GB AND IRELAND LOSE CURTIS CUP 13-7 BUT TAKE SINGLES 4.5-3.5

 Beaten but certainly not downhearted. Tegwen Matthews and her GB and I team when the 38th Curtis Cup match was all over. Picture by John Dryburgh.

                                

SO PROUD OF THE GIRLS FOR LAST-DAY 

RALLY, SAYS CAPTAIN TEGWEN

INTERVIEW FROM USGA

Q: Not the weekend you wanted but how do you feel coming out?

CAPTAIN MATTHEWS: Well, coming out, I have to say, so proud of the girls for how they rallied all day today. More especially when they knew the match was gone, and yet they never gave up. That could have put the chins really even further down.

But no, we won the afternoon singles session. So that's a great way to finish and gives everyone a bit of a boost to say the least from a pretty disastrous two days, yeah.

Q. In terms of the overall championship, if the first session had not gone 3‑0, how different might it have been? I feel like the Americans set the tone.

CAPTAIN MATTHEWS: Yes, they did, but if you take that first four‑ball, we lost something like 2‑1 or something and we were 6‑under par and they were 8‑under par. Well, that was bashing it at us, there's no doubt about it, and same scoring within all the three fourballs, was exceptionally high.

So we were up against it. Certainly, when you go 3‑down, you know you are always on the back foot. They still kept firing at us in the foursomes with the same quality of golf, and that I think is the difference. Their preparation has obviously A1. Ellen has done that absolutely superbly. They knew this course very, very well.

And I think the home advantage will always be like that; you have more time to play on the course, and they probably had more time to get together with foursome, four‑ball partnerships.

Some of my girls were already based over here and I had four based in the U.K., so getting together with foursomes and four‑ball, actually was just when we arrived here. So, yeah, preparation always helps in anything you do.

Q. Is there any details that you would do different? Would you name the team earlier? Is there anything that you could do to change things?

CAPTAIN MATTHEWS: It's just not possible financially to bring a team over here for, say, two weeks and do some preparation and then bring them out all over again for a Curtis Cup match.

So I think unless you do that, you're always going to get a home and an away advantage one way or another. Naming the team earlier; possibility, if you could do that, pros and cons to that.

Yeah, I think we've done it both ways over the years. We felt this was right, but I still think the team is a good team and I don't think I would want another team if I chose it earlier or later.

Preparation‑wise, might have been easier if we had done that, more preparation foursomes or four‑ball, back in the U.K. obviously.

Q. Do you think the Americans had a deeper team or do you think it all came down to putting?

CAPTAIN MATTHEWS: It did come down to putting. I don't think a deeper team. I think my girls hit the ball as well if not better than the Americans, except for they were peppering the pin more to six‑foot than we were and they were holing the putts. We had the ability to do that. We just didn't hole any putts.

Q. Is there any point when there's a change, can the make-up of the team, in terms of bringing Europe in to make this more competitiv?

CAPTAIN MATTHEWS: Without sounding sort of rude, every time we lose, we come up with, oh, maybe this should be a European mix team with GB and I

I don't think that's the answer. We never match against Europe anyway on the in‑between years, and in many ways, that's just as tough if not tougher than the Curtis Cup. 

My personal opinion is that I think it would lose the tradition ov the Curtis Cup, and everything that Margaret and Harriot had in mind for a Curtis Cup. That's my personal opinion.

Q. Despite the loss, what do you hope your girls take out of this?

CAPTAIN MATTHEWS: They have all grown in stature. They came here as Curtis Cup players but they have all grown in stature and they will leave here knowing they have grown in stature, and the experience has been amazing for them, and they can go home.

Even though we lost, they can go home knowing we won the singles on the last day, and that should take them a little bit ten foot taller and make them feel a little bit better than maybe some of the opponents that they play going forward. A number of them ‑‑ two years ago, they are going to turn pro.

So turnover of teams these days is very rapid. You're very unlikely to get as with Steph and Bronte, it's unusual to get ‑‑ in my day, I played four Curtis Cups in a row. Unheard of now because they can all turn pro.

Q. What did you say about the Cup ‑‑ you said make sure this is clean when you give it back to us?

CAPTAIN MATTHEWS: When you bring it back, yeah. Make sure it's clean because we want it back.

Q. Do you think we'll see you in Dun Laoghaire?

CAPTAIN MATTHEWS: I'll be there as a supporter at the very least.