Americans win Curtis Cup for third-straight time
ARDMORE, Pa. — Top-ranked amateur Rose Zhang set the tone by routing Women’s British Amateur champion Louise Duncan, and Rachel Heck completed an unbeaten week at Merion as the Americans won the Curtis Cup for the third straight time.
The Americans had a 8 1/2 – 3 1/2 lead going into the eight Sunday singles and needed only two matches to secure the cup. They won seven of them for a 15 1/2 – 4 1/2 victory.
“To be able to be a part of this amazing team and come out with a team win, we were not only representing ourselves, but we were representing our country, and we were representing each other,” Zhang said. “I feel like this win just shows the camaraderie and the amazing ability that we had within ourselves. It couldn’t have ended any better.”
Emily Price of England handed Amari Avery her first loss of the week in the final match.
“Amari is one of the best players in the world, let alone the United States,” Price said. “I came out today and wanted to stick to my processes, and I did that and just played really, really well.”
Match scoring from the 42nd Curtis Cup
The Americans increased the series lead to 31-8-3 since the matches for amateurs against the Great Britain & Ireland team began in 1932.
“It speaks to the depth of our team,” Rachel Kuehn said. “We have eight really talented players.”
Zhang, the No. 1 player in the women’s world amateur ranking, took advantage of Duncan’s mistakes early on, winning four of the opening six holes with par. The Scot could never catch up and Zhang won the leadoff match, 7 and 5.
Emilia Migliaccio also needed only 13 holes to beat Annabel Fuller in the sixth match. In the games right behind Zhang, Kuehn and Heck won in 17 holes, and it wasn’t long before the rout was on.
The Americans won by five points last year in Wales, when the 2020 matches were postponed one year by the coronavirus pandemic.
GB&I was trying to win on U.S. soil for the first time since 1986. There was a tie in 1994 in Tennessee that allowed GB&I to capture the cup as the defending champions.
The next Curtis Cup will be played at Sunningdale in Ascot, England, in 2024.