Team USA dominated the final-day singles to retain the Curtis Cup with a crushing five-point victory over Great Britain and Ireland at Conwy.
Caley McGinty was the only player on the home side to register a singles win in a one-sided contest, with the visitors winning six of the eight matches to post a 12.5-7.5 triumph, their first away victory since 2008.
Scotland’s Hannah Darling (Broomieknowe) was denied a win in the top match despite being three up on Jensen Castle with four to play, only for Darling to bogey the 15th and 16th before Castle birdied the last to snatch an unlikely half.
AIG Women's Open star Louise Duncan (West Kilbride) took her match against Rachel Kuehn to the final hole, where the Scot lost to Kuehn which also confirmed Team USA as the overall winners
The Scottish Women’s County Finals got underway today Friday (27 August) with Perth & Kinross representing the North Division, Midlothian the East and Dunbartonshire & Argyll the West in the three-day competition
Scotland’s two new amateur stars Louise Duncan and Hannah Darling were foursomes partners in the opening session of the Curtis Cup for Great Britain and Ireland at Conway
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Hannah Darling sank a memorable match-winning putt as Great Britain and Ireland got off to a dream start on the opening day of the 2021 Curtis Cup at Conwy.
The Scot holed her birdie attempt at the 18th to earn victory in the afternoon fourballs and help Elaine Radcliffe’s team to a threepoint lead at 4½ to 1½ over the USA – their biggest ever advantage after day one.
Darling had been paired alongside fellow Scot Louise Duncan in the morning foursomes where they shared the point with US duo Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck.
She then teamed up with England’s Annabell Fuller for the afternoon fourballs and after starting the 18th all square against Heck and Emilia Migliaccio, Darling made sure of the win with an 18-foot putt for birdie
The European Senior Women’s Team Championship 2021 are being held in Bulgaria from 31 August – 4 September. Current restriction on travel to Bulgaria don’t allow UK nationals to enter and sadly we are unable to send our Senior Women’s team to the event.
The Scottish Senior Men’s team however are heading to Slovakia and includes Scottish Senior Order of Merit leader Paul Moultrie from Royal Troon and team Captain Ronnie Clark (Erskine) winner of the 2018 Scottish Senior Men’s Open Championship, the same year he featured in the Concession Cup in Florida.
Ronnie Clark said: “After nearly 2 years of what has been difficult times for everyone, it’s great to be back competing in this event and we’re grateful to Scottish Golf for their support. We have a strong, experienced team whom I believe are more than capable of having an extremely successful week.”
Clare Queen, Head of Performance at Scottish Golf said: “Congratulations to the players on their selection, it’s a strong team with plenty of experience and we wish them well in Slovakia.”
A full team list for Scotland’s Senior Men’s Team can be found below:
After a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Curtis Cup will be contested this week at Conwy Golf Club in Wales.
This is the 41st edition of the biennial competition, which pits top female amateurs from the United States against their counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland. The Americans hold a 29-8-3 advantage and are coming off a dominating performance in 2018.
Three years ago at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, New York, the U.S. swept all eight singles matches en route to a 17-3 triumph.
GB&I, however, has won each of the last two competition on home soil, doing so in 2016 in Ireland and 2012 in Scotland.
This year’s event will begin tomorrow on Thursday, Aug. 26th The two teams will compete in foursomes and fourballs (three matches each session) each of the first two days and then eight singles matches on the last day
GB&I:
Hannah Darling (Scotland; No. 25 on World Amateur Golf Ranking)
The County Finals were last played in 2019 with none in 2020 due to Covid -- That year Ayrshire Ladies' County Golf Association became champions with Carnoustie's star - amateur Louise Duncan in the team -- Click here to read the full report then
Three County teams will fight it out to be the 2021 Scottish County Champions at the finals in Forres from Friday 27th August - Sunday 29th August.
West Division Winners D&A Photo courtesy of Lorraine Campbell
They are Dunbartonshire & Argyll, who are representing the West Division, Midlothian the East and Perth & Kinross the North.
