Anna Davis and Megan Schofill, winner of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, in a morning foursome match.

   GB&I captain Catriona Matthew then paired Darling, No. 30 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), with Mimi Rhodes, a 22-year-old from England and a member of Wake Forest’s 2023 national championship team, in an afternoon fourball match against the United States’ California kids, 18-year-old Jasmine Koo and 15-year-old Asterisk Talley.

   And Darling helped GB&I pick up another full point as she and Mimi Rhodes claimed a 3 and 2 decision over Koo, who is No. 6 in the Women’s WAGR, and Talley, the runnerup this summer to Rianne Malixi in both the U.S. Girls’ Junior and the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.

   Since sitting out the Friday foursomes, Darling has gone 3-0.

   Matthew, a member of nine European Solheim Cup teams and the captain of two winning European Solheim Cup sides, seemed to have sensed a good partnership between Lottie Woad, the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR from England, and Irish woman Sara Byrne, who wrapped up her college career at Miami in the spring and is No. 49 in the Women’s WAGR, and Matthew has kept the pair together for all four sessions.

   Woad, a junior at Florida State, and Byrne gained a pair of critical half-points Saturday with a pair of hard-earned halves.

   In the morning foursomes, Woad and Byrne found themselves 1-down going to the 18^th tee after the U.S. pair of Rachel Kuehn, a teammate of Mimi Rhodes on Wake Forest’s 2023 national championship team, and Melanie Green, winner of the Royal & Ancient’s Women’s Amateur Championship earlier this summer at Portmarnock Golf Club outside of Dublin, got a win at 17.

   But Woad and Byrne pulled out a win at the last to square the match.

   U.S. captain Meghan Stasi sent out Kuehn and Schofill to take on Woad and Byrne in an afternoon fourball match and the U.S. was 1-down going to 17.

   Caught a Twitter video of Schofill’s incredibly clutch 18-foot left-to-right slider that she drained for birdie at the 17^th hole to give the U.S. a half-point and prevent a 3-0 GB&I sweep in the afternoon.

   “It was important to get a half at the end and the entire team got to see it,” Stasi, a 10-time winner of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship, told the R&A website. “Rachel and Meg fought really hard in that match and over the last few holes. It was fun to see them get a half.

   “It was just another tough day where again they made a few longer putts and getting up-and-down from some places. It’s match play, so anything can happen.”

   GB&I got another full point in the afternoon fourball matches when Lorna McClymont, a 23-year-old Scot, gained a little bit of revenge on Gibson, to whom McClymont lost to in the R&A Women’s Amateur final at Portmarnock.

   McClymont and Beth Coulter, a 20-year-old Irish woman and a junior at Arizona State, earned a 2 and 1 decision over Green and Davis, the 18-year-old phenom from Spring Valley, Calif. who joined the Auburn program in the middle of the season and helped the Tigers reach the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship at the Omni LaCosta Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. in the spring.

   Coulter delivered the dagger in the match as her brilliant approach at the 16^th hole settled four feet from the hole and she converted the birdie putt to give GB&I a 2-up lead with two holes to play.

   Turned out the only full point of the day for the U.S. came in the morning foursome matches when two of the best players in college golf in the wraparound 2023-’24 season, Catherine Park at Southern California and Zoe Campos across town at UCLA, put on a surgical display in a 2 and 1 victory over Coulter and her Arizona State teammate and Mimi Rhodes’ little sister, Patience Rhodes.

   The 19-year-old Park, No. 7 in the Women’s WAGR, and the 21-year-old Campos, No. 4 in the Women’s WAGR, claimed wins at the third and 11^th holes and didn’t lose a hole as the teams halved the other 15 holes.

   The matchups for the Sunday singles have already been announced and Woad will be batting leadoff for GB&I in a fascinating battle with Talley, who has been nearly unbeatable in match play this summer.

   Kuehn will be the anchor for the U.S. as she should be in her third go-round with the U.S. in the Curtis Cup again Donegan.

   This was always going to be a tough task for the U.S. GB&I hasn’t earned a Curtis Cup Match win since Leona Maguire led it to victory with the full-throated support of an adoring Irish crowd at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club in suburban Dublin in 2016.

   Kuehn’s teammates will do their best to make sure their leader’s match matters. It won’t be easy, but like Stasi, the U.S. captain and a South Jersey native, reminded everyone, it’s match play and anything can happen in match play.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Walker solid down the stretch while capturing Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship title for a second time

 

   Brett Walker is back and picking up right where he left off when he departed the Philadelphia Section PGA after capturing the title in the 100^th Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in 2021.

   Returning to the Philadelphia Section in the pro shop at Chester Valley Golf Club, Walker held off Braden Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club, by a shot with a final round of 2-under-par 69 Wednesday on Shattuck’s home course at Rolling Green, the William Flynn gem in Springfield, Delaware County.

   Walker had taken a three-shot lead over Shattuck going into Wednesday’s final round on the strength of a 7-under 64 in Monday’s opening round at Rolling Green, which played host to the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur, and a 1-over 71 at his new home course at Chester Valley, which hosted a regular stop on the then fledgling Senior Tour (now known as PGA Tour Champions) in the 1980s and ’90s.

   Walker, it seems, is at his best on the classic golf courses that seem to be in endless supply in the Philadelphia Section.

   Walker’s final-round 69 gave him an 8-under 204 total and earned him the top prize of $9,000. Walker’s name will be engraved on the William B. Packer Trophy for a second time.

   It turned into a two-horse race in the final round as Shattuck, a Delco guy who was a scholastic standout at Sun Valley, closed with a sparkling 4-under 67, the best round of the day, to earn runnerup honors with a 7-under 205 total.

