2014 Curtis Cup | St Louis Country Club

The Curtis Cup is the best known team trophy for women amateur golfers, awarded in the biennial Curtis Cup Match (not “Matches”). It is co-organised by the United States Golf Association and the Ladies Golf Union and is contested by teams representing the United States and “Great Britain and Ireland”. The same two teams originally contested the Ryder Cup, but unlike that competition, the Curtis Cup has not widened the Great Britain and Ireland team to include all Europeans (nor has the analogous event for amateur men, the Walker Cup). Many women who have gone on to become stars of women’s professional golf have played in the Curtis Cup. The first Curtis Cup Match was played in 1932 at the Wentworth Club in England, and was won by the American team. The trophy, a silver bowl of Paul Revere design, was donated by Harriot Curtis (who had won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 1906) and her sister Margaret (who had won it in 1907, 1911, and 1912). The Curtis sisters had competed in the 1905 British Ladies Amateur, where an informal match had occurred between teams of American and British golfers, and they wanted to promote the international friendships in the world of women’s golf. The cup is inscribed, “To stimulate friendly rivalry among the women golfers of many lands.” St. Louis Country Club will hosted the 38th Curtis Cup Match June 6-8, 2014 on the club’s historic Charles Blair Macdonald course. Previously, the club has hosted the 1921 and 1960 US Amateur, the 1925 and 1972 US Women’s Amateur and the 1947 US Open.Constructed in 1914 by Macdonald, with assistance from Seth Raynor, the Country Club was founded in 1892 and is recognized as one of the first 100 clubs in America. St. Louisan Ellen Port, winner of six national championships, including four US Women’s Mid-Amateur titles and the 2012 US Women’s Senior Amateur, was named Captain for the 38th Curtis Cup Match, to be played at historic St. Louis Country Club June 6-8, 2014. Port, a member of the 1994 and 1996 Curtis Cup Team, and an alternate in 1998, is one of the most decorated women golfers in USGA history. Her five titles place her ninth on the all-time list of champions. Married with two teenage children, Port is a teacher and golf coach at a St. Louis area high school. In addition to her national titles, she has won a record 8 Missouri Women’s Amateur trophies, her last coming in 2012. The U.S. Golf Association released its list of invitees for the first Curtis Cup practice session, which will take place Jan. 31-Feb. 2 at Champions Golf Club in Houston. The matches will be played June 6-8 at St. Louis Country Club, and the final squad will consist of eight women.St. Louis native Ellen Port, a six-time USGA champion and two-time U.S. Curtis Cup Team member, will serve as captain of the U.S. team. The list of invitees:

Casie Cathrea, Livermore, Calif. (Oklahoma State)
Doris Chen, Bradenton, Fla. (USC)
Karen Chung, Livingston, N.J. (USC)
Lauren Diaz-Yi, Thousand Oaks, Calif. (Virginia)
Kyung Kim, Chandler, Ariz. (USC)
Alison Lee, Valencia, Calif. (UCLA)
Erynne Lee, Silverdale, Wash. (UCLA)
Ally McDonald, Fulton, Miss. (Mississippi State)
Nicole Morales, South Salem, N.Y
Grace Na, Alamedia, Calif. (Pepperdine)
Annie Park, Levittown, N.Y. (USC)
Ashlan Ramsey, Milledgeville, Ga. (Clemson)
Mariah Stackhouse, Riverdale, Ga. (Stanford)
Emma Talley, Princeton, Ky. (Alabama)

That list includes four USGA champions in Chen (2010 U.S. Girls’ Junior), Diaz-Yi (2013 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links), Kim (2012 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links) and Talley (2013 U.S. Women’s Amateur). Alison Lee is the top-ranked female in the World Amateur Ranking. An invitation to the USGA’s practice session does not guarantee selection, and players not at the session are not excluded from consideration. Conspicuously missing from the list, however, is 2012 Curtis Cupper Emily Tubert. She is the only member of that eight-woman squad still eligible to compete in 2014 as the other seven have turned professional. Also, no mid-amateurs were invited to the practice session. The U.S. team will be looking to reclaim the Curtis Cup after losing to Great Britain and Ireland in 2012. Photos from the 2014 Curtis Cup.