ST. LOUIS – Another impressive four-ball performance on Saturday morning gave the USA Team a 7-2 lead over Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I), going into the afternoon foursomes matches at the 2014 Curtis Cup Match at St. Louis Country Club.
The USA won two of the three four-ball matches, while Annabel Dimmock and Bronte Law, both of England, mounted a furious comeback and earned the first full GB&I point of the three-day competition.
I know GB&I, I know how tough they are and that they were going to come back and throw a lot of good golf at us, said USA Captain Ellen Port. We answered the call. You want to maintain that lead, and we increased it one, so that's good
Inclement weather plagued the morning round, with play suspended at 11:39 a.m. CDT due to dangerous conditions. Play resumed at 1:45 p.m., but was again suspended at 3:50 p.m., just after the afternoon’s second foursomes match had teed off.
The Curtis Cup Match is a biennial competition between the USA and GB&I that dates to 1932 and is conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and Ladies Golf Union (LGU). The Match will conclude with eight singles matches on Sunday.
A point is awarded for each victory and a half-point goes to each side for a draw. GB&I needs 10 points to retain the Cup, while USA needs 10.5 points to regain the Cup. Each team consists of eight female amateur golfers.
Dimmock, 17, and Law, 19, trailed for all but two holes of their match with Erynne Lee, 21, of Silverdale, Wash., and Annie Park, 19, of Levittown, N.Y. Park and Lee built a 3-up lead with a birdie at the par-4 10th. However, Law and Dimmock chipped away at the deficit, including Law’s long birdie putt at the par-3 16th. When Lee’s 8-footer for par rimmed out at 17, the match moved to 18 all square.
Dimmock left her birdie attempt at the par-4 18th just short, and her par was conceded. A second consecutive lipout for par, this one from 2013 NCAA champion Park, handed GB&I the hard-fought victory.
That was an awesome putt, said GB&I Captain Tegwen Matthews. It put the momentum back into our favor and got our tails up.
We just knew that something good was going to happen, added Law, who played on the victorious 2012 GB&I Curtis Cup Team. We played well all day. The rain delay helped us because they had the momentum at that point and it broke it up a little bit.
Two American pairings continued their inspired play on this classic C.B. Macdonald layout. Following their victorious four-ball outing on Friday, Kyung Kim, 20, of Chandler, Ariz., and Alison Lee, 19, of Valencia, Calif., made seven birdies on Saturday morning en route to a 4-and-2 win over Stephanie Meadow, 22, of Northern Ireland, and Georgia Hall, 18, of England.
Emma Talley, 20, of Princeton, Ky., and Mariah Stackhouse, 20, of Riverdale, Ga., also earned their second four-ball victory on Saturday morning. Their bogey-free, 2-and-1 win over Gabriella Cowley, 18, of England, and Gemma Dryburgh, 20, of Scotland, included five birdies.
The Kim/Lee and Stackhouse/Talley pairings have proved deadly for the Americans. Over the two four-ball rounds, the duos have each made 13 birdies against no bogeys.
The 7-2 lead for the USA is the largest three-round lead since the playing format was expanded to five sessions over three days in 2008.
Christina Lance is the assistant manager of championship communications for the USGA. Email her at clance@usga.org.
Results
ST. LOUIS – Results from the second round of four-ball matches at the 2014 Curtis Cup Match, played Saturday morning, June 7, 2014, at the par-71, 6,190-yard St. Louis Country Club:
Kyung Kim, Chandler, Ariz., and Alison Lee, Valencia, Calif. (USA) def. Stephanie Meadow, Northern Ireland, and Georgia Hall, England (GB&I), 4 and 2
Annabel Dimmock, England, and Bronte Law, England (GB&I) def. Erynne Lee, Silverdale, Wash., and Annie Park, Levittown, N.Y. (USA), 1 up
Emma Talley, Princeton, Ky., and Mariah Stackhouse, Riverdale, Ga. (USA) def. Gabriella Cowley, England, and Gemma Dryburgh, Scotland (GB&I), 2 and 1