Here's who will be taking to the fairways this June for the 42nd Curtis Cup at Merion, Pennsylvania
Eight players have been selected for the Great Britain and Ireland team to play the United States of America in the 42nd Curtis Cup at Merion, Pennsylvania from June 10-12.
The GB&I team is made up of Hannah Darling, Louise Duncan, Annabell Fuller, Charlotte Heath, Caley McGinty, Emily Price, Lauren Walsh and Amelia Williamson. The non-travelling reserves are – Lottie Woad and Beth Coulter.
World number ten Darling and world number 11 McGinty earned their places in the team as automatic selections thanks to being the top-two GB&I players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR ®) on Thursday, April 21, 2022.
Six players return to the GB&I team which last year got off to a solid start at Conwy and were leading after the opening three sessions. They will look to build on that form when they head across the Atlantic to be joined by debutantes Price and Williamson.
The USA team is Amari Avery, Megha Ganne, Emilia Migliaccio and Latanna Stone. They join Jensen Castle, Rachel Heck, Rachel Kuehn and Rose Zhang who were automatic selections. Six of the eight players are currently inside the top 30 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®. The reserves for the USA Team are Brooke Seay and Anna Davis, the current ANWA Champion.
Only nine months since the last Curtis Cup match
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 42nd Curtis Cup Match will take place just nine months after the USA Team earned victory at Conwy Golf Club in Wales in the 41st Curtis Cup Match.
The USA Team will return five players from that winning effort, with Avery, Ganne and Stone as new additions. However, Ganne did travel to Wales as the team’s second reserve last August. She’s excited to get an official playing spot, she said:
"Especially after being there last year, experiencing the excitement first hand and cheering on the team, it was one of my top goals this year. I couldn’t be more proud or excited to compete in a Curtis Cup at a venue as special as Merion. I know it’s going to be a week I remember for the rest of my life.”
Elaine Ratcliffe, GB&I Captain, commented on her Curtis Cup team:
“I would like to congratulate the eight players on their selection to the Great Britain and Ireland team. The Curtis Cup is one of the highlights of the amateur game and I know they will all put in their best performances at Merion.
“I am delighted to have six of the girls from last year back in the team for the 2022 match and I believe this gives us a strong base to build upon. The two new players to the team will strengthen that talent base and we very much look forward to an exciting match.”
Sarah Ingram, a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion (1991, 1993, 1994) and a member of three USA Curtis Cup Teams (1992, 1994 and 1996), will again serve as Captain after leading the USA to victory last summer in Wales. Ingram, who was the low amateur in the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open, is a member of the Duke University Sports Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame.
The 42nd Curtis Cup Teams
GB&I Team
Hannah Darling (18, Broomieknowe, Scotland)
Louise Duncan (22, West Kilbride, Scotland)
Annabell Fuller (19, Roehampton, England)
Charlotte Heath (20, Huddersfield, England)
Caley McGinty (21, Knowle, England)
Emily Price (22, Ludlow, England)
Lauren Walsh (21, Castlewarden, Ireland)
Amelia Williamson (21, Sheringham, England)
USA Team
Jensen Castle (21, West Columbia, S.C.)
Rachel Heck (20 Memphis Tenn.)
Rachel Kuehn (20, Asheville, N.C.)
Rose Zhang (18, Irvine, Calif.)
Amari Avery (18, Riverside, Calif.)
Megha Ganne (18, Holmdel, N.J.)
Emilia Migliaccio (22, Cary, N.C.)
Latanna Stone (21, Riverview, Fla.)
Recent results:
2021, Conwy, USA 12 ½ GB&I 7 ½
2018, Quaker Ridge, USA 17 GB&I 3
2016, Dun Laoghaire, GB&I 11½ USA 8½
2014, St Louis, USA 13 GB&I 7
2012, Nairn, GB&I 10½ USA 9½
Player Profiles - Team GB&I
Hannah Darling, WAGR: 10th
Having previously represented GB&I in the Junior Vagliano Trophy and Europe in the Junior Solheim Cup, Darling made her Curtis Cup debut at Conwy last year and secured an impressive three points. Winner of the 2021 St Rule Trophy and the 2021 R&A Girls’ Amateur Championship, Darling has continued her form after joining the University of South Carolina. The Scot has already posted six top-10 finishes on the US college circuit and made her debut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April.
