GB&I Searching for Answers After U.S. Seizes 5-1 Lead at Curtis Cup

Captain Elaine Ratcliffe will need some magic on Saturday, but her position isn't that different from the U.S. team last year, which furiously rallied to win the Cup.

ARDMORE, Pa. — When your team is down 5-1 after the first day and you need 9 ½ out of the remaining 14 points to win the Curtis Cup, a captain needs to do some fancy footwork.

This is the situation in which GB&I Captain Elaine Ratcliffe now finds herself at the 42nd Curtis Cup.

Oddly enough, just 10 months ago after the first day of the 2021 Curtis Cup at Conwy, Wales, the GB&I team had a 4 ½ to 1 ½ lead and was on cruise control, but the lead evaporated on Day 2 and the cup came back to the USA after a 12 ½ to 7 ½ victory.

Ratcliffe said her team came out a little ropey on Day 2 and she believes that Friday at Merion was her teams’ ropey day at this Curtis Cup.

“We've not got off to good starts in either this morning or this afternoon, and we did in one of the matches hand over a lot of holes early, which in this match you can't do,” Ratcliffe said of her team's struggles. “I always witnessed a lot of good golf from the U.S. Team.”

Ratcliffe worked with Mark Fulcher, Justin Roses’s caddie when he won the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, and hatched a plan to take advantage of the shorter holes 7 thru 12 at Merion. But poor starts put GB&I behind the 8-ball early, and they didn’t execute when they got to the scoring holes.

“But again, 7 and 12 you've got to hit fairways, and then all of a sudden those greens become approachable, and then you can suddenly get to the place you want to and then you can start making birdies,” Ratcliffe said. “I don't feel we've made many birdies today. I don't feel -- at times the golf has not warranted them making birdies, but at times the golf has warranted them making birdies, and that hasn't happened.”

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U.S. Captain Sarah Ingram has the luxury of sitting the world's top amateur on Saturday morning, Rose Zhang, who looked sluggish Friday morning, losing her first Curtis Cup match in the morning four-ball.

Zhang won the individual NCAA championship and the team championship for Stanford University two weeks ago at the NCAA’s and then went directly to the U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles. She's the only woman at Merion this week to make that U.S. Women's Open cut.

Clearly Zhang, after two matches on Friday, needs a rest.

“But also, just to rest them and give others an opportunity to play,” Ingram said of Zhang and Rachel Kuehn, who also played two matches on Friday. “I think they'll play better for the next match or two, depending on what happens. Don't want to reveal anything.”

Ingram understands the perils that Ratcliffe is experiencing, as she was in the same situation just 10 months ago. So her message on Friday night to her team is to come out with purpose and play like they're behind.

“Anything can happen, that's match play,” Ingram said. “They want to play well. They want to be in it. So, they're going to be fighting hard. Momentum can swing the other way for sure. Who knows? We'll see what happens.”

At the same time, Ratcliffe needs to find a magic bullet for her team, which may be just a little more difficult.

“The Americans played some great golf today, I don't feel that they left anything out there, everything went in,” Ratcliffe said. “They holed out beautifully. We saw chip-ins, we saw several things. But all credit to them. They're world-class golfers. We need to do the same thing tomorrow. We need to hole out well, execute our game plan, and, you know what, I wouldn't mind a few chip-ins.”