There is no team from the South Division this year as they were unable to get their County Jamboree played.
Instead, Scottish Golf has invited Northern Counties to supply a team to keep the round robin format of the finals intact.
Order of Play (Friday to Sunday)
Day 1: D&A v Perth & Kinross - and - Midlothian v North
Day 2: Midlothian v D&A - and - North v Perth & Kinross
Day 3: Midlothian v Perth & Kinross - and - D&A v North
For those who knew Margot Stewart (Erskine) - she died on the 15th August at the age of 99 .
Margot was born in her parents house where she lived in all her days and died at home (not many people could have managed that) -- She was a real feisty lady in fact a bit of a legend.
She was also Past Secretary of Renfrewshire Ladies' County Golf Association(1989 - 1991) and treasurer for the West Vets for 5 years retiring in 1999
Many hockey players may remember Margot - She was a Scottish Internationalist (Centre Forward) and then a Scottish International and West District Selector in the 60's and 70's
As she got older and took up golf she started to get a lot of bother with her knees (as many hockey players do !) and when your webmaster met her at Erskine she would often ask me how my knees were !!
She used to meet the late Dorothea Hastings, Jean Brown and others every Friday for lunch regularly
She was a real character who loved her regular wee dram at the Golf Club and was able to drive down to the club until she was about 95 - Her car did get a few dents and scrapes !!
She finally got a taxi down to Erskine after that and it took many of of her friends at the club about 15 minutes to get her out the lounge as she would talk non stop to everyone on the way.
You just had to admire her determination and spirit !!
The Funeral is on Monday 30th and arrangements are in today’s Glasgow Herald - CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK —- >> GLASGOW HERALD
The Glasgow Golf Club who recently opened its doors to female members held the inaugural Robertson Rosebowl Family Foursomes at Killermont GC on Sunday.
Susan O'Neill (Milngavie) who is a new member was thrilled to win this new trophy donated by Colin Robertson in memory of his son Guy.
Susan was partnered by her son Ewan and Jemma Robertson (daughter of Guy) is pictured with them with the new trophy.
Fifteen girls participated for the Renfrewshire County Junior Campbell Clock Stableford competition over 18 holes at Whitecraigs Golf Club yesterday, 22nd August.
This was won by Ellen Bentley [Pollok] with 40 points, 2nd place was Jayla Kepler [Greenock] with 39 points and 3rd place was Lucie Barclay [Kilmacolm] with 38 points. (click on Ellen’s name and points to see her card)
Also played for today was the Junior County Championship trophy won by Orla Rooney [Cowglen]. with a fabulous gross score - click here of 75
We also had some girls participating in the 8 hole and PAR 3 with Brooke McMeekin [Whitecraigs] winning the 8 hole and Jazyln Sandhu [Whitecraigs] the PAR 3.
This year we also had some off the intermediate ladies participating (over 18) , Alison MacNab [Lochwinnoch] won this category with a great 36 points.
There were some nearest the pin and putting competitions and it was great to see so many players and family members wait for the prize giving.
Thanks to our volunteers and for Whitecraigs Golf Club for the courtesy off the course
Louise Duncan was delighted with the way she handled the increasing pressure and attention during the course of an unforgettable week at Carnoustie.
The 21-year-old Scot shot a level-par 72 on the final day to share in a tie for 10th and received a rapturous reception from her home crowd as she made her way over the Barry Burn to the 18th green.
The Women’s Amateur Champion now has more silverware for her collection having lifted the Smyth Salver – awarded to the leading amateur at the AIG Women’s Open.
It was a trophy lifted by newly-crowned Champion Anna Nordqvist in 2008 and Duncan’s performance has given her confidence she can take the increased expectations in her stride.
“I thought I handled it very well,” she said. “I thought I would crumble a wee bit but I seemed to hold my nerve out there and played well on the last day, which was ultimately my goal.
“It will maybe take a couple weeks to sink in. I feel over the moon with how I played and how I handled it.
“I had a great time, and yeah, really happy with how I played the past four days.
