The United States will take a 7-5 lead over a feisty Great Britain & Ireland team into Day 3 of the 44th Curtis Cup Match Sunday at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif.
But the final stroke of Saturday, with the sun setting on the sensational George C. Thomas layout at Bel-Air, was a 10-footer for par by Sophia Fullbrook, a junior-to-be at Florida State and No. 38 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), that completed a 2-up victory for GB&I’s top pair, Fullbrook and Patience Rhodes, a senior-to-be at Arizona State and No. 20 in the Women’s WAGR, over Americans Kary Hollenbaugh, who recently wrapped her college career at The Ohio State University and No. 23 in the Women’s WAGR, and Kelly Xu, twice an NCAA team champion during her brilliant career at Stanford, and No. 14 in the Women’s WAGR.
Hollenbaugh, making her first appearance in the fourth session of partner matches over the first two days, and Xu had fallen behind early, but staged a bit of a comeback late in the round in an effort to salvage half a point.
But Fullbrook and Rhodes prevailed, giving GB&I two wins in the three Saturday afternoon foursomes matches.
Yes, the U.S. has dominated singles over the years in this event, but GB&I had showed the kind of toughness it displayed in claiming its first Curtis Cup victory in eight years in 2024 on home soil at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.
The influence from its captain, decorated Solheim Cup performer and captain Catriona Matthew who returned at the helm following GB&I’s victory at Sunningdale two years ago, has been obvious over these last two Curtis Cup cycles.
The U.S. got a big day from one of its big guns, Farah O’Keefe, a senior-to-be at Texas and No. 3 in the Women’s WAGR.
The recently crowned NCAA individual champion and winner of the Annika Award that goes to women’s college golf’s Player of the Year, O’Keefe teamed with Southeastern Conference rival Avery Weed, a senior-to-be at Mississippi State and No. 30 in the Women’s WAGR, to earn a critical point for the U.S. in the afternoon foursomes with a 4 and 3 victory over Arizona State teammates Beth Coulter, who recently completed her career with the Sun Devils, and junior-to-be Isla McDonald-O’Brien, who is No. 97 in the Women’s WAGR.
It enabled O’Keefe, a senior-to-be home girl at Texas from Austin, Texas, to run her record for the weekend to 4-0.
She had teamed with Southern California junior-to-be Jasmine Koo, No. 12 in the Women’s WAGR, to pick up another big point in the morning four-ball session with a 1-up decision over Coulter and McDonald-O’Brien.
O’Keefe enabled the U.S. to put a nose in front in the match when she drained a four-foot birdie putt at the 16th hole.
GB&I got a big point in the afternoon when Charlotte Naughton, a talented youngster who will join the program at Alabama this summer and is No. 88 in the Women’s WAGR, and Davina Xanh, who recently wrapped up her college career at Cal State Fullerton, blitzed a pretty formidable pair in Californians Anna Davis, a senior-to-be at Auburn and No. 18 in the Women’s WAGR, and junior phenom Asterisk Talley, No. 8 in the Women’s WAGR.
Davis and Talley are both veterans of the U.S. team that suffered a narrow 10.5-9.5 loss two years ago at Sunningdale and U.S. captain Meghan Stasi hasn’t hesitated to bank on their Curtis Cup experience.
It was a tough day for Davis as she and Weed suffered the only U.S. setback in the morning four-ball session, dropping a 3 and 2 decision to GB&I’s top team, Fullbrook and Rhodes.
But the U.S. made it two out of three for the third straight session in the Saturday morning four-ball matches as Stasi paired Talley with Kiara Romero, a senior-to-be at Oregon and the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR, and the talented tandem responded with a 4 and 3 victory over Lily Hirst, who wrapped up her college career at Kansas a year ago, and Hollenbaugh’s Ohio State teammate, Nellie Ong, a junior-to-be with the Buckeyes and No. 59 in the Women’s WAGR.
Stasi, who was Meghan Bolger when she launched an amateur career from Tavistock Country Club that has seen her win the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship 10 times and the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship four times, is saving some of her big guns for late in the Sunday singles lineup.
Stasi is hoping that consecutive matches in which she will send out Koo, Romero, the top women’s amateur player in the world, Talley and O’Keefe will put the U.S. over the top.
But the always calm and collected and talented Davis is in the anchor spot against GB&I’s Coulter, just in case.
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