Curtis Cup turnaround of fortunes as home team lead 8 1/2-3 1/2

Sally Watson's body language suggests this putt stayed above ground. Image by Susan Simpson from the Saturday play.

United States hit Great Britain and Ireland for six on Day 2

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Mary McKenna's Great Britain and Ireland squad, winners of Friday's "first round" of the 36th Curtis Cup, have been battered back against the ropes by a 6-0 Saturday whitewash, losing all three morning four-balls and then all three afternoon foursomes at the Essex County Club in Massachusetts.

The United States take an 8 1/2-3 1/2 lead into Sunday's concluding eight singles. They need to gain only two points more to take a lead that Great Britain and Ireland cannot overcome even if they were to win six of the singles.

The long-time trophy holders, undoubtedly stung by their opening day reverses, hit back with a vengeance on the second day of the 36th Curtis Cup match at its ancestral home, Essex County Club in Massachusetts.
Playing some brilliant golf, the United States team took the morning four-balls 3-0. It was not that Mary McKenna’s Great Britain and Ireland team played badly. In fact, they played their part in a morning barrage of birdies that will fill a page of Curtis Cup history on its own.
No shame to be outgunned by an American team playing to its full potential – and some!
Hopes that the afternoon format of foursomes would enable GBandI to stop the tide if not turn it around failed to materialise.
Alexis Thompson and Jessica Korda made it 4-0 overall for the United States with a 3 and 1 win over Danielle McVeigh and Leona Maguire.
The Americans did not have a single bogey and had three birdies, two of them in the last three holes, to clinch victory.
McVeigh and Leona Maguire had two birdies and two bogeys – level par golf that usually wins more matches than it loses.
McVeigh and Maguire won the second with a birdie to take an early lead but Thompson and Korda cancelled that out with a birdie 4 at the long third. The GB and I pairing edged ahead again with another birdie, a 2 at the short seventh … but that was to be their last birdie of the day.
The United States were able to win the eighth with a par to square the match and were one under par at the turn.
Another bogey by McVeigh and Maguire cost them the 12th which saw them fall one down for the first time.
Thompson and Korda stepped up the pace to take control of the outcome over the closing holes. They went two up with a birdie 3 at the 15th and finished the match in the grand manner, with a birdie 3 at the 17th.
Jennifer Song and Stephanie Kono produced a grandstand finish with three birdies in the last five holes of the match to beat Hannah Barwood and Holly Clyburn by 3 and 1.
The American pair were four over par for the first nine holes but still two holes up, winning the fifth and ninth holes with bogeys.
The English pair got their first birdie of the afternoon at the 12th to square the match but that was their last success.
Song and Kono got their first birdie at the 13th to go one up and then clinched victory with birdies at the 16th and 17th.
The American 6-0 joy day was completed by Tiffany Lua and Jennifer Johnson who beat Sally Watson and Rachel Jennings by 3 and 2.
Lua and Johnson won the ninth with a par to be out in one over par and two up.
Watson and Jennings produced their second and last birdie of the afternoon to win the 10th and go back to one down. The visitors’ hopes of taking a crumb of comfort from the afternoon’s landslide rose when they squared the match at the 13th with a par.
But then Watson and Jennings bogeyed the 14th, the 15th and the 16th, losing them all and the match by 3 and 2.
Song and Kono were three over par for the match.
The afternoon play by both sides tended to suffer in comparison with the brilliance of the morning session.
The Americans unleashed a barrage of birdies to win all three four-ball matches, wiping out their one-point overnight deficit to lead 5 1/2-3 1/2 going into the afternoon's three foursomes matches.
Day 2 morning four-ball results
(American names first)
Alexis Thompson and Jessica Korda bt Danielle McVeigh and Pamela Pretswell 2 and 1.
Summary:
The US pair birdied the first, second and third to forge into a three-hole lead.
GB and I won back the fourth with a birdie but Thompson and Korda then birdied the seventh and eighth to be four up.
GB and I birdied the ninth to be three down at the turn and then also birdied the 11th and 14th to be only one down in a terrific match of quality play.
The 15th was halved in birdie 3s.
United States won the 16th with a birdie to go two up with two to play and won the match with a half at 17th.
There were 12 birdies in total in this match. The United States pair were six under par and spare a thought for McVeigh and Pretswell who were four under par at the finish.

Jennifer Song and Cydney Clanton bt Leona and Lisa Maguire 3 and 2.
Summary:
Once again the Americans started brilliantly. Song and Clanton birdied the first and second to be two up immediately.
The fifth and sixth holes were halved in birdies.
The Americans were three up with a birdie at the ninth.
The short 11th was halved in birdie 2s.
The 15-year-old Maguire twins birdied the 12th to get it back to two down but Song and Clanton then went back to a three-hole lead with a birdie at the 13th.
The 15th and 16th holes were halved in birdie 3s in an enthralling match, leaving the Americans winners by 3 and 2.
There were a staggering 15 birdies in total in this match and the Americans were nine under par for the 16 holes played - nine birdies and no bogeys.
And, just like the first match, the GB and I pair had figures that would have won most Curtis Cup ties - the Maguires were six under par.

Stephanie Kono and Kimberley Kim beat Sally Watson and Rachel Jennings by one hole.
Summary:
Once again the Americans made a flying start and were three up after six holes with birdies at the fourth, fifth and sixth.
Watson and Jennings won the seventh with a birdie and the eighth with a par to be one down at the turn.
The GB and I pair levelled the contest with a birdie 3 at the 12th and then went in front for the first time with a birdie 3 at the 13th.
Kono and Kim hit back with a birdie at the 15th to be all square and then birdied the 17th to be one up with one to play. The last hole was halved.
The Americans were four under par and the GBand I pair three under at the finish.
There were nine birdies in another quality four-ball match.

Results of Day 2 afternoon foursomes
(American names first):
Alexis Thompson and Jessica Korda bt Danielle McVeigh and Leona Maguire 3 and 1.

Jennifer Song and Stephanie Kono bt Hannah Barwood and Holly Clyburn 3 and 1.

Tiffany Lua and Jennifer Johnson bt Sally Watson and Rachel Jennings 3 and 2.

State of match:
 UNITED STATES 8 1/2, GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND 3 1/2