Permanent link All Posts All six players hit fine tee shots this morning in their first Curtis Cup appearance in foursomes matches. Most past players say that they feel jitters unique to hearing their names announced on the first tee as representatives of their country for the first time. Perhaps no one had a worse case of flag fever than Barbara McIntire when she first played in a Curtis Cup Match at Brae Burn in West Newton, Mass., in 1958. “Barbara McIntire, United States of America,” was announced. She took a rip at the ball. “Where did it go?” Ann Casey Johnstone, her foursomes partner, asked. “You don’t want to know,” McIntire said. Up ahead, her teammates looked back and watched the little gallery tramp down the hill, then veer toward the club’s swimming pool, 50 yards to the right of the fairway. “We were playing against Bridget Jackson and Jessie Valentine,” McIntire said. “After we had taken nine shots at the first hole, we conceded their putt for a 3. On the second hole, we made bogey and lost that hole. In those days, however, the matches were 36 holes. We got better. We won quite handily.”