The 41st Curtis Cup Match at Conwy Golf Club will not only see Great Britain and Ireland face off against the United States of America, but it will also see the clash of old university teammates as friends from both sides face off in North Wales.
Lauren Walsh, Ireland (GB&I), as well as Emilia Migliaccio and Rachel Kuehn, both of the USA Team attend Wake Forrest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Migliaccio completed her eligibility this past spring, but has started graduate school at Wake, while Kuehn and Walsh, both juniors, will lead a talented Deamon Deacons team.
However, friendships will have to be put aside for a few days as both teams look to claim victory in the first Curtis Cup since 2018. This year’s Match, originally scheduled for 2020, was pushed back one year due to COVID-19.
The USA has dominated the majority of the Curtis Cup matches since its first playing at Wentworth Club in England in 1932, with a current record of 29-8-3. The USA won the 2018 Match, 17-3, at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.
Friendships put aside
The Irish international Walsh, who competed in the AIG Women’s Open last week at Carnoustie is focused on putting points on the board for GB&I even if it involves battling against her old friends to do so.
“I think that the three of us are super competitive, we have all trained the last two years over at university with the goal of making the Curtis Cup, I think it is great that the three of us are here, it is great for the university, there has been banter back and forth,” said Walsh.
“We’ll play matches against each other and stuff like that but we are all really competitive, we all want to win so I think at the end of the day, we are friendly competitors. I would put it like that.”
Old friends meet again
The USA pair, making up two of the team’s eight players, can look forward to the prospect of facing their Irish teammate for the second time this summer.
“I played with Rachel Kuehn and Lauren Walsh in the Arnold Palmer Cup this summer in Chicago [at Rich Harvest Farms]. Rachel and I were teammates and we played against Lauren so it was funny, that was the first time we played against her,” said Migliaccio.
“In match play I have played against some really good friends of mine and it’s just how it goes. We are going to enjoy ourselves and we have talked any chance we get. It was awesome to see how well Lauren played at the AIG Women’s Open. It’s going to be a great week, we obviously want to win but wish her (Lauren) the best.”
Curtis and Walker Cup history
Rachel Kuehn, whose boyfriend Alex Fitzpatrick competed in the 2019 and 2021 Walker Cup for GB&I, is roommates with Walsh at Wake Forest and is excited at the prospect of competing against her friend to try claim the pinnacle prize of women’s amateur golf.
“It has been a while since I have seen her, so we were obviously really excited to see each other,” said Kuehn. “Lauren is a great player, we both respect each other as people and as players, it will be a great week, some friendly competition.”
All three are solely focused on delivering points for their respective teams, where it’s possible that Walsh could go head-to-head against Kuehn or Migliaccio during Saturday’s singles session.
This situation is hardly new to the Match. Former GB&I standout Bronte Law went against UCLA teammate Mariel Galdiano in 2016 at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club in Ireland, beating her in the opening foursomes session en route to a 5-0-0 performance and a three-point GB&I victory.
‘’Absolutely, we want to beat each other, but like I said at the end, it is not going to affect our friendship,” said Kuehne. “We are still going to enjoy spending time together and she will still be my best friend.”
The 20-year-old from Asheville, N.C., will become the second mother-daughter combination to have played in the Curtis Cup after her mother Brenda Corrie-Kuehn played in the 1996 and 1998 matches alongside current USA captain Sarah Ingram. The only previous mother-daughter tandem to play in the Curtis Cup was Jane Bastanchury Booth and Kellee Booth, the latter also being teammate of Corrie-Kuehn and Ingram in 1996 and ’98.