Grant eyes Curtis Cup victory
LISBURN’S Paula Grant has spent four years honing her game for the Curtis Cup
Now the qualified optometrist has her eye on helping Great Britain and Ireland win the trophy on US soil for the first time since 1986 when they take on the Americans at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in New York tomorrow.
While GB&I drew 9-9 at Chattanooga in Tennessee in 1994 to retain the trophy, they have lost their last five matches in the US and want to retain the trophy they won back in such convincing fashion at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club two years ago.
Grant will be joined on the team by Royal County Down Ladies’ Olivia Mehaffey who got a good workout for the matches in last week’s US Women’s Open at Shoal Creek, despite missing the cut.
“It was really exciting and a bit of a nervy morning but nice to see my name on that team,” Grant said. “I was on the periphery of the team four years ago and that put it in my head that it was a team I’d love to get on. I stopped working full time a year and a half ago to try and get my game good enough to make the team.”
Mehaffey is the leading GB&I player on the World Amateur Golf Ranking at 19th with Alice Hewson 34th, 16-year old Lily May Humphreys 58th, Grant 68th, Sophie Lamb 72nd, India Clyburn 100th, 15-year old Annabell Fuller 101st and Shannon McWilliam 206th.
Mehaffey and Hewson were members of the winning side in the 2016 Match but all eight players on the USA team are ranked in the top 25 in the world, headed by world No 1 Lilia Vu.