Posted on: Monday, June 14, 2004
Wie leads U.S. to fourth straight Curtis Cup victory
Associated Press and USGA reports
MERSEYSIDE, England — Hawai'i's Michelle Wie helped the United States win its fourth straight Curtis Cup yesterday with a 10-8 victory over Britain-Ireland.
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| Michelle Wie, left, with teammate Erica Blasberg, won her singles match yesterday, 6 and 5, to help the United States to a 10-8 victory over Britain-Ireland in amateur golf's Curtis Cup.
Associated Press |
"I played lights out," said the Punahou student who just completed her freshman year. "I hit the fairways, didn't miss the greens much. I played really well."
Wie also decisively won her singles match Saturday, defeating Anna Highgate, 5 and 4.
Wie, 14, is the youngest player in Curtis Cup history and part of a U.S. team that didn't have a player over 22.
Americans have won the biennial amateur competition 24 of the 33 times it has been played and there have been three ties.
Wie's win yesterday gave the United States a 7-6 lead. Teammate Paula Creamer won her singles and Jane Park lost hers. Then Elizabeth Janangelo beat Shelley McKevitt 1-up to give the United States an insurmountable 9-7 lead.
| How the scoring works
Michelle Wie won her head-to-head match yesterday with Nicola Timmins by the score of 6 and 5. That means Wie had won 6 more holes than Timmins by the time they had finished the 13th hole. With only 5 more holes to play, Timmins could not catch up, so the match ends then. Hence the score, 6 and 5. |
Claire Coughlan beat Brittany Lang, but Annie Thurman downed Danielle Masters for an outright win.
"Both sides played well, but we just happened to squeeze in an extra putt or two," U.S. captain Martha Kirouac said.
Kirouac said she was initially concerned about fielding such a young team, "but then I got comfortable with the abilities they have," she said.
Britain-Ireland won two of three alternate shots yesterday morning to tie it up at 6. Wie and Janangelo lost to Coughlan and Anne Laing, 3 and 2, when Coughlan holed the winning downhill putt from 6 feet on the 16th green.
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| Michelle Wie fires off a shot during foursomes play yesterday with partner Elizabeth Janangelo. They lost that match, 3 and 2.
Associated Press |
Emma Duggleby, Britain and Ireland's 32-year-old veteran, scored her third victory as she and McKevitt beat Erica Blasberg and Sarah Huarte 2 and 1. Thurman and Lang led from the second hole as they beat Timmins and Masters 5 and 4.
Wie and Janangelo started well with birdies at the first and third holes. But they made bogeys to lose the next three.
Coughlan and Laing won three successive holes from the 10th and though Wie and Janangelo won the 15th, it ended on the next green.
"She's up and coming and no doubt going to be No. 1 in the world, so it's a great feeling," Coughlan said, referring to Wie. "On the last putt, I just told myself to pick the line and go with the line. Putting is generally the best part of my game, so I'm very happy."
Begun in 1932, the Curtis Cup is a biennial match for women's amateur golfers between a team from the United States and one from Great Britain and Ireland. Victory in a match scores one point. When a match goes 18 holes without a decision, one-half point is awarded to each team. Three foursome (alternate shots of partners) matches and six singles matches are played on each of the two days of competition.