Caley McGinty, WAGR: 11th
GB&I’s leading scorer on her Curtis Cup debut in 2021, securing three-and-a-half points from her five matches. Last year, McGinty earned the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Golfer and Freshman of the Year awards after securing three wins at Kent State. She was also a member of the victorious England teams at the European Ladies’ Team Championship and the Women’s Home Internationals. McGinty transferred to Oklahoma State from Kent State prior to the 2021-22 season and made an immediate impact on her new team, winning both the Schooner Fall Classic and the Jim West Challenge before making her Augusta National Women’s Amateur debut in April.
Lauren Walsh, WAGR: 27th
Walsh was the highest ranked player on the GB&I Curtis Cup team at Conwy in 2021 and went on to earn a point. The Irishwoman played in the AIG Women’s Open last August and finished eighth in the 2019 ISPS Handa World Invitational on the Ladies European Tour. Walsh won the 2021 NCAA Championships as part of the team representing Wake Forest University and has achieved four top-20 results in 2022 including a third-place finish at the ACC Women’s Golf Championship in April following on from her first start in the Augusta National Women's Amateur. A regular international for Ireland, she was also a member of the International team at the Arnold Palmer Cup in 2021.
Annabell Fuller, WAGR: 41st
Fuller made her second Curtis Cup appearance at Conwy in 2021, earning an impressive three points. Winner of the 2020 English Women’s Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship and runner-up at the 2020 Women’s Amateur Championship. Fuller, who has also represented Europe in the Junior Solheim Cup and is a regular international for England, has also shone at the University of Florida. In 2022, she has secured four top-10 results, including a runner-up finish in the Clemson Invitational. Fuller also qualified for the AIG Women’s Open last August.
Charlotte Heath, WAGR: 51st
Heath secured a point on her Curtis Cup debut in Wales last year. Winner of the 2020 Australian Amateur Championship and a member of the victorious England teams at the European Ladies’ Team Championship and Women’s Home Internationals in 2021. The Florida State University student has secured five top-12 finishes on the US college circuit in 2022, including fourth place in the Moon Golf Invitational, building on four top-10 results in her 2021 season.
Amelia Williamson, WAGR: 53rd
The Florida State student won the individual title at the Florida State Match Up in February, building on her second-place finish in the same event in 2021. She also has three other top-10 results to her name in the US in 2022. Back home, Williamson enjoyed a fine summer last year, including third-place finishes in the English Women’s Amateur and the English Women’s Open Amateur Stroke Play. She was also seventh in the Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open and helped England win the Women’s Home Internationals.
Emily Price, WAGR: 59th
In August 2020, Price celebrated the biggest win of her career after coming from behind to defeat Lily May Humphreys in the English Women’s Amateur Championship final. At Kent State in the US, she has impressed, including wins in the Indiana Invitational and the Illini Women’s Invitational in 2021 and most recently at the Lady Buckeye Invitational in April 2022. A participant for the International team in the Arnold Palmer Cup last year, Price has added three other top-20 results in the US in 2022.
Louise Duncan, WAGR: 62nd
The 2021 Women’s Amateur Champion won the final at Kilmarnock (Barassie) by a record 9&8 margin and became the first Scot to triumph in 24 years. The victory helped seal her Curtis Cup debut at Conwy. An R&A Foundation Scholar and student at the University of Stirling, Duncan finished tied 10th at the AIG Women’s Open last August, securing her exemption into the 2022 championship at Muirfield. A Scotland international, Duncan posted four top-10 finishes on the R&A Student Tour Series in 2021-22 and made her debut at the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Player Profiles - Team USA
Rose Zhang, WAGR: 1st
A two-time USGA champion and currently No. 1 in the Women’s WAGR, having won the McCormack Medal as the world’s leading amateur in August for the second consecutive year. After winning the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur in Maryland, Zhang earned her second USGA title last July, defeating Bailey Davis, 6 and 4, in the final match of the 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior, becoming just the eighth player to win both the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur. A freshman at Stanford University, Zhang began her collegiate career earning individual victories in her first three starts. It was the first time in Cardinal history that a freshman – male or female – won their first three events. Prior to arriving at Stanford, Zhang went 4-0-1 to lead the United States over GB&I in the 2021 Curtis Cup. She has competed in six women’s major championships, making the cut in three, including a T11 finish in the 2020 ANA Inspiration. Zhang recently finished T12 at this year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Rachel Heck, WAGR: 3rd
A sophomore at Stanford University who won the 2021 Annika Award as the top collegiate golfer. She became the third player in women’s college history to sweep conference (Pacific 12), regional (Stanford Regional) and national titles (NCAAs), joining USC’s Annie Park and Arizona’s Marisa Baena. Last year, Heck became the first Stanford woman to win an NCAA title, and the ninth freshman to achieve the feat. Heck’s 69.72 scoring average over 25 rounds is the lowest in NCAA women’s golf history. She was a semifinalist in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur, and a member of the victorious USA Curtis Cup Team last summer, compiling a 2-2-1 record.
