Great Britain and Ireland won the Curtis Cup for only the second time in the last 10 contests after overcoming a resurgent USA 11½-8½ in County Wicklow.
After claiming five of the six points on day two, the home side needed just two-and-a-half points from Sunday’s eight singles for victory at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club.
Bailey Tardy, Monica Vaughn and Andrea Lee all secured wins for the Americans, but Meghan MacLaren held on to defeat USA’s Bethany Wu at the 17th and secure the winning point for GB & Ireland.
A win for Leona Maguire over Sienna Brooks, and a half-point from Olivia Mehaffey against world number one Hannah O’Sullivan had put the hosts on the verge of victory.
Following the flurry of American success, MacLaren saw her three-hole lead with four to play cut to a single hole, before taking the penultimate hole for a 2&1 win to settle the overall contest.
Moments later, Bronte Law defeated Mika Liu by two holes to become just the second player ever to record a perfect 5-0 record, American Stacy Lewis having done so at St Andrews in 2008, the year the event switched from two to three days. Mariel Galdiano defeated Irish golfer Maria Dunne in the last match to narrow the margin of defeat for the Americans to three points.
World No.4 Law, for whom this was her last Curtis Cup, said: “For me to end it this way is just a dream. It’s great to be the first GB & I player to win five matches, but that wasn’t the priority for me. It was all about the team. I think the reason why we have the trophy right now is that we’ve had some amazing team chemistry this week. Everyone has got on so well. This is the best team I’ve been on. There are friendships here that are going to last a lifetime, and that’s the most important thing.”
US captain Robin Burke felt her side had been capable of pulling off a similar comeback to that of last year’s Solheim Cup team, who recovered from a four-point deficit in the singles in Germany. “GB & Ireland just played really well yesterday,” she said. “They made a ton of birdies on us and we almost recovered. We just didn’t quite get there.”
The matches was not without controversy, however, as on the second day America’s Bailey Tardy was ruled out of a hole after being given a penalty for slow play – the first ever penalty handed out for this offence in the Curtis Cup. Bailey hit a shot to five feet at the 12th hole in her Saturday four-ball match with Mariel Galdiano against Meghan MacLaren and Maria Dunne, but was then given a second bad time and ruled out of the hole. The US pair lost the hole to go 2 down, and eventually lost the match, 3 and 2.
“If they were consistent with penalizing players for slow play, I could digest it a little bit better,” Burke said. “They were very inconsistent, and I think that was done in poor taste. We agreed yesterday that if there’s slow play from a player, they should be penalized, but it should be consistent with all players. I don’t think it was consistent.”
The victory marked just the eighth time GB & I has emerged victorious in the 39 matches contested since the event began in 1932. They have now won twice in-a-row on home soil, after victory at Nairn in four years ago. The 2020 renewal is being held in Wales, although a venue has yet to be announced.