   Shattuck was the runnerup in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship for the third straight year.

   After opening with a bogey at the first hole, Walker made birdies at the second and fifth holes to get it to 7-under for the championship.

   When Shattuck made a birdie at the third hole, he briefly crept within two shots of Walker.

   But the tournament likely turned at the par-5 seventh hole as Walker nearly holed his second shot for a double eagle, his ball settling two feet from the hole for an easy eagle that got him to 9-under for the championship.

   Shattuck, meanwhile, settled for par and fell four shots behind Walker.

   Walker successfully nursed his advantage with pars on 10 of his final 11 holes, his only blemish coming on Rolling Green’s tough par-3 14^th hole.

   Shattuck kept coming as he made birdies at the eighth and ninth holes, but a bogey at 11 slowed his roll. Shattuck made birdies at the 15^th and 17^th holes to get it to 7-under, but was never able to draw even with Walker.

   “It was a grind today,” Walker told the Philadelphia Section website. “Winning is never easy. Braden and Zac (Oakley) made it tough on me and I just tried to hit the best shots I could. When I focused on my own game and my own shots, it went well for me.”

   Walker and Shattuck will head a group of the top 13 finishers Wednesday in the Philadelphia Section contingent that qualified to tee it up in the PGA Professional Championship – it’s old-school moniker was the National Club Pro -- next April at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

   The top 20 finishers at the PGA Golf Club will form the Colebridge Financial Team that will represent club pros all around the country at the PGA Championship, one of professional golf’s four major championships, in May at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.

   Walker took that road to make an appearance in the PGA Championship in 2021 at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island on the South Carolina coast. The PGA Professional Championship was also at the PGA Golf Club that year and Walker finished in a tie for eighth place.

   Shattuck, the two-time reigning Rolex/Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year in the Philadelphia Section, has made it to the PGA Championship each of the last two springs, becoming only the second player from the Philadelphia Section to win the PGA Professional Championship when he buried a 12-foot putt for par on the 72^nd hole at Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M. in 2023.

   Shattuck finished in a tie for 16^th place in this year’s PGA Professional Championship at Fields Ranch East PGA Frisco at the PGA of America’s national headquarters in Texas to earn a second straight trip to the PGA Championship.

   Shattuck was one of just two members of the Colebridge Financial Team to survive the 36-hole cut in the PGA at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. and earned low club pro honors.

   Brian Bergstol, the head of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort, was the only other player to finish under par for the tournament as he matched par in Wednesday’s final round, played with real-feel temperatures approaching triple digits, with a 71 to take third place with a 2-under 210 total that left him five shots behind Shattuck.

   Bergstol captured the title in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship in 2022 at DuPont Country Club.

   Mike Meisenzahl, playing out of the Tavistock Country Club pro shop, closed with a solid 2-under 69 at Rolling Green to end up in fourth place at even-par 212.

   Trevor Bensel, an assistant pro at Sandy Run Country Club, carded a final round of 2-over 73 to finish alone in fifth place with a 1-over 213 total. Bensel has been a regular at the PGA Professional Championship. Maybe 2025 is the year he busts through with a top-20 finish and a trip to the PGA Championship.

   Rusty Harbold, playing out of the Philadelphia Cricket Club pro shop, finished up with a solid 1-under 70 at Rolling Green and ended up in sixth place with a 3-over 215 total.

   Veteran Terry Hatch, playing out of the Royal Oaks Golf Course pro shop, also closed with a 1-under 70 to finish in seventh place, a shot behind Harbold with a 4-over 216 total.

   Zac Oakley, who was the defending champion, began the day trailing Walker by four shots and was still in contention when he matched Walker’s eagle at the par-5 seventh hole. But Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann Golf Club, struggled on Rolling Green’s incoming nine and finished with a 7-over 78 that left him among a trio of players tied for eighth place at 5-over 217.

   Oakley was part of the group, along with Shattuck, that finished in a tie for 16^th place in the PGA Professional Championship in the spring at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco and earned a trip to the PGA Championship for the second time in three years.

   Joining Oakley at 5-over were Dave Quinn, playing out of the Laurel Creek Country Club pro shop, and Jeff Herb of Waynesborough Country Club.

   Quinn, like Hatch, part of a really strong group of senior players in the Philadelphia Section, closed with a solid 2-under 69 to secure his spot in next spring’s PGA Professional Championship. Herb finished up with a 1-over 72 to earn a top-10 finish.

   The trio that finished in a tie for 11^th place at 7-over 219 – Terry Hertzog, playing out of the Bent Creek Country Club pro shop, Whitford Country Club’s Andrew Turner and Whitemarsh Valley Country Club head pro Dave Pagett – grabbed the last three tickets for next spring’s PGA Professional Championship.

   The first alternate was Billy Stewart, an instructor at the Union League’s Liberty Hill Course, as he finished alone in 14^th place with an 8-over 220 total. It seems that one or two of the Philly Section’s alternates make the PGA Professional Championship field each year.

   Any other alternates will come from a foursome that finished in a tie for 15^th place at 9-over 221 that included Parks Price of Hanover Country Club, Stephen Swartz of Carlisle Country Club, Sam Ambrose of Chester Valley and Scott Chisholm of Rolling Green.

   The Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship was presented by Club Car, Colebrook Financial and Rolex and was supported by Gallagher, The Golf Channel, the PGA Tour, Titleist, FootJoy, Callaway, Nike, TaylorMade, Visit Delco, SCNS Sports Foods and StrackaLine.