Americans power back in dominant display to take Cup
The USA yesterday completed an impressive comeback to win the 41st Curtis Cup match with a dominant final day singles performance at Conwy Golf Club in Wales.
The USA, captained by Sarah Ingram, recovered from a three-point deficit after the opening day to surge to a convincing 121 /2 - 71/2 victory over Elaine Ratcliffe’s Great Britain & Ireland team.
The Americans took a firm grip on proceedings in yesterday’s singles, winning six of the eight matches.
In a remarkable twist of sporting fate the winning point was secured by Rachel Kuehn, whose mother Brenda achieved the same distinction in the 1998 Curtis Cup match at Minikahda and was on hand to see her daughter follow in her illustrious footsteps.
“We all knew we only had to win four to retain but that wasn’t our goal,” said Kuehn.
“Our goal was to go out and to win eight singles matches. The more we can win, the less pressure is on the girls coming in. Just one more point you can put up for your country, it’s a huge deal.
“It was like, oh my God, we won. Again, the comeback we made, I’m so proud of our team. We really kept fighting.”
A day that had initially promised so much for the GB&I team, with the likes of Hannah Darling, Charlotte Heath and Caley Mcginty taking early leads, steadily began to slip away.
A tide of red began to wash across the leaderboard as Brooke Matthews, Rachel Heck and Allisen Corpuz took control of their matches.
Matthews secured the first point for the Americans with a 3&2 win over Heath and Heck soon followed up with a 3&1 result against Ireland’s Lauren Walsh.
Darling was never behind in her match with Jensen Castle and was 3up with four to play but errant drives on the 17th and 18th cost the Scot dearly and Castle secured what had seemed an unlikely half point.
Kuehn then saw off the challenge of Scotland’s Louise Duncan (inset) with a two-hole win to clinch the match.
England’s Mcginty flew the flag for GB&I with an excellent 4&3 victory over Gina Kim. Her compatriot Annabell Fuller battled all the way in her match with Emilia Migliaccio but lost out by two holes at the last. Emily Toy also showed great resilience to fight back from three down at the 12th to win the next three holes with birdies and take Rose Zhang down the final hole but the world No. 1 held her nerve to seal a one-hole victory.
Defeated skipper Ratcliffe said: “We fought hard, that’s what we came here to do and we certainly did that. I’m very proud of all the players and the manner in which they played and in which they do everything.
“It’s been a phenomenal three days. Highs and lows. We could have just done with a couple of more highs today.”