Curtis Cup

[jimjoachim]

Sorry if there was a thread over the weekend I missed. Did anybody watch it?
I thought it was great to have on Sky Sports and really enjoyed it despite the result!!

Id love to see a lot more amateur and team golf live on sky. Understand it may not be everyones cup of tea but they could hide it behind the red button.
I would much prefer to watch elite amateurs compete in a big event than another run low ranking tour event...

 

[Jacko_G]

GB&I took an absolute spanking.

If that was a boxing contest it would have been stopped on Saturday. The American girls looked superior in every way. There was only a couple of the GB&I squad who can come away from that performance knowing they did their bit but the vast majority of our girls looked out of their depth. I totally appreciate that we had a really young team and that they are not as experienced as their American counterparts but overall I was very disappointed in the standard of golf offered from them.

The American College system clearly offers so many playing and competition advantages not to mention, practice facilities, better courses and better coaching.

 

[jimjoachim]

the result was very emphatic although looking at the matches there were a lot of close encounters but all went the US way.

Even Look at the Sunday where they were swept 8-0. There were 4 matches finished 2&1 and another 2 went down the 18th.

The collegiate golf system gives the US a massive edge in the mens and womens game.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

The collegiate golf system gives the US a massive edge in the mens and womens game.

The slight counter to that is that any decent British teenage golfer is very likely to end up going across to that same system in America. I know of a few in Northumberland who are there at the moment, I would be surprised if that is not replicated across the country. The Americans are kindly training our next generation as well as their own, although best not let Donald know or he will stop that.

I do accept it will train more US teenagers than our own but we don't miss out entirely on their very fine system.

 

[User101]

Better facilities, better weather producing better players, it's just the way it is.

 

[IanM]

All true but didn't our lot win last time?

Also this is still GB&I , not all Europe

 

[patricks148]

All true but didn't our lot win last time?

Also this is still GB&I , not all Europe

I think they did and had an emphatic win when it was at Nairn in 2012. i also noticed that a couple that were in the recent team also played back in 2012 so not true they were inexperienced.

 

[huds1475]

Next one's @ Conwy :thup:

 

[FairwayDodger]

I watched as much of it as I could, between playing golf over the weekend and the patchy TV coverage, and the result was disappointingly emphatic but our team were always going to be up against it. I don't agree that they played badly but just came up against a stronger team and the standard is so much better over there.

I read an interview with Olivia Mehaffey in which she summed it up. Before she went to college in the USA she was pretty dominant in Europe (she won the Helen Holm among others) and was ranked #3 in the world. But when she got to the states and saw how good they college players were she knew there was no way she had been the third best player in the world.

We can be competitive, though, and did win it last time and have won around 7 of the last 16. But it's a bit cyclical - some of our best players from last time have turned pro.

 

[Bigfoot]

Lily May Humphries won the Helen Holm this year and the Girls Amateur at Enville last August but the competiton in USA is tougher at college and most are in college and approx 20. Lily May is 16 as is Annabel Fuller. USA did have a 15 year old though but it would be interesting to compare the players playing experience.

 

[thegoldenbear]

It's not very often one of our amateur teams wins in the US at any gender or age group. I've watched a couple of men's events live there and the GB&I players simply can't cope with the US greens and this put enormous pressure on the rest of their game in trying to get it so close to try and minimise the putting distances.
Most of these are played on top courses with very fast and sloping greens that are nothing like our players are used to putting on or chipping to. 13/14 on the stimp and with big slopes and grain so that any shot landing with side spin simply runs off the green one side or another.
The Americans look much more comfortable when they get into this zone.
I am however reassured that the Americans looks equally out of depth on a hard links with very tight lies, deep bunkers and lots of bounce.

Seen lots of promising young English players go and spend 3/4 years in the American Collegiate System and have seen very few come back better players.