Selection issues should not sully a wonderful Curtis Cup triumph

Golf Correspondent

Tuesday 12 June 2012

There was something of a Generation Game going on at Nairn on Sunday night – minus Brucie, the conveyor belt and the opportunity to win a rather jerry-built Teasmaid, of course.

Champagne celebrations for the GB & I Curtis Cup team. Picture: SNS

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Nick Rodger

The prize up for grabs was the Curtis Cup. And, having been absent from the Ladies' Golf Union's trophy cabinet for 16 years, Great Britain and Ireland's momentous triumph over the USA was very much a case of 'Nice to see you, to see you, nice.'

The boisterous celebrations that followed encompassed all the ages. On one hand, you had the trendy, confident, exuberant team members themselves, with names like Amy, Kelly and Charley. On the other, you had those seasoned, veteran footsoldiers on the sidelines like Agnes, Mabel and Dorothy, who possibly all had a teenage crush on Old Tom Morris and first performed a High Five when Mungo Park won the Open.The weekend win meant an awful lot to so many of different people and it will be savoured and cherished for a long time. When the biennial match was formed 80 years ago, the ethos of the encounter was "to stimulate friendly rivalry among the women golfers of many lands". That is the inscription on the trophy and, while it's always nice to see the "friendly" aspect of this honourable game preserved and nurtured, it had been getting to a point where folk were wanting to see a bit more of the "rivalry". Seven defeats in a row prior to Sunday and just six British and Irish wins since the contest was first contested in 1932 meant the whole affair was as lopsided as a sinking ship. The question had been asked many times whether it was time to put GB&I to the bottom and set sail again with the combined fleet of Europe.That old chestnut probably bobbed to the top again about five hours into the very first session last Friday. A confidence-draining whitewash in the foursomes had the cynics drooling. Calamity Cup, Catastrophe Cup, call it what you like, it certainly didn't look as if GB&I were up for the cup. Of course, the knives had been sharpened long before the first ball was struck on the Moray Firth. The selection process, essentially based on a three-day get-together at Nairn back in March, was fraught with controversy, ultimatums and u-turns which did little for the LGU's reputation as a stuck-in-its-ways, blinkered body. The well-documented Charley Hull saga, in which the English world No.4 took up an invitation to play on the LPGA Tour instead of attending the trial and was informed she would not be considered for selection before being eventually selected anyway was particularly embarrassing. Picking a team three months before the event remains a perilous policy. In the end, it was all right on the night but you can have sympathy for someone like Alford's Laura Murray, who didn't even have the chance to play her way into the reckoning. Murray won the Scottish Championship last month (she has since added the St Rule Trophy to her collection) but with the GB&I door already slammed shut by the time of that national triumph, her current form went unrewarded. It's a shame that the opportunity to reach the amateur pinnacle that is Curtis Cup selection was essentially taken away from her before the season had really started.But let's wallow in Sunday's success. After that early foursomes setback, the fact the hosts turned it around when their backs were against the wall for so long spoke volumes for the spirit, determination and quality of those eight players involved. GB&I learned to win again in the Curtis Cup. Hopefully, some lessons will have been learned, too, by those at the top over these eventful last few months.AND ANOTHER THINGThe LPGA Championship, the second major on the women's calendar, has a habit of delivering Eastern promise.In 1998, Se Ri Pak won the title, her first on the circuit, and went on to win five major crowns and spark a Korean invasion of the tour that continues to dominate.In 2008, Taiwan's world No.1 Yani Tseng kick-started her all-conquering crusade by winning the same crown and has since gone on to plunder a further four majors by the age of just 23.We can only wait and see what Shenshan Feng's win in the event at the weekend will do for the game in China. The 22-year-old's success was the first in a major by a Chinese player and, given the expansion of golf in the world's most populated country, the impact could be felt for years to come."There are good players from China now," she said. "I became the first one [to win], but I'm sure there will be more people winning in the States and in the majors. I would say if Koreans can, Chinese can."The West has been warned.

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Selection issues should not sully a wonderful Curtis Cup triumph

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