“It gives me a big confidence boost. I'll take this into my next few events and into next year as well.”
Duncan signalled her intent with a four-under 68 on the opening day at Carnoustie and, having comfortably made the cut, surged into Championship contention by repeating the trick on Saturday.
Resuming two shots adrift of the overnight leaders, a birdie at the first got her final round off to the perfect start before back-to-back birdies at 10 and 11, each greeted by hearty roars from the Scottish faithful, kept the fairytale dream alive.
The University of Stirling student could not make further inroads and bogeyed two of the testing final three holes but that did not stop her savouring the experience.
The Curtis Cup is next up from Thursday and, beyond that, Duncan admits she will now have to consider her options as she weighs up turning professional.
“I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen over the next year, year and a half or whatever,” she said.
“I’ve still got a couple years left at Uni and the amount of time I've been at Uni, I think I need a degree out of it.
“I don't really know what the plan is and I’ll have to sit down and have a wee think about it.
“[This week has been] outstanding, pretty surreal and yeah, just dead exciting.
“The 18th there, just the crowd cheering, I really appreciated the support. To have the fans behind me, it's been great.”
A Couple of photos from a fan - Courtesy of Susan Wood (Drumpellier) Scottish Girls -- Team Captain
Louise Duncan said she felt “mind-blown” after the 21-year-old West Kilbride amateur capped a week to remember with a top-10 finish behind Anna Nordqvist in the AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie.
Playing against the pros for the first time in her career, Duncan had the home fans roaring as she started her final round with a birdie before going on to close with a level-par 72 for a seven-under 281 total.
The sensational effort earned the Women’s Amateur champion a tie for 10th, becoming the first Scot since Monifieth’s Kathryn Imrie in 1988 to claim the Smyth Salver as leading amateur and the first to do so since it became a major.
“I feel a bit mind-blown, as if it’s not happened yet,” admitted Duncan. “It will maybe take a couple of weeks to sink in. I feel over the moon about how I played and handled it. I had a great time and I am really happy how I played over the four days.
“I don’t know what the expectation was but it has definitely been exceeded. I couldn’t have written the week any better. I’m glad it’s not a fluke and I played well all four days.”
Duncan, who started the dayjusttwoshotsoffthelead after delighting the home fans with a stirring Saturday effort in the rain, received a huge cheer as she appeared on the first tee ahead of her 2.25pm tee time.
Playing alongside Swede Madalene Sagstrom in the third last group, the Scot calmed any nerves she may have had by safely finding the fairway with an iron, then raising an even bigger roar than the earlier one as she calmly rolled in an eightfooter for an opening birdie.
With Scottish Amateur champion Angus Carrick and Scottish Women’s Amateur runner-up Tara Mactaggart among those watching on, Duncan split the fairway with her drive at the second and wasn’t far away from making it a birdie-birdie start from around 15 feet.
Most players were taking an iron to lay up short of the two fairway bunkers at the third, but not Duncan. Oozing with confidence, she flew the trouble to leave herself with just a wedge. A bit heavy-handed with that, her putting touch was exquisite as a par-4 went down on the card.
That was repeated at the next, where a testing threefooter was confidently converted, before a 10-foot birdie chance went a-begging at the fifth after she’d taken dead aim at the flag on the back tier.
Duncan’s average driving distance heading into the final round had been 283 yards, bettered only by Lexi Thompson, while the Scot was tied for 22nd for fairways hit with an average of 67 per cent.
Duncan dropped her first shot of the day after being left off the tee at the ninth, then right behind a bunker with her approach,
But, not for the first time during the week, the Ayrshirewoman showed she’s made of stern stuff.
Only the second player to achieve the feat in the final round, she made a brilliant birdie from 15 feet at the 10th before making it back-toback gains with a two-putt 3 at the next, where the tee had been moved up to make the green driveable.
Four straight pars were followed by a bogey-4 at the 16th before she then dropped a shot at the last, but the rapturous reception for her at the end said it all. Scottish golf has a new star.
