Curtis Cup caps for Lauren Walsh and Annabel Wilson
Lauren Walsh (IRL) in action during the R&A Home Internationals at Woodhall Spa (© Golffile | David Lloyd)
Castlewarden's Lauren Walsh and Lurgan's Annabel Wilson have been selected to compete for Great Britain and Ireland at the Curtis Cup later this month.
The biennial match between the best women's amateur golfers from Great Britain and Ireland and the USA was scheduled for last year but postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Both players will be competing for the first time, while Forrest Little's Julie McCarthy will also travel as the second reserve for the 41st matches at Conwy in Wales from August 26-28.
"Lauren is a wonderful, consistent player," GB&I Captain Elaine Ratcliffe said of Walsh, the leading GB&I player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings who will make her Major debut in next week's AIG Women's Open at Carnoustie.
"She strikes the ball well but is just very much a consistently good golfer. You see that in the results that she's had over in the States, and I think has just grown hugely over the last couple of years being over in America and building on everything that she had already before she went there.
"Annabel Wilson, again, we're blessed with a lot of good ball strikers, and ball strikers don't always earn you money. There are many ways of playing the game, but she strikes the ball beautifully, hits it a good distance, and again, has some great form from America but also has experience going back a number of years, having broken through when she was incredibly young, doing what she did at the World Team.”
The Irish caps follow in the footsteps of such players as Olympians Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow.
The USA, who have not won on this side of the Atlantic since 2008, will be bidding to retain the Curtis Cup.
Five women — Jensen Castle, 20, of West Columbia, S.C; Gina Kim, 21, of Durham, N.C.; Rachel Kuehn, 20, of Asheville, N.C.; Brooke Matthews, 22, of Rogers, Ark. and Emilia Migliaccio, 22, of Cary, N.C.— were selected on Monday to join the three previously named automatic selections, Rose Zhang, Rachel Heck, and Allisen Corpuz.
Annabel Wilson. (© Golffile | David Lloyd
“This is an incredibly talented group, and we know that under the leadership of Captain Sarah Ingram, they will represent the USA with the competitive spirit and camaraderie that have become staples of the Curtis Cup Match,” said John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director, Championships.
Ingram is a two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion and a member of the 1992, 1994, and 1996 USA Curtis Cup Teams.
“I couldn’t be more excited to finally have the team in place,” said Ingram, of Nashville, Tenn. “Over the last two years, I’ve gotten to know many of these young ladies, and have a tremendous amount of admiration and respect for them as golfers and people. "We’re going to work hard over the next few weeks with the goal of bringing the trophy back to the United States.”
The USA won the last Match, in 2018, defeating GB&I, 17-3, at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. The USA leads the series, 29-8-3.
The alternates for the USA Team are, in order of ranking: Megan Schofill, 20, of Monticello, Fla., and Megha Ganne, 17, of Holmdel, N.J. Due to current health and safety guidelines, the alternates will travel with the team to Wales.
The Curtis Cup Match is a biennial international women’s amateur golf competition between eight-player teams from the United States of America and Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I). It consists of six foursomes (alternate-shot) matches, six four-ball matches and eight singles matches over three days of competition. The USGA’s International Team Selection (ITS) Working Group selects the USA Team, while The R&A selects the GB&I Team.
Notable past USA Curtis Cup Team members include U.S. Women’s Open champions JoAnne Gunderson Carner, Paula Creamer, Juli Inkster, Cristie Kerr, Patty Sheehan, Hollis Stacy and Michelle Wie, as well as past and present LPGA stars such as Stacy Lewis, Lexi Thompson, Beth Daniel, Jessica Korda, Nancy Lopez and Dottie Pepper.
GB&I:
Hannah Darling (18, Broomieknowe, Sco);
Louise Duncan (21, West Kilbride, Sco);
Annabell Fuller (19, Roehampton, Eng);
Charlotte Heath (19, Huddersfield, Eng);
Caley McGinty (20, Knowle, Eng);
Emily Toy (23, Carlyon Bay, Eng);
Lauren Walsh (20, Castlewarden, Ire);
Annabel Wilson (20, Lurgan, Ire).
Reserves: 1. Hazel MacGarvie (21, Royal Troon, Sco); 2. Julie McCarthy (22, Forrest Little, Ire).
USA
Jensen Castle (20),
Allisen Corpuz (23),
Rachel Heck (19),
Gina Kim (21),
Rachel Kuehn (20),
Brooke Matthews (22),
Emilia Migliaccio (22),
Rose Zhang (18).
