USGA NAME THEIR SQUAD FOR FIRST CURTIS CUP PRACTICE SESSION

• FROM THE GOLFWEEK WEBSITE
• By Julie Williams
• Follow Me: Twitter @GolfweekJules

The U.S. Golf Association released its list of invitees for the first Curtis Cup practice session, which will take place Jan. 31-Feb. 2 at Champions Golf Club in Houston. The matches against Great Britain and Ireland will be played June 6-8 at St. Louis Country Club, and the final squad will consist of eight women.
St. Louis native Ellen Port, a six-time USGA champion and two-time U.S. Curtis Cup Team member, will serve as captain of the U.S. team.
The list of invitees (in brackets are their universities):
• Casie Cathrea, Livermore, Calif. (Oklahoma State)
• Doris Chen, Bradenton, Florida (USC)
• Karen Chung, Livingston, New Jersey (USC)
• Lauren Diaz-Yi, Thousand Oaks, California (Virginia)
• Kyung Kim, Chandler, Arizona. (USC)
• Alison Lee, Valencia, California (UCLA)
• Erynne Lee, Silverdale, Washington (UCLA)
• Ally McDonald, Fulton, Mississippi (Mississippi State)
• Nicole Morales, South Salem, New York
• Grace Na, Alamedia, California (Pepperdine)
• Annie Park, Levittown, New York (USC)
• Ashlan Ramsey, Milledgeville, Georgia (Clemson)
• Mariah Stackhouse, Riverdale, Georgia (Stanford)
• Emma Talley, Princeton, Kentucky (Alabama)

That list includes four USGA champions in Chen (2010 U.S. Girls’ Junior), Diaz-Yi (2013 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links), Kim (2012 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links) and Talley (2013 U.S. Women’s Amateur). Alison Lee is the top-ranked female in the World Amateur Ranking.
An invitation to the USGA’s practice session does not guarantee selection, and players not at the session are not excluded from consideration. Conspicuously missing from the list, however, is 2012 Curtis Cupper Emily Tubert. She is the only member of that eight-woman squad who lost the 2012 match at Nairn Golf Club still eligible to compete in 2014 as the other seven have turned professional. Also, no mid-amateurs were invited to the practice session.
The U.S. team will be looking to reclaim the Curtis Cup after losing to Great Britain and Ireland in 2012.