U.S. will take a 7-5 lead over feisty GB&I into Sunday singles in Curtis Cup Match at Bel-Air

 

   The United States will take a 7-5 lead over a feisty Great Britain & Ireland team into Day 3 of the 44^th 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 16^th 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.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

Conner heads a group of 13 qualifiers for the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship with a victory at Elmhurst

 

   Declan Conner, a District One Class AAA qualifier as a junior for Ridley last fall, put together a sparkling 3-under-par 69 Wednesday at Elmhurst Country Club in Moscow, Lackawanna County, to claim a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour victory in the 16-to-18 division and lead a group of 13 qualifiers for next week’s Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship.

   Pretty sure this was the last in the series of qualifiers for the guys for the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship, a one-day 36-hole test scheduled to be played June 15 at Bellewood Country Club, across the Schuylkill River from Pottstown.

   The event always draws one of the best fields of scholastic golfers in the region each year as the top finishers – and we’re talking about only the top two or three guys – earn a trip to the Boys Junior PGA Championship, one of the marquee national events for junior golfers conducted by the PGA of America.

   The Boys Junior PGA Championship, a 72-hole, stroke-play event, tees off July 28 at Fields Ranch East and West at the PGA of America’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas.

   Players ages 13 to 18 are eligible for the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship. The Philly Junior Tour broke down its usual 16-to-18 and 13-to-15 age groups, so I’ll wrap them up while referring to the overall scoring.

   Nobody at Elmhurst was better than Conner as he made birdies at the third, sixth, 10^th, 14^th and 17^th holes and 11 pars on his scorecard. The three birdies on the incoming nine enabled Conner to tour the back nine in 2-under 34.

   His 3-under round left Conner at the top of the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division and in the overall scoring.

   Cole Powell, a Fell Township resident and the PIAA Class AA champion as a sophomore at Scranton Prep last fall, made birdies on the second, sixth, eighth, 11^th and 14^th holes and had seven pars on his card as he matched par with a 72 to finish in second place among the older guys and in the overall standings.

   Powell’s three birdies on the outgoing nine at Elmhurst enabled him to tour the front nine in 2-under 34.

   Sebastian Park of Lansdale and Judd Fletcher of Moorestown, N.J. each posted a 4-over 76 to finish in a tie for third place in the 16-to-18 division and in a tie for third in the overall standings with Logan McGinn of South Williamsport, who landed at the top of the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division.

   Park made an eagle on the par-5 sixth hole, added birdies on seven and 11 and had eight pars on his card. Fletcher made birdies on the fourth and 15^th holes and had 12 pars on his card, including a string of four straight pars from 11 through 14.

   Holden Sparks, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore at Nazareth last fall, headed a group of four players who finished in a tie for fifth place in the 16-to-18 age group and in a tie for sixth in the overall scoring, each signing for a 5-over 77. Sparks was coming off a Philly Junior Tour victory the previous weekend in a Philly Junior Tour York Series stop at Out Door Country Club.

   Joining Sparks at 5-over were Quin Zuegner, a junior on the golf team at The Hill School and a New Hope resident, David Nissen, a junior on the Wissahickon golf team, and Jackson Murland, a Villanova resident and a junior on the Friends’ Central golf team.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division and finishing in a tie for 11^th place in the overall scoring were Jack Pavuk, a Clarks Summit resident and PIAA Class AA qualifier as a junior at Scranton Prep last fall, and Matthew Haggerty, both of whom ended up in a tie for ninth place, each recording a 79.

   Pavuk, Haggerty and Sebastian Leone, a freshman on the Radnor golf team that finished in a tie for second place in the PIAA Class AAA team competition last fall, nailed down the final spots in qualifying for the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship. Leone finished in a tie for third in the 13-to-15 division.

   McGinn opened his round with back-to-back birdies at the first and second holes, added birdies at six, 10 and 14 and had five pars on his card as he finished at the top of the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division with a 4-over 76.

   McGinn joined Park and Fletcher from the 16-to-18 division in the tie for third place in the overall standings. McGinn finished in a tie for 10^th place in the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship last summer at the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve.

   Bryce Bussom of Lewisburg punched his ticket to the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship at Bellewood as he made birdies on the 10^th and 14^th holes and had 10 pars on his card to earn runnerup honors in the 13-to-15 division and finish 10^th overall with a 6-over 78.

   Leone, the Radnor freshman, was the final player in the 13-to-15 division to qualify for a spot at Bellewood as he made a birdie on the 10^th hole and had 10 pars on his card, including four straight pars to open his round, on his way to a 79 that left him in third place among the younger guys and in a tie for 11^th in the overall standings with Pavuk and Haggerty from the 16-to-18 division.

   A couple of West Chester residents who were freshmen in the Malvern Prep golf program last fall, Tucker Detwiler and Owen Ciesielka, accounted for the next two spots in the 13-to-15 division as Detwiler took fourth place with an 84 and Ciesielka was fifth with an 85.

   Oliver Hubbert, a Gwynedd Valley resident and a freshman in the golf program at Catholic League power La Salle, and Richard Davoli of Ambler finished in a tie for sixth place among the younger guys, each carding an 86.

   Brody Campbell, a Plymouth Meeting resident and a freshman on the Malvern Prep JV last fall, took eighth place with an 87 and Joseph Hoynoski IV of Hatfield finished a shot behind Campbell in ninth place with an 88.

   Josiah Zimmerman of Camp Hill rounded out the field in the 13-to-15 division as he finished in 10^th place with a 93.

   Madison Walker of Tunkhannock had the best score among the girls as she had five pars on her scorecard, four of them on the outgoing nine at Elmhurst, to claim a Philly Junior Tour victory in the 16-to-18 division with a 91.

   It was not a qualifier for the Philadelphia Girls Junior PGA Championship, which is basically an open tournament and will be played July 6 at DuPont Country Club near Wilmington, Del.

   The top finishers at DuPont will earn a spot in the field in the Girls Junior PGA Championship, which will be played simultaneously with the guys at Fields Ranch East and West in Frisco, Texas and tees off July 28.

   Julia Biko, a sophomore on the North Pocono golf team, rounded out the field in the 16-to-18 division as she had six pars on her card, including three pars in a row at the 12^th, 13^th and 14^th holes, on her way to a 93.

   Alexa Mcelwain of Schnecksville was the lone entry in the 13-to-15 division and she posted a 108.

   Kash Gray of Eagleville had four pars on his scorecard, opening his round with three straight pars, as he bested the field of boys 12-and-under nine-holers with a 6-over 42.

   Blake Shurman of Villanova and Jace Collins of Spring Brook Township finished in a tie for second place, each ending up a shot behind Gray with a 43.

   Shurman made a birdie on the eighth hole and had a par on four. Collins, coming off a weekend sweep of the Philly Junior Tour’s York Series stops at Regents’ Glen Country Club and Out Door, had five pars on his card, opening his round with three straight pars.

   Andrew DElia of Clarks Summit took fourth place with a 44 and Nolan Dunkelberger of Nazareth rounded out the field in the boys 12-and-under division as he finished fifth with a 57.