Jensen Castle, 20, of West Columbia, S.C., defeated Yu-Chiang (Vivian) Hou, 2 and 1, to win the 121st U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y., on Sunday. Castle, a rising junior at the University of Kentucky, survived a 12-for-2 playoff to advance to match play on her way to becoming the first Wildcat golfer to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She also competed in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club and reached the quarterfinals of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball with University of Kentucky teammate Marissa Wenzler. In 2020, Castle set Kentucky’s single-season stroke average record as a freshman.
Allisen Corpuz, 23, of Kapolei, Hawaii, is a recent University of Southern California graduate who has competed in 16 USGA championships, including three U.S. Women’s Opens. In 2008, Corpuz surpassed fellow Hawaii native Michelle Wie as the youngest qualifier in U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links history at 10 years, 3 months and 9 days. Last summer, Corpuz was the runner-up to Rachel Kuehn in the Women’s North & South Amateur at Pinehurst No. 2, losing in 19 holes, and was a semifinalist in this year’s event last month. Corpuz was named a first-team All-American by both Golfweek and the Women’s Golf Coaches Association and led a talented USC team with a 71.57 stroke average. She plans to compete in the first stage of LPGA Q-school later this month. She is currently ranked No. 11 in WAGR.
Rachel Heck, 19, of Memphis, Tenn., is a rising sophomore at Stanford University who won the 2021 Annika Award as the top collegiate golfer. She became the third player in women’s college history to sweep conference (Pacific 12), regional (Stanford Regional) and national titles (NCAAs), joining USC's Annie Park and Arizona's Marisa Baena. At Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., Heck became the first Stanford woman to win an NCAA title, and the ninth freshman to achieve the feat. Heck's 69.72 scoring average over 25 rounds is the lowest in NCAA women's golf history. Last August, Heck was the stroke-play medalist in the U.S. Women’s Amateur before losing in the Round of 16. She also was a quarterfinalist in the 2020 North & South Women’s Amateur. Heck was a five-time AJGA All-American and a two-time USA Today Player of the Year. Most recently, she advanced to the semifinals of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur and is currently No. 2 in WAGR.
Gina Kim, 21, of Durham, N.C., a rising senior at Duke University, won the 2021 North & South Women’s Amateur as well as the 2021 ACC Individual Championship. In June, she played in her third U.S. Women’s Open, and was the championship’s low amateur in 2019 at the Country Club of Charleston (S.C.). She is a two-time semifinalist in USGA events: the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Poppy Hills and the 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball with Jennifer Chang. She is currently ranked No. 19 in WAGR and will compete in the first stage of LPGA Q-school later this month.
Rachel Kuehn, 20, of Asheville, N.C., a rising junior at Wake Forest University, earned medalist honors at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. She won the 2020 North & South Women’s Amateur and the 2020 Ladies National Golf Association Amateur. Kuehn’s mom, Brenda Corrie Kuehn, was a member of the 1996 USA Curtis Cup Team alongside Sarah Ingram, as well as the 1998 team, where she went 4-0 and scored the winning point in the USA’s victory. Kuehn is currently ranked No. 23 in WAGR.
Brooke Matthews, 22, of Rogers, Ark., who recently reached the Round of 16 at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, is a rising senior at Arkansas. In 2019, she earned SEC All-Freshman Team honors, and earlier this year was named First Team All-SEC. She represented Team USA at the 2021 Arnold Palmer Cup earlier this summer, and is currently ranked No. 37 in WAGR. She will compete in the first stage of LPGA Q-school prior to the Match.
Emilia Migliaccio, 22, of Cary, N.C., was a quarterfinalist in the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur and finished runner-up to Tsubasa Kajitani in the 2021 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Migliaccio, a recent graduate of Wake Forest University, was a two-time first-team All-American and helped lead the Demon Deacons to the 2019 ACC title while capturing the ACC individual title. She competed in the 2018 and 2020 U.S. Women’s Opens, and last week reached the Round of 32 in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y. Migliaccio decided against turning professional and will return to Wake Forest this fall for a two-year master’s program in communication. Her summer has included an internship with Golf Channel during which she has covered LPGA and USGA events. She is currently ranked No. 16 in WAGR.
Rose Zhang, 18, of Irvine, Calif., is the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, having defeated Gabriela Ruffels in a 38-hole final match last August in Maryland, and the reigning U.S. Girls’ Junior champion, having defeated Bailey Davis, 6 and 4, in Maryland earlier this summer. She is currently No. 1 in the Women’s WAGR and won the 2020 McCormack Medal as the world’s leading amateur last September. Zhang has competed in four LPGA major championships, making the cut in three, including a T11 finish in the 2020 ANA Inspiration. She has represented the United States on both the Junior Solheim Cup and Junior Ryder Cup teams. In 2020, she won the Rolex Girls Junior Championship, the Ping Invitational and the Rolex Tournament of Champions. Zhang finished T3 at this year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
