Sometimes in team golf, there is no greater motivating factor than the memory of agonising defeat.
It is especially true in trans-Atlantic tussles.
Europe’s narrow loss at the 1983 Ryder Cup prompted the great Severiano Ballesteros to implore his teammates to store their frustration and to use it as fuel for the 1985 match. The renaissance of Europe’s Ryder Cup fortunes, and the revitalisation of the match itself, began right there.
The present success of Europe’s Solheim Cup team – four wins in the past six matches – can be traced to the experience of having victory within its grasp, only to have it snatched away on the back nine of the singles.
And Great Britain and Ireland’s dominance at the Curtis Cup in the late 1980s and early ’90s, when the team lifted the trophy five times in six matches, came after GB&I lost on the final green of the final match in the 1984 edition for the Americans’ 13th consecutive victory.
Are we due a repeat of such bounce backs? This year’s GB&I Curtis Cup team, which was announced last week, certainly hopes so.
Six of the eight players were in the side that lost to the Americans, 12½-7½, in August at Conwy Golf Club in Wales. At first glance, there is nothing tight about that scoreline, but GB&I led by three points after the first day, was tied after the second day and still in the hunt heading into the back nine of the final-day singles.
“The last match still feels so close, both in competitiveness and time. We all know each other so well. We’re great friends, and we’re very excited about playing on American turf and beating them.”
Louise Duncan
Captain Elaine Ratcliffe remains in charge for a second time and insists that she has given little thought about the actual scoreline. “I would even have to think about it, if you asked me,” she told Global Golf Post last week. “Because the vivid memory is that we took the fight into the back nine of the singles. Yes, we came up short, but we took it to them.”
If there is an echo of Europe’s 2009 Solheim Cup team – which was tied with the U.S. entering the final day before losing eight of 12 singles matches – the Ryder Cup team of 1983 comes to mind in Ratcliffe’s assessment of the change in mindset between matches.
“I feel that last year the goal was to be competitive, to take it to the opposition, to take the match deep into the final session,” she said.
And now?
“I haven’t forgotten what it felt like to lose, and I have clarity because of that,” she said. “We want 10½ points. That’s the goal. Whether that comes from having learned a lesson or from the pain – or a bit of both – I don't know. But it's there. There is a task at hand, and we know what it is.”
The six who return are three players from England (Caley McGinty, Annabell Fuller and Charlotte Heath), two from Scotland (Hannah Darling and Louise Duncan) and one from Ireland (Lauren Walsh). They will be joined by English rookies Emily Price and Amelia Williamson.
The disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to postponement of the 2020 match for 14 months and heavy restrictions when it finally took place, might now play into their hands. It is only 10 months since GB&I’s defeat. Those memories are more raw than they would be in the normal two-year cycle.
Duncan, the 22-year-old whose audacious preparation for the 2021 match was to contend for the AIG Women’s Open title at Carnoustie, believes that retention of three quarters of the lineup is a positive.
“The last match still feels so close, both in competitiveness and time,” Duncan said ahead of boarding a flight en route to a team get-together at host course Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. “We all know each other so well. We’re great friends, and we’re very excited about playing on American turf and beating them.”
And what of the vibe in the team room 10 months ago, in the aftermath of defeat? “There was a real sense that we'd been very close, that victory had been within our grasp, that it is not something that is beyond us.”
Ratcliffe likes the look of the Merion test. It reminds her of classical British and Irish designs. “It has lovely turf like Sunningdale,” she said. “Undulating lies, varied hazards, speedy greens. It's a small property, so the atmosphere will be tremendous, and we'll be looking to silence the crowds.”
She’s also invited a special guest to the team recce: fellow Stirling University alumna Catriona Matthew. “When the 2020 match was postponed, I arranged a series of Zoom calls, and Catriona’s input was very insightful for the team,” Ratcliffe said. “There’s not a better person to talk to them this week than a former Curtis Cup player, a major winner, and a Solheim Cup legend as both player and captain.”
The need for keen preparation, inspiration and bullishness is great. The GB&I team has travelled to America 20 times and returned with the win just twice. The most recent was in 1986. The 1994 team, which included Matthew, forced a tie.
“I don't want to dwell on the difficulty of the task,” Ratcliffe said. “I prefer to focus on the fact that these girls are world-class golfers. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to showcase both their skills and women's amateur golf. We know the American team are good – we saw that in Conwy – but we also know they are not unbeatable.”
Top: GB&I captain Elaine Ratcliffe praised her team for taking the fight to Americans in 2021 loss in Wales.
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