CONWY, NORTH WALES | So who did Ireland’s Lauren Walsh message first when she learned she was in the Great Britain & Ireland side for the Curtis Cup match at Conwy Golf Club?
The answer was United States team member Rachel Kuehn, who just happens to be her closest friend and greatest rival at Wake Forest University. “On 9 August, the day our side was announced and Rachel was at her home and I was back in Ireland, Rachel would have woken up to my text,†Walsh said. “It was an amazing time; we both felt so honoured.â€
As you would expect, the two soon were discussing what it would be like if they had to play each other in singles. Had they not been made of such stern stuff, they would doubtless have dwelt on how they could not be that unlucky. Instead, they were agreeing what a thrill it would be if such a match were to happen, especially if they could both be at their best for the occasion.
Walsh was the highest-ranked player in the GB&I side at 14th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking; Kuehn earned medallist honours at the U.S. Women’s Amateur; and Migliaccio ... was a playoff runner up in this year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Last Wednesday, as they fell into step on Conwy’s front lawn before heading for their respective players’ lounges, they were joined by Emilia Migliaccio, a second Wake Forest player in the U.S. team. Migliaccio had just graduated, but the three had set about pushing each other in a bid to share in this Curtis Cup experience and had no hesitation in saying how well they had been served by that approach.
Walsh was the highest-ranked player in the GB&I side at 14th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking; Kuehn earned medallist honours at the U.S. Women’s Amateur; and Migliaccio, who plans to stay amateur all her days, was a playoff runner up in this year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
In their only Curtis Cup encounter, Kuehn and partner Jensen Castle beat Walsh and Louise Duncan in Friday's fourballs. The Americans broke a 6-6 tie with a scorching singles effort including wins by Kuehn and Migliaccio en route to a 12½-7½ team victory.
Intriguingly, Kuehn’s mum, Brenda (maiden name Corrie), played in the 1996 and 1998 Curtis Cups. Aside from the coincidence of having a daughter whose best friend was on the opposing side, Brenda was marvelling at the difference in standard between then and now.
“All the players here are so much better than we were,†she said. “The putting has reached new heights and, one way and another, there’s nothing they can’t do. They all hit long and they all hit straight.â€
Where Kuehn had her parents with her, Walsh had not just her parents but her 5-year-old brother, Edward, who would like our readers to know that he can drive a ball 70 yards. Also in this Irish party was Walsh’s coach, Shane O’Grady, who, in one more improbable happenstance, turned out to have taught former Curtis Cup players Lisa and Leona Maguire.
Because of the pandemic, O’Grady had been unable to arrange to go to the United States to watch Maguire in this week’s Solheim Cup. However, he had plenty to say on the similarities between this trio of pupils, most notably on how they were all-round high achievers.
Though he has never thought great golfers have to be super-clever, he has nonetheless been fascinated by the extent to which a good brain helps.
“The smarter kids are with their studies, the better-organised they tend to be in the way they structure their golfing practice and the way they think their way round a course,†he said.
At age 11, Walsh, who is studying business and maths, had been a relatively late starter in a game where the Maguires already were featuring in national junior events at the same age. Lauren’s older sister, Clodagh, had been going to O’Grady for lessons, and there came a day when Lauren, who had been a good junior hurler (an Irish game played with a ball and a stick) tagged along.
GGP asked how long it took him to realise that in Lauren he had another player on his hands in the same mould as the Maguires.
“I knew it when she came back for another lesson,†he said, before adding a bemused, “Some don’t.â€
Lewine Mair
