Stasi's U.S. team jumps out to a 4-2 lead over Great Britain & Ireland as Curtis Cup Match tees off at Bel-Air

 

   Chipping away at a “Golf’s Longest Day” post, but frequent visitors to this blog know that I simply cannot resist the lure of a Curtis Cup or a Walker Cup …

   Meghan Stasi is a legend in South Jersey, where she grew up and resided for the majority of the 10 Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship titles she has won.

   Stasi is also a legend in South Florida, where she’s resided for many years and from where she went around the country to capture four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship crowns.

   You get the picture, the woman likes to win.

   As the captain of the United States Curtis Cup team in 2024 at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England, Stasi and the Red, White & Blue team suffered a hard-fought 10.5-9.5 loss to a hungry Great Britain & Ireland squad that hadn’t won a Curtis Cup Match since 2016.

   Don’t think Stasi, back at the helm two years later at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif., had any intention of becoming the captain of the first U.S. team to lose a Curtis Cup Match on home soil since it happened in 1986 at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. 40 years ago.

   And Stasi’s talented group delivered a 4-2 lead for the United States Friday following three morning four-ball matches and three afternoon foursomes matches.

   Stasi sent out a formidable pair of California girls in Kiara Romero, coming off her junior season at Oregon from Santa Clara, and the precocious Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla, to kick off the 44^th Curtis Cup Match at Bel-Air Country Club, the George C. Thomas gem in the middle of the Los Angeles hills, in a morning four-ball match Friday morning.

   You needed to look no further than the final leaderboard of the U.S. Women’s Open, completed five days earlier at another Thomas classic, Riviera Country Club, traditional home to the L.A. Open on the PGA Tour, to see how much sense this pairing made.

   Romero earned low-amateur honors, finishing in a tie for sixth place among the best players in the world with a 3-under 281 total. Oh yeah, Romero is also the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and has been ever since English woman Lottie Woad turned pro last summer.

   Talley, at 17 a veteran of that tough loss two years ago at Sunningdale, finished in a tie for 22^nd place at Riviera with a 2-over 286 total. Talley is No. 8 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Talley, who plans to join the program at reigning national champion Stanford at the end of next summer, did deliver a stunning match victory over Woad, then the No. 1 women’s amateur player in the world, in Sunday singles on Woad’s home soil at Sunningdale. And Woad didn’t lose the match, Talley went out and won the thing.

   It had been a disappointing end to the college season for Romero as Oregon was unable to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. and Romero came up just short of earning an individual berth. With the Women’s Open and the Curtis Cup coming up at a couple of legendary Thomas tracks in L.A., she wouldn’t have to wait long for some redemption.

   Romero and Talley cruised to a 4 and 2 victory over the GB&I pair of Lily Hirst, who finished up her college career at Kansas a year ago, and Davina Xanh, who wrapped up her senior season at Cal State Fullerton this spring, to put a quick point on the board for the United States.

   GB&I captain Catriona Matthew, a decorated Solheim Cup performer and the winning captain two years ago at Sunningdale, sent out her two best players, Sophia Fullbrook, a junior-to-be at Florida State and No. 38 in the Women’s WAGR, and Patience Rhodes, a senior-to-be at Arizona State and No. 20 in the Women’s WAGR, in the second match of the day and the pair of English women delivered.

   Fullbrook and Rhodes, one of the heroes of GB&I’s victory two years ago at Sunningdale, claimed a 2 and 1 victory over another formidable pair of Californians in Anna Davis, a senior-to-be at Auburn from Spring Valley and No. 28 in the Women’s WAGR, and Kelly Xu, who just completed a brilliant career at Stanford from Claremont and No. 14 in the Women’s WAGR.

   But the United States finished out the morning four-ball session with a 2-1 lead when yet another California kid, Southern California junior-to-be Jasmine Koo of Cerritos and No.12 in the Women’s WAGR, teamed with Farah O’Keefe, a senior-to-be at Texas and a home girl from Austin, Texas who is No. 3 in the Women’s WAGR, to claim a 2-up decision over incoming Alabama freshman Charlotte Naughton, No. 88 in the Women’s WAGR, and Ohio State junior-to-be Nellie Ong, No. 58 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Like Talley, Davis and Koo are also veterans of the U.S. loss two years ago at Sunningdale. O’Keefe captured the NCAA individual crown last month at La Costa.

   The afternoon foursomes session – the GB&Is always seem a little better in the tricky alternate-shot format – got off to a tough start for the U.S. when Arizona State teammates Beth Coulter, a native of Northern Ireland who just completed her senior season with the Sun Devils, and junior-to-be Isla McDonald-O’Brien, No. 97 in the Women’s WAGR, handed Romero and Talley a 3 and 2 setback.

   Coulter, like her Arizona State teammate Rhodes, is a veteran of GB&I’s victory at Sunningdale.

   But Stasi kept Davis and Xu together for the afternoon foursomes and they bounced back from their morning setback with a decisive 4 and 2 victory over Naughton and Ong.

   O’Keefe picked up a new partner for the afternoon foursomes in Avery Weed, a senior-to-be at Mississippi State from Ocean Springs, Miss. and No. 30 in the Women’s WAGR, and the powerful pair claimed a 3 and 2 victory over a tough tandem in Rhodes and Fullbrook to give the U.S. a 4-2 lead going into Day 2 Saturday.

   It will be two more rounds of partner play Saturday with morning four-balls and afternoon foursomes leading into the Sunday singles.

   Got a chance to experience the Curtis Cup up close and personal the last time it was in the United States when it was played in 2022 at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township. Special doesn’t quite do it justice.

   They don’t let you get a glimpse of Bel-Air much and it’s worth the watch for that alone. The great George C. Thomas was a Philadelphia native and designed Whitemarsh Valley Country Club before heading west and putting his indelible mark on the L.A. golf scene. To get to see Riviera and Bel-Air on TV in back-to-back weeks has been a real treat.