Championships - Curtis Cup 2008
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USA Team on Swilcan Bridge
30.05.2008
United States take 2-1 lead in Curtis Cup opener
United States took a 2-1 lead at the end of a morning of fluctuating fortunes and late drama in the opening session of foursomes in the 35th Curtis Cup contest.On a dreich, misty and wet morning over the Old Course, St Andrews, Great Britain & Ireland’s heroines were 16-year-old Sally Watson from Edinburgh and 20-year-old Scottish women’s champion Michele Thomson from Ellon, near Aberdeen.
They won the No 2 tie by one hole against Mina Harigae and Jennie Lee after surging into a four-hole lead after only seven holes.
Their win cancelled out a 3 and 1 victory for the United States’ Stacy Lewis and Irish-born Alison Walshe over the all-England pairing of Liz Bennett and Jodi Ewart in the lead-off tie.
Bennett and Ewart were two up after five holes but the Americans took a grip on the match when they won the ninth with a par to get back on level terms and then birdied the 11th and 12th to go two up.
Watson and Thomson matched the par of 36 on the outward half in the miserable conditions – and that was good enough to put them into a four-hole lead. But Harigae and Lee began a recovery with a birdie 2 at the 11th and when the Scots bogeyed the 13th, their lead had been cut to two holes.
They did birdie the long 14th to go three up with four holes to play but the Americans would not be subdued.
They won the 16th and 17th with par figures as Watson and Thomson wobbled and there was a crisis point for the Scots as they sought to defend a one-hole advantage down the 18th.
Thomson’s drive landed on the tarmac road that bisects the 18th and first fairways. It is an integral part of the course and the players get no relief.
Watson made good contact with her approach shot but still left her partner with an uphill putt of some 25ft.
Thomson then was short with her putt for a clinching birdie but Sally Watson courageously rammed home a four-footer to halve the hole in par 4s and gave the Scots a one-hole win.
American’s No college player, Amanda Blumenherst, and Tiffany Joh showed their class with the best scoring of the morning – three under par 33 for the outward half. That put them four up and in the driving seat against Breanne Loucks and Florentyna Parker.
That lead was stretched to five holes when the Welsh-English pair bogeyed the short 11th but that was as good as it got for the Americans. Loucks and Parker gritted their teeth and chipped away at their big deficit. They won back the 13th with a birdie and the 14th with a par.
They continued their fightback with a birdie 3 at the 16th and, amazingly, were only one down with one to play when they won the Road Hole 17th with a creditable par 4.
Having climbed back up the ladder so far, it was a tragedy that Loucks and Parker were not quite able to finish off the job against their talented opponents. Loucks played a great second shot at the last to within three feet of the pin.
Parker’s putt which would have squared the tie – and also the contest overall – stayed above ground and Blumenherst and Joh were let off the hook to win by one hole.
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