SoCal stars dominate 2016 Curtis Cup Team announcement

February 23, 2016

Andrea Lee of Hermosa Beach (pictured), the 2015 Southern California Women's Amateur champion, was among the eight players named today by the United States Golf Association (USGA) to the USA Team for the 2016 Curtis Cup Match, to be conducted June 10-12 at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club in Enniskerry, Ireland, outside Dublin.

The players are:

  • Sierra Brooks, 17, of Sorrento, Fla.
  • Mariel Galdiano, 17, of Pearl City, Hawaii
  • Andrea Lee, 17, of Hermosa Beach, Calif.
  • Mika Liu, 17, of Beverly Hills, Calif.
  • Hannah O’Sullivan, 17, of Chandler, Ariz.
  • Bailey Tardy, 19, of Peachtree Corners, Ga.
  • Monica Vaughn, 21, of Reedsport, Ore.
  • Bethany Wu, 19, of Diamond Bar, Calif.

“These eight young women who will represent the United States in the 39th Curtis Cup Match are among the most talented players in the world,” said Diana Murphy, USGA president. “The USGA is proud to have them as ambassadors for the game, and we wish them the best of luck as they prepare for the competition in June.”

The Curtis Cup Match is a biennial international women’s amateur golf competition between eight-player teams from the United States of America and Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I). It consists of six foursomes (alternate-shot) matches, six four-ball matches and eight singles matches over three days of competition. The USGA’s International Team Selection (ITS) Committee selects the USA Team, while the Ladies’ Golf Union selects the GB&I Team.

“The opportunity to select the members of this team was one we undertook with great care,” said Tom Hough, of Atlanta, who is in his first year as chairman of the ITS Committee and third year on the USGA Executive Committee. “We are confident that, while these players will be fierce competitors, they will also embody the tradition of friendship set forth by Margaret and Harriot Curtis in 1932.”

All eight players on the USA Team are among the top 30 of the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking™, with O’Sullivan (No. 2), Brooks (No. 4), Galdiano (No. 6) and Tardy (No. 7) in the top 10.

The SCGA's Lee won the 2014 Rolex Tournament of Champions and the 2014 Yani Tseng Invitational. That same year, she reached the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur, the quarterfinals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior and tied for 69th in the U.S. Women’s Open. Lee earned a silver medal for the USA in the 2015 Pan American Games, and the next week she again reached the U.S. Girls’ Junior quarterfinals. She will start her freshman year at Stanford University in the fall.

Liu of Beverly Hills teamed with Mitsunaga to win the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2015. She kicked off the 2016 season with a win in the Sally Tournament. Her other victories over the last two years include the 2014 Women’s Southern Amateur, the 2014 Women’s Western Amateur and the 2015 Thunderbird Invitational Junior, and she notched runner-up finishes in the 2015 Ione D. Jones/Doherty Amateur, the 2015 Women’s Eastern Amateur and the 2015 Rolex Tournament of Champions. Liu, who reached the quarterfinals of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the 2015 U.S. Girls’ Junior, has verbally committed to attend Stanford in the fall of 2017.

Wu, of Diamond Bar, was runner-up in the 2015 North & South Women’s Amateur and the 2015 Canadian Women’s Amateur, and reached the semifinals of the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur. She was a quarterfinalist in the 2014 U.S. Girls’ Junior and earned medalist honors in the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur, the same year she successfully defended her Annika Invitational victory. Wu is a freshman at UCLA.

Robin Burke, the 1997 U.S. Women’s Amateur runner-up and a member of the victorious 1998 USA Curtis Cup Team, will serve as USA captain.

"It's exciting to have the team announced,” said Burke. “I'm looking forward to bringing the players together for practice and creating positive energy for the Match in June. This is a remarkable group of players – all very talented, all proud to represent the United States. I'm not sure Ireland is ready for us, but we will be ready for Ireland!”

Elaine Farquharson-Black will serve as GB&I captain. Farquharson-Black, a native of Scotland, represented GB&I in the 1990 and 1992 Curtis Cup Matches.

The USA won the 2014 Match at St. Louis (Mo.) Country Club, 13-7, and leads the overall series, 28-7-3. The GB&I Team won the 2012 Match at The Nairn Golf Club in Scotland, the last time the Match was played on GB&I soil, to halt a streak of seven consecutive victories for the USA. Prior to that, the USA had not lost since the 1996 Match at Killarney Golf and Field Club, the only other time the biennial competition has been held in the Republic of Ireland.

Notable past USA Curtis Cup Team members include U.S. Women’s Open champions JoAnne Gunderson Carner, Paula Creamer, Juli Inkster, Kerr, Patty Sheehan, Hollis Stacy and Michelle Wie, as well as past and present LPGA stars such as Beth Daniel, Jessica Korda, Stacy Lewis, Nancy Lopez, Dottie Pepper and Lexi Thompson.



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MBright

Handicap Index: 13.9
Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Good luck ladies!!