GB and I win Day 2 foursomes 2-1 to

take 5-4 lead overall

Some of the Saturday morning crowds at Dun Laoghaire. Estimate of the first-day attendance was just under 4,000. Bigger crowds expected at weekend.

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Meghan MacLaren holed a 9ft putt on the 18th green which meant that Great Britain and Ireland had won the Day 2 morning foursomes 2-1 and led 5-4 with two sessions of play in the 39th Curtis Cup still to come.
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Story of an enthralling morning was the GB and I fightback in the third foursomes ... and Meghan's last-green putt.

Olivia Mehaffey and Bronte Law (pictured putting), arguably GB and I's strongest foursomes pairing, lost the first three holes to Bailey Tardy and Monica Vaughn but still ran out winners by 4 and 2.
Mehaffey and Law birdied the sixth, seventh and ninth to square the contest before taking the lead when the Americans bogeyed the 10th.
Tardy and Vaughn almost bogeyed the long 12th to put Mehaffey and Law two up.
The Americans bogeyed their fourth holes in succession - the 13th - to fall three down. Mehaffey won the 14th with another par to go four up but Tardy and Vaughn pulled out of their nosedive to win the 15th but they bogeyed the short 16th to lose by 4 and 2.
The GB and I pair finished with one over par figures.


In the lead-off foursomes, Leona Maguire and Charlotte Thomas (pictured below) lost by one hole to Bethany Wu and Hannah O'Sullivan who started the round with a double bogey 6 and were one over par for the match.
The GB and I pair won the first with a conceded birdie 3 but lost the fourth and the sixth to fall one down. 

Maguire and Thomas birdied the seventh to draw level and produced another birdie at the eighth to go one up.
Hannah O'Sullivan, the world's No 1 female amateur, and Bethany Wu retaliated by squaring the match with a par at the 10th and then going ahead with a birdie at the long 12th by which time the morning had turned rather wet.
The last six holes were halved, leaving Wu and Sullivan the winners by one hole with one-over-par figures

Meghan MacLaren (pictured) and Maria Dunne stood up to the pressure of being in the last match to finish and won by one hole against Sierra Brooks and Andrea Lee.
That gave GB and I a 2-1 capture of the Day 2 morning foursomes and what could be a vital one point lead overall going into the afternoon four-balls.
MacLaren and Dunn made a promising start by winning the first with a par and the second with a birdie three but opponents Brooks and Lee hit back with a birdie 4 at the fifth to cut their deficit to one hole.MacLaren and Dunne contrived to double bogey the par-4 10th which cost them the lead.
Holes 11-12-13 were halved before the GB and I pair won the 14th on a concession to go one up at a vital stage. A point from this tie was vital for the home team. 
Holes 16 and 17 were halved, which meant that MacLaren and Dunn were assured of at least a half-point. 
But they got more than that. MacLaren rose to the occasion and sank a 9ft putt for a 5. The Americans' putt was conceded as GB and I needed only to halve the hole to clinch a one-hole victory with two-over-par figures.


CURTIS CUP DAY 2
Morning foursomes - GB and I 2, United States 1
GB and I names first
Leona Maguire and Charlotte Thomas v Bethany Wu and Hannah O'Sullivan - USA won by one hole.
Meghan MacLaren and Maria Dunne v Sierra Brooks and Andrea Lee - GB and I won by one hole.
Olivia Mehaffey and Bronte Law v Bailey Tardy and Monica Vaughn - GB and I won by 3 and 2

OVERALL SCORELINE AFTER THREE SESSIONS OF PLAY
Great Britain and Ireland 5, United States 4