Rachel Kuehn, WAGR: 8th
A junior at Wake Forest University, earned medalist honors in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Westchester Country Club, posting 6-under-par 138 on the famed West Course. She had a strong start to her collegiate season, finishing runner-up at the Bryan National Collegiate before winning the Tar Heel Invitational by a stroke after a second-round 63, the lowest 18-hole score in Wake Forest women's golf history. She won the 2020 North & South Women’s Amateur and the 2020 Ladies National Golf Association Amateur. Kuehn’s mother, Brenda Corrie Kuehn, was a member of the USA Curtis Cup Team in 1996 alongside Sarah Ingram, as well as in 1998, when she went 4-0 and scored the clinching point in the USA’s victory. The Kuehns became the second mother/daughter tandem to have played in a Curtis Cup when Kuehn played in 2021 at Conwy Golf Club in Wales, where she scored the clinching point for her team on the way to a 3-1-0 record.
Emilia Migliaccio, WAGR: 16th
Making her second Curtis Cup Team appearance, going 2-2 in her Match debut last August. She was a quarterfinalist in the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur and finished runner-up to Tsubasa Kajitani in the 2021 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Migliaccio, who last spring graduated from Wake Forest University, was a two-time first-team All-American and helped lead the Demon Deacons to the 2019 ACC title while capturing the ACC individual title. Migliaccio decided against turning professional and returned to Wake Forest in the fall for a two-year master’s program in communication. She will rejoin the school’s women’s golf team next year. She currently works part-time as a writer and on-air broadcaster for Golf Channel during which she has covered LPGA, NCAA and USGA events.
Megha Ganne, WAGR: 18th
Ganneshared the first-round lead in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club before earning low-amateur honors with a T14 finish. In the past year, she won the Scott Robertson Memorial, recorded top-five finishes in the Annika Invitational, Girls Junior PGA Championship and the AJGA Tournament of Champions, in addition to representing the United States in both the Junior Solheim Cup and Junior Ryder Cup. In November, she officially committed to playing college golf at Stanford University. Ganne is a four-time Drive, Chip and Putt National Finalist and is an active participant in The First Tee of Metropolitan New York.
Amari Avery, WAGR: 24th
A freshman at the University of Southern California who just enrolled for the spring semester. She recently earned a T4 finish at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur after an impressive junior career that included an appearance on the 2021 U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team, as well appearances in several professional tournaments, including the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open and 2021 LPGA Founders Cup. She won the 2019 California Women’s Amateur.
Latanna Stone, WAGR: 35th
A junior at LSU, finished T2 in the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship. Stone has played in three U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships. In 2012, at the age of 10, she became the youngest competitor in the championship’s history, a distinction she still holds. As a sophomore, Stone earned All-America honors after five top-10 finishes, leading LSU back to the NCAA Championships. She was selected for the 2020 Arnold Palmer Cup team and posted a 2-0-2 record, helping the United States earn back the Cup. She also played in the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
Jensen Castle, WAGR: 68th
She defeated Yu-Chiang (Vivian) Hou, 2 and 1, to win the 121st U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y., last August. Three weeks later, she earned 2 points for the victorious USA Curtis Cup Team, finishing with a 1-1-2 record in Wales. Castle, who set Kentucky’s single-season stroke average record as a freshman, notched two top-20 finishes in the fall and led the team with a 71.75 stroke average. She recently earned a T12 finish at the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
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