Opening Golf to the World
Curtis Cup
Curtis Cup: Matthew chasing more team success at Bel-Air
6 mins
Opportunity knocks again for Catriona Matthew. Once more in team competition, the decorated Scot is chasing more captaincy success, more historical feats.
Next week Matthew will lead her new-look Great Britain and Ireland side at Bel-Air Country Club for the 44th staging of the Curtis Cup, the premier team event for women amateur golfers. Back in 1986, GB&I claimed the Curtis Cup in the United States of America for the first time in the biennial event's history. Forty years on, the feat has never been repeated. “I couldn't quite believe it when I had to go all the way back to '86 to find the last team that won over there,” said Matthew, the GB&I Captain who memorably masterminded a nail-biting home triumph at Sunningdale in 2024. “I was just a teenager in '86. I was just getting right into my golf. So, 40 years on, I think that's a nice round number to try and change that.” Matthew is more than up for the challenge. One of Scotland's greatest golfers has simply thrived in leadership roles, relishing the captaincy challenge.California challenge
The North Berwick resident helped guide Europe's Solheim Cup professionals to back-to-back successes over the USA in 2019 and 2021, and the 56-year-old is now hoping to emulate that achievement on away soil at the renowned venue in Los Angeles. California Dreamin’ you could say.
Catriona Matthew and Janice Moodie of Great Britain and Ireland take shelter from the sun under an umbrella during the Curtis Cup match in Tennessee in 1994.
Matthew, who played in three Curtis Cups and became the first professional golfer to take up the captaincy for the 2024 match, is well aware, though, of the size of the task.
“I mean, it's going to be tough,” she admitted. “Most of the American players are in the top 25 of the World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR®). It was similar at Sunningdale with the rankings.
“But if you're just looking at the play over the spring season in America, all our players have beaten the Americans over 18 holes. Match play, of course, is so different from three, four-round stroke play. But I think, like the last time, it's just trying to instil that belief in them that they are good enough and they can beat them.”
Sunningdale memories
GB&I can take confidence from Sunningdale, a first victory since 2016. There had been some heavy away losses in between – the 17-3 defeat at Quaker Ridge in 2018 and the 15½-4½ reversal at Merion in 2022 – but with Matthew's calm, diligent and inspired captaincy in 2024 a thrilling 10½-9½ win was achieved. The history books are already highlighting that was a special GB&I team. Lottie Woad, the number one amateur at the time at Sunningdale, has already won two LPGA Tour titles and is currently the sixth best professional in the world. Mimi Rhodes won three times during her rookie season on the Ladies’ European Tour. Only two players from the 2024 GB&I team – Ireland’s Beth Coulter and Patience Rhodes from England – are in this year's side at Bel-Air. Yet, Matthew is full of belief, aided by her backroom team which again includes her fellow Scot, Kathyrn Imrie and Karen Stupples. It’s a new, exciting GB&I line-up ready for a fresh challenge.
Joyous scenes after the GB&I team claimed victory in the 2024 Curtis Cup match at Sunngindale.
New-look team
“Davina Xanh, the English player who's just graduated actually in Los Angeles, has really stepped up this year,” notes Matthew. “We had a training session in November at the course and I was quite impressed with her. “Then there is Lily Hirst. She's graduated (from the University of Kansas) and having a year of just playing full-time amateur golf back over here in the UK. I just think she really just propelled herself up into the team, probably in the last six weeks. She had really good finishes at the German, the Welsh and the Scottish events. She has been as high as 150 in the world. I think just that experience of having played over in the USA before, for the four years, and now coming into good form is good for us. “I think Patience has also come back really well since breaking her leg at the start of January. She had probably two-and-a-half months off. I watched her at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and she's playing well. I think Nellie Ong is playing well too, Sophia Fullbrook's won three times this year, recently winning the Regionals. Charlotte Naughton won the World Juniors last year. So yeah, I think there's some really good young talents coming up, some really good players.”Bel-Air preparation
Matthew took around a dozen players to Bel-Air in November for a weekend of scouting. Next week her team preparation will be similar to Sunningdale, staying together as a team, practising and relaxing. The same formula will be followed. She added, “As I said to them in Sunningdale, you're going to enjoy it more if you win. So yeah, we'll just have fun in the week. We're not going to do too much, as we did at Sunningdale. We didn't do too many extracurricular things there. There's a couple of dinners you go to, but we weren't out doing a huge amount. We were just trying to stick together as a team and do things together.”
Catriona Matthew celebrates with her team after winning the Curtis Cup in 2024.
And what of Bel-Air and the test it presents on the west coast? “I think the tricky bit is going to be the greens, that distance control with your second shots and perhaps being on the right sides of the fairways to try and attack some of the pin positions,” continues Matthew.
“So you probably want your wedge game that kind of 120, 130 yards in to be pretty sharp, to keep it below the holes – and the greens are going to be pretty fast. I don't think it'll be overly long. A couple of tight holes but it’s fairly generous off the tee.”