The United States extended their overnight lead to 6-3 by winning the Day 2 morning foursomes 2-1 in miserable wet conditions.
Not so many spectators at The Nairn GC for the start of Day 2 in the 37th Curtis Cup but the weather is a lot worse than it was on Friday when 2,690 turned up. It's wet and it's miserably gloomy but at least the GB and I team tails are up after the late successes on Friday.
However, the Americans increased their overnight 4-2 lead to 6-3 by winning the first two foursomes this morning when the standard of scoring suffered in the very wet conditions.
Amy Anderson - winning for the third time - and Tiffany Lua beat Pamela Pretswell and Charley Hull by 3 and 2 with roughly level par figures, which is very good scoring in the very wet conditions. Austin Ernst and Brooke Pancake were round in an approximate six over par to beat Holly Clyburn and Amy Boulden - 43 shots for the second nine - by two holes.
Again, the weather was responsible for the deterioration in the standard of scoring.
The United States captain, Pat Cornett, is back to lead the team after yesterday's broken right ankle accident while the passenger in a buggy passing the grandstand at the first tee. Not surprisingly, Dr Cornett kept well away from the first tee on her return to the course, being quietly driven out on to the course up the 18th fairway by Carol Semple Thompson who was the acting US team captain yesterday while the team leader was taken to Raigmore Hospital, Inverness.
DAY 2 FOURSOMES
Amy Anderson and Tiffany Lua (US) bt Pamela Pretswell and Charley Hull 3 and 2.
The Americans were quickly into their stride, winning the first two holes with birdies 3 and 4. But Pretswell and Hull came back into the picture to square the match with birdies of their own at holes 5 and 7. Anderson and Lua pulled clear again but they needed only pars to win the eighth and ninth to be two up at the turn in roughly two-under-par figures to the GB and I's 37. Pretswell and Hull cut their deficit to one by winning the 10th with a par and halved the 11th and 12th in par-bogey figures.
A bogey 5 in the awful wet weather was good enough for the Americans to go two up at the 13th After a half in bogey 4s at the short 13th, Anderson and Lua produced a birdie - a rare 2species in this weather - to win the par-4 15 and go dormie three. A half in par 4s at the 16th ended the match - a 3 and 2 win for Anderson and Lua who were roughly level or one par for the holes played, despite three bogeys in the unrelenting rain after the turn.
Their back-to-back opening birdies were the difference between the teams in the final analysis
Austin Ernst and Brooke Pancake (US) bt Holly Clyburn and Amy Boulden (GBandI) by 2 holes. Clyburn and Boulden went one up with a birdie at the first but lost the second to a birdie and then fell two down after a double bogey at the third and a bogey at the fourth. Ernst and Pancake went three up with a par at the short sixth before Clyburn and Boulden finished the outward half with a flourish, winning the seventh, eighth and ninth with a birdie-par-birdie run. Both sides out in an approximate 37.
Clyburn and Boulden went one up with a par 3 at the short 11th. But the GB and I pair ran up a double bogey 6 at the 12th to be pulled back to square by a bogey from Ernst and Pancake. The 13th and 14th were halved in bogeys as the nonstop drizzle began to get to the players. The Americans were able to halve the short 14th despite losing a ball off the tee. They did not bother looking for it after their provisional came to rest pretty close to the stick.
A par 4 at the 15th put Ernst and Pancake in front at a vital time - one up with three to play. But Clyburn and Boulden were hanging on in there and parred the 16th to square the match. The Americans edged ahead again with a par 4 at the 17th and after both teams drove into the wet, clingy rough at the 18th, Ernst and Pancake won by two holes with a closing par 5.
Clyburn and Boulden had taken an approximate 43 shots for the inward half in the dreadful conditions. Ernst and Pancak, the winners, were round in an approximate six over par.
GB and I avoided a repeat of the whitewash foursomes defeat of the first day, thanks to the all-Ireland pairing of Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire beating Lindy Duncan and Lisa McCloskey by 3 and 1, having been two up at the turn.
Clyburn and Boulden finished the outward half with a flourish, winning the seventh, eighth and ninth with a birdie-par-birdie run. Both sides out in an approximate 37.
