Rose Zhang Invited to 2021 Curtis Cup Practice Session at Lake Nona

Twelve players have been invited by the USGA’s International Team Selection Committee to attend a practice session Jan. 29-30 at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Fla., for the 41st Curtis Cup Match.

JANUARY 4, 2021 | LIBERTY CORNER, N.J.
By Julia Pine, USGA

The following 12 players have accepted invitations to the practice session (with current college affiliation):

Allisen Corpuz, 22, of Honolulu, Hawaii (University of Southern California)
Lauren Hartlage, 22, of Elizabethtown, Ky. (University of Louisville)
Auston Kim, 20, of St. Augustine, Fla. (Vanderbilt University)
Gina Kim, 20, of Durham, N.C. (Duke University)
Rachel Kuehn, 19, of Asheville, N.C. (Wake Forest University)
Brooke Matthews, 22, of Rogers, Ark. (University of Arkansas)
Emilia Migliaccio, 21, of Cary, N.C. (Wake Forest University)
Kaitlyn Papp, 22, of Austin, Texas (University of Texas)
Megan Schofill, 19, of Monticello, Fla. (Auburn University)
Aneka Seumanutafa, 20, of Emmitsburg, Md. (Ohio State University)
Kennedy Swann, 22, of Austin, Texas (University of Mississippi)
Rose Zhang, 17, of Irvine, Calif.

The 41st Curtis Cup Match was originally scheduled for June 12-14, 2020, at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales, before being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Match will now be held at Conwy Golf Club on Aug. 26-28, 2021. Prior to the postponement, eight of the 12 invited players (listed in bold above) had attended a practice session in December 2019.

Two USGA champions are among the players invited: Kaitlyn Papp (2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball) and Rose Zhang (2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur). Zhang was awarded the 2020 Mark H. McCormack Medal as the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking® in October. Papp recently earned low-amateur honors in the 75th U.S. Women’s Open, finishing in a tie for ninth place and earning an exemption into next year’s championship. None of the invited players have competed in a Curtis Cup 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 serve as captain of the USA Team. A Duke University graduate, Ingram was a two-time All-American and four-year letter winner for the Blue Devils from 1985-1988. 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.

“It was incredibly disappointing to postpone this year’s Match, so to get back together as a group and restart the team selection process is exciting,” said Ingram. “The level of talent in women’s amateur golf in this country right now is really impressive, and these players are all very accomplished, both inside and outside the game. I look forward to having the chance to get to know these young women better.”

Invitation to the Curtis Cup practice session does not guarantee selection to the eight-player USA Team that will compete in August. Players not invited will also be considered for inclusion on the team. As of 2018, the USGA provides automatic selections to the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, along with the McCormack Medal winner and the top three players in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (date TBD), if eligible. The 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship will be played Aug. 2-8 at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y., with the recipient of the McCormack Medal being named shortly thereafter.

The Curtis Cup Match is contested by two teams of eight female amateur players, one from the United States of America and one from Great Britain and Ireland, which is composed of England, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The USGA’s International Team Selection Committee selects the USA Team, while The R&A selects the GB&I Team.

Elaine Ratcliffe will serve as GB&I captain. Ratcliffe, a native of Cheshire, England, was a member of the victorious GB&I Team in the 1996 Curtis Cup Match.

The USA defeated Great Britain & Ireland by a record-setting 17-3 margin in the 40th Curtis Cup Match in June 2018 at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. The USA leads the overall series, 29-8